Jessica McDonald
Jessica McDonald
Recent Stories
MCDONALD: Trying to GAIN an edge on 'superbugs'
The CDC estimates about 100,000 people die from hospital-acquired infections per year, many of them resistant to at least one drug, like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), or Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (WRE). A piddling two new antibiotics were approved between 2008-2011.
MCDONALD: Google, please help improve the mean
The data revolution is coming. While online marketing is getting fat off trillions of cookies, biology is exploding with DNA sequences, sports teams are selecting players who are undervalued by traditional metrics and public health researchers are mining queries to Google and posts on Facebook and Twitter to follow and predict disease outbreaks.
MCDONALD: Negative data is still data
Technophobia
I am exceedingly good at failing. Even though I’m getting my PhD in one of the best immunology departments in the world, the common thread running through my graduate school career has not been success, but failure. I’m not an anomaly, however. I am simply a scientist.
McDonald: Sounding off on the Cloud
Just over a week ago, Amazon.com announced its foray into the music streaming business with its new Cloud Music Player. While it’s true that the Amazon rainforest is almost always cloud covered, the name of the new player is more of a reference to the underpinning technology, cloud computing. Cloud computing is not quite as nebulous as it sounds — except that when sound (i.e., record companies) is involved, the legality is far from clear.
McDonald: Girls, get gaming
Video games have long been associated with male slackerdom. But in an ironic turn, a female game designer is now actively working to disabuse people of the notion that video games are useless diversions.
McDonald: For AIDS, celebs sacrifice cyber life
Checking your tweets and Facebook news feed this morning, you may have noticed your favorite celebrities were unusually silent. Or perhaps eerily silent. That’s because numerous plugged-in celebrities, from Elijah Wood to Lady Gaga, have donated their lives — or at least their online presence — for one day, or until grieving fans reach the goal of raising $1 million for the AIDS charity Keep a Child Alive.
McDonald: Highlighting inhibits creative thinking
Print is dead. Or so I hear from my Kindle-toting friends.
McDonald and Sadanand: Clinical trials, point-counterpoint
Columnists Jessica McDonald and Saheli Sadanand explore the value of clinical trials, where experimental drugs often appear extremely effective, but researchers are reluctant to tamper with the trial for fear of skewing the results.
McDonald: Freshmen, it’s OK not to think sometimes
Recent neuroscience research indicates that minds remember and learn best when given time to process experiences — time often gobbled up by iPhones and BlackBerries.
McDonald: Yalies must go beyond recycling
You’ve heard it ad nauseum: reduce, reuse and recycle. And yet, before you toss this paper (in the recycling bin, of course), consider Yale’s performance this year in the 10-week intercollegiate competition, RecycleMania. Sound familiar? In a column two months ago, Laura Wellman ’12 noted our lackluster standing (181st out of 267 schools) and implored our community to improve its recycling habits. Unfortunately, by the end of the competition two weeks ago, our standing had dropped to 186th, proving that if nothing else, we’re capable of recycling our results (last year we also placed in the 70th percentile).