Science writer - Medical writer - Biologist
I am a biologist from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a science writer by vocation.
As a biologist in a family of humanists, I always thought of myself as the black sheep of the bunch. However, as soon as I started my undergraduate degree, the impulse to write about science to understand and discuss it arose in me. And so, the years taught me that talking science is as important as doing science, so I traded in my lab coat and field notes for a mouse and keyboard as I found in science communication another path.
I specialize in science communication through written media. I write journalistic articles, blogs, and technical or creative essays. I can also edit medical and technical texts.
This is a sample of my work.
Knowing how to question science is only possible if you know how it works. In our times, with all kinds of information available through the Internet, it is urgent and necessary to learn to distinguish science from what is not. This text proposes some steps so that understanding how science studies what surrounds us does not become the task of a few.
English is modern science’s common language, with up to 98% of scientific articles published in English. Most major scientific journals operate in this language, limiting a researcher’s success to their English competence. In some countries, such as Colombia, English proficiency is a privilege usually linked to a high-income background, while translation and editing services remain unattainable by most. To understand and minimize the gap in the global production and comprehension of science, it is crucial to address the hegemony of the English language as its main quality control.
Eizi Matuda (1894–1978) was a botanist with a passion for Mexican plants. He took daring trips to rocky mountaintops to collect rare specimens for his herbarium and other botanical collections around the world. He was among one of the first groups of Japanese immigrants to arrive in Mexico as part of an agreement between the two countries to modernize through cultural and economic exchange.
Alejandra Jáidar was Mexico's first physicist. During her career, she innovated science and its communication. Although she passed away in 1988, the country continues to benefit from her contributions.
León Alfonso de Garay dedicated his life to genetics and radiobiology, with special emphasis on promoting their study in the country (Mexico). He believed that international collaborations were the best way to exchange and strengthen knowledge. And what better way to attract the attention of the whole world than with the Olympics to be held in Mexico in 1968.
Jacobo Isaac Ochoterena y Mendieta was a self-taught scientist who created new programs for biology education and research in 20th-century Mexico.
One of the most prolific botanists of the 20th century, Bravo-Hollis was the first woman to receive an advanced degree in biology in Mexico.
From his native Japan to the 56 years he lived in Mexico, Matuda never for a moment abandoned his passion and admiration for plants. For this reason, he should not only be considered as one of the most dedicated foreign researchers but also as one of the most committed Mexicans to the development of botany and the study of the marvelous Mexican flora.
Nabor Carrillo was a reactor in Mexico for the development of nuclear sciences. Now his physical remains rest in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons, his name in the nuclear research center, in the lake that gave our country its foundation, thousands of kilometers away in a crater on the Moon that the International Astronomical Union named in his honor, and his memory and knowledge in so many fields of knowledge that it is difficult to name them all.
At the age of 51, and having lost everything she had built in her life, Ynés Mexia found in her passion for plants her true vocation and became the most prolific collector and researcher of her time, with no one coming close to stepping on her toes.
When I was 23 years old, I lost my silence. It was way harder than one might expect when losing something that wasn’t there. Instead, I started hearing a ringing. A ghost sound named tinnitus that ironically wasn’t real either, but its everlasting presence wouldn’t let me think otherwise. Silence was something that I cherished enormously, but its absence made me realize the immense weight that we put into intangibles, especially in the acoustic world. It’s a loud cry that signals the beginning of a life, which then ends with silence. There are silences of complicity, awkward silences, minutes of silence to show solidarity and some of our biggest punishments are solitary confinement and cancel culture. We acknowledge sound everywhere we exist, and I think silence should be broken, as it was broken in me, to recognize its value."
Few people in history manage to carry the unnoticed weight that Isaac Ochoterena did. This man, completely self-taught and staunchly passionate about science, took the reins of biology teaching in a Mexico rising from the Revolution and turned it into an institution. And almost a hundred years after this process began, the way biology is taught and practiced in the country still follows in his footsteps."
This year -2024- marks one hundred years since Helia Bravo Hollis obtained her biology degree from UNAM and became the first woman in the country to do so. She was one of the most outstanding botanists of her time; passionate about the study of life and a tenacious conservator of biodiversity, for this and much more she was known as the queen of cacti."
Meliponas are a large group of stingless bees that can be found in tropical and subtropical areas. For hundreds of years, the Mayan culture established a close relationship with meliponines that was reflected not only in their commerce and craft but also in their rich religion that was nourished by the worship and study of their "regal lady bee."
Esta no es la historia del descubrimiento de la electricidad. Tampoco explica el inicio del aprovechamiento de la energía eléctrica. Pero esconde algo más. Aquí hallamos que las maravillas de la naturaleza juegan al mismo juego que nosotros. Es decir, que no hay estados ni elementos sólo permitidos para los dioses en el Olimpo, que las leyes de la física y del mundo natural son realmente universales y que intentar entenderlas es una posibilidad.
No existe mejor manera de romper el hielo al pasear a nuestras mascotas que comenzar a hablar de sus edades, sin embargo, fuera de ser un tema de conversación, calcular la hipotética edad relativa de nuestros perros tiene muy poco valor práctico, así que, ¿por qué lo hacemos? Qué distancias estamos dispuestos a recorrer para ofrecerle algo tan personal como es la edad a quiénes denominamos como nuestros mejores amigos.
La placenta, aquel abrigo materno y nuestro primer contacto con la vida, es en parte un virus. Millones de años nos definen como mamíferos placentarios, pero fue la adición genética de un agente no animal lo que realmente nos volvió lo que somos hoy en día.
Desde hace unos meses, mi percepción del tiempo se ha entorpecido. El flujo de las horas se ha tornado ambiguo, inexacto. Los días se han vuelto desgastantes y largos, pero también fugaces y efímeros. He aquí mi reto para los físicos: una especie de superposición del tiempo. Un lapso en el que los días han transcurrido incesantemente y, a la vez, se han repetido desde aquel día en el que se sentenció una pandemia.
Parte título, parte apelativo, parte poema inconcluso, los nombres científicos encierran y representan un trayecto evolutivo de eones en unas cuantas palabras. Como una especie de epigrama, los nombres científicos desenmascaran a sus portadores mientras que encapsulan su naturaleza en un par de palabras. Esto es algo que los nombres comunes no logran hacer.
No es difícil ver por qué la naturaleza de estos frágiles y relativamente primitivos animales ha despertado la curiosidad de escritores e investigadores por más de mil años. Un insecto, de entre todas las cosas, representa tanto con su nombre como con su historia lo frágil y fugaz de la vida.
Las pupilas de los animales terrestres tienen muchas figuras, ¿cuál es la relación entre la forma y su modo de vida?
Where most modern antimicrobials have failed, nanoparticles might be the alternative we needed to treat infections caused by super-resistant bacterial strains.
La biología es una profesión cuya base es preguntar. Aquella curiosidad que alimenta las investigaciones es la misma que hizo que nos preguntáramos, ¿qué tipo de criatura somos?
La bandera tricolor de los gatos: ¿Qué nos dice el color del pelaje sobre el sexo genético?
Nuevas regulaciones buscan controlar la participación de atletas mujeres con niveles de testosterona producidos naturalmente por encima del promedio, bajo el argumento de que estos pueden influir positivamente en el rendimiento. Sin embargo, los criterios científicos para validar esta decisión se encuentran bajo debate.