Women In Science

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Women are typically overlooked in STEM subjects, even though they contribute heavily to research and innovations. It is now time to recognize the significant achievements women have made. Here are just some women who don’t get the attention they deserve.

  1. Margarethe Hilferding

Hilferding grew up among liberal and Jewish women; she contributed a lot of her knowledge to the field of psychoanalysis, and medicine while also advocating for women’s rights to contraception. She knew as a young kid that she wanted to study medicine, and was one of three female students to be accepted into a university to study physics and math. Many professors made fun of her for taking such rigorous courses as during this time women typically didn’t study these courses. Hilferding was the first Austrian woman to receive a medical degree from the University of Vienna. She produced a theory on maternal instinct, which is seen as controversial, and died in the Holocaust on September 23, 1942.

Aus den medizinhistorischen Beständen der Ub MedUni Wien [132]: Zum 150. Geburtstag von: Hilferding-Hönigsberg, Margarethe: Zur Behandlung der Schwangerschaftsbeschwerden. Vortrag, gehalten in der Gesellschaft für innere Medizin in Wien. | VAN SWIETEN

2. Dr. Dorothy Andersen

Dorothy Andersen was a physician and pathologist who discovered cystic fibrosis in 1983, a heretical condition that impacts the pancreas and lungs. She identified how to look for acute lung and gastrointestinal problems in children. Her first task as a pathologist was to dissect a young child’s organs who was deemed to have celiac disease. As she was examining the organs she noticed some differences in the child’s lungs and pancreas and decided to look at other patients’ autopsies to identify the problem. She wrote a 50-page paper called, “Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and its Relation to Celiac Disease: A Clinical and Pathological Study” and was the first to diagnose this disease in a living patient.

3. Dora Richardson

Dora Richardson was a chemist who invented a breast cancer treatment, tamoxifen. She became a chemist after visiting her sick grandmother in the hospital and worked alongside Arthur Walpole, another chemist. She worked to create compounds, and one day she developed a base for the drug, tamoxifen. Walpole and Richardson discovered it could be an effective drug to prevent breast cancer. A pharmacologist named Craig Jordan selfishly took the title of the “Father of Tamoxifen,” and is now associated with this drug.

Many women are undervalued for their contributions to science. These are just some of many women in the world who are unforgotten for their life-changing discoveries.

SK8 the Infinity: TV Series Review (Spoiler-Free)

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SK8 the Infinity is a lighthearted slice of life anime about skateboarding (which you probably could tell by the title). It’s a great show with lots of comedy and drama to boot, all wrapped up in a neat 12 episodes, making it a quick and easy watch!

The show is about two main characters: Reki, a skateboard-loving, overenthusiastic highschooler who skates at a dangerous underground course called “S”, and Langa, a quiet, blunt transfer student from Canada. The two quickly bond as they dive deeper into the top-secret insanity that is “S”!

Reki and Langa are incredibly endearing as protagonists, making it super easy to want them to succeed. The side characters all have great chemistry with each other, making the in-between character moments just as special as the dramatic skateboarding races.

Speaking of that, this show tends to be very overdramatic at times – which might not be ideal for someone who prefers very grounded shows. It does do a fairly good job at ramping up the unbelievability as the show goes on instead of throwing the viewer right in, but the point still stands. It’s best to go into this show with some suspension of disbelief. However, I personally found the drama to be incredibly entertaining and fun to watch!

In the end, I would highly recommend SK8- it’s got great characters, intense races, and fun episodes that I continue to rewatch. Check it out!

2025 NFL Combine

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At the end of the NFL season, fans look forward to the prospect of improved player rosters through the NFL draft.  The NFL draft involves NFL teams selecting eligible college players to their teams with the order of the teams being determined by the teams’ records from the previous season.  One tool the NFL coaches and scouts use to determine which college prospects will be the best fit for their team is the NFL combine. The NFL combine is the annual event held in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, for football players attempting to be drafted to show what they can do in a series of fitness tests specific to their position.

2025 NFL Combine logo | Sports | virginislandsdailynews.com

This year’s NFL combine will take place from February 27th to March 2nd with different positions competing each day.  Some of the players that are projected first round picks in this year’s draft are Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, and Ashton Jeanty. Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders are quarterbacks from Miami and Colorado respectively.  Abdul Carter is an edge rusher from Penn State who many people regard as the top prospect in the draft. Ashton Jeanty is Boise State’s breakout running back with 1,376 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns in his 2024 season.  Finally, Travis Hunter won the Heisman trophy after being the best two-way player in recent history as Colorado’s star cornerback and receiver. Unfortunately for fans who want to see these players in action, many of them will not actually participate in the combine in order to avoid possible injury. 

Prospects will have their height, weight, and wingspan measured, complete fitness drills, and conduct interviews with coaches and general managers interested in drafting them.  My favorite drills to watch are the 40-yard dash and the bench press.

The Tennessee Titans currently hold the first overall pick in the draft. The Titans have many viable candidates to draft. Alternatively, they could trade this pick to another team.  I believe that the TItans will keep this pick and draft either Abdul Carter or Cam Ward, depending on whether they decide to stick with Will Levis at the quarterback position, acquire someone through a trade or free agent signing, or pick a replacement in the draft.  The NFL combine will be the determining factor for many teams like the Titans when deciding who will be the future of their franchise. For football fans like me, it’s exciting to watch this process play out.

The Captive Kingdom

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The Captive Kingdom is the fourth book of the Ascendance series. It takes place in lands called Prozaria and Belland. In the start of the book, Jaron, Tobias, Amarinda, and Roden get captured. Roden and Tobias look a lot like Jaron so to protect him from their captors, they all claimed to be Jaron. They were sailing on a ship called the Shadow Tide and Jaron started to think that he was losing his allies because they revealed some of his secrets. As the story progresses, he figures out that Tobias and Roden were helping him all along by trying to figure out the captain’s plans. Jaron, using his lightning-quick wit, finds a way to escape. He, along with some other people from the Shadow Tide meet up with more people that Jaron knows and they sail to Belland. There, Jaron and his allies find the other people on the Shadow Tide. Towards the completion of the book, Jaron finds out something that could possibly threaten his position as king, a position that he does not want to give up. So in the end, who will sit on Carthya’s throne?

One thing that I liked about the book was the fact that it was different from the other ones. It had different characters, yet it was still good. I enjoyed the fact that Jaron and Roden were on better terms because I really like both of them, and I probably would not like it as much if Jaron did not like him. The author elaborated on the relationship between Amarinda and Tobias, which I thought was good because I was interested in it as soon as Jennifer A. Nielsen brought it up. I was pretty disappointed that Roden and Wilta did not work out, because while Wilta was not my favorite character in the world, I think that Roden deserves to be happy. The Captive Kingdom made me like these characters even more because they seemed extremely life-like. I think this because the three people that were training to be the lost prince/king Jaron (real Jaron, Tobias, and Roden) got to have love lives, or things that were close to that. As always, they have real emotions, such as Jaron’s sadness when he thought that Imogen didn’t care about him anymore and Tobias’s anger at the crew of the Shadow Tide when they captured Amarinda.

However, I think that the believable characters and the interesting plot make this a fascinating book. From when I first read The False Prince, my favorite has changed. When I first read it, I liked Jaron, and while I still like him, my favorite is Roden Harlowe; captain of Jaron’s guard. I like him because while he seems so tough and cool on the outside, he has his flaws. Take the scene in The Shadow Throne when he wanted more soldiers and so he sent a letter to Jaron asking for them, his letter had a lot of misspellings and bad grammar. I just thought that that made him seem all the more human.

Captive Kingdom by Jennifer A. Nielsen is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free as an audiobook from Libby.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Book Review

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Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is a masterful work of suspense and mystery, often hailed as one of her finest achievements. First published in 1939, the novel introduces readers to a group of ten strangers who are invited to an isolated island under various pretexts. Each guest has a hidden past, with secrets they hope to keep buried, but soon, a series of eerie events unfold. As the guests begin to die one by one, the novel becomes an intense psychological game of survival, with no one knowing who can be trusted.

Christie’s skillful plotting and brilliant misdirection keep the reader guessing until the very end. The novel is a prime example of the “locked-room mystery” genre, as the isolated island setting creates an atmosphere of confinement and paranoia. Each chapter ratchets up the tension as the characters’ anxieties grow, and the clever use of nursery rhymes as a thematic device ties together the chilling sequence of murders.

I personally loved the constant suspense Christie gave us throughout the book. I loved how I could predict what would happen based on the poem “Ten Little Solider Boys” from the 1600’s, but was still left with unknown elements of the story. I also enjoyed reading about each character’s past and true natures. Not only were they all unique, but I loved how Christie highlighted human fear and suspicion and demonstrated the destruction death and fear can bring. Additionally, I loved the unexpected and haunting ending of the novel as it left me completely stunned and unsettled.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller murder mystery. If you like to read about a variety of unique characters and how they all become intertwined, I recommend giving this book a read!

Kaiya T.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Tips for Running Track

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Track season is almost here, and that means a lot of meets right around the corner. Track can be a challenging sport, here are some things that I have learned for running during track season.

1. Get in a proper warm up and cool down.

Getting in a proper warm up and cool down is one of the most important parts of track. I find that getting a warm up and cool down before and after a workout makes running much easier. It can also help you to do better in races and can help you to avoid injury. Stretching before and after workouts is also very beneficial.

2. Wear the right shoes.

Wearing the right shoes is also important while running track. This can help you to improve your times for a race and it can also keep you from getting injured as well.

3. Keep the right pace.

One thing that I found very useful for running track is keeping the right pace. This is especially useful for distance events where you will need endurance over a longer distance and period of time. I found it helpful to keep a pace and maintain it throughout the race and then speed up closer to the end.

4. Get the right diet.

Having the proper diet and eating the right foods is very important for running track as well. It’s important to eat and hydrate before you run, especially before races. I also found it helpful to have a snack for after a race or a hard workout, as it helps to replenish some of the energy that you have lost.

5. Do a variety of workouts.

Doing a variety of workouts each time you train is also helpful for running track. Running the same workout every day can slow your improvement in running. Instead, it’s helpful to incorporate a variety of workouts when training, such as long runs as well as harder workouts. This can help with improvement and can be very useful, especially if you are running distance events.

6. Get good sleep.

Getting good sleep and proper rest is important for running track as well. Getting good sleep can help you to do better in a race, and being well-rested is one of the most important parts of running track.

7. Mentally prepare for races.

Finally, one of the most important parts of running track is being mentally prepared, especially before races. A large part of running, especially in track, is mental, and I found that a large part of running is being able to mentally ready yourself, especially before a race. I found that visualizing success and focusing on goals for the race was very helpful in doing better in a race as well.

F451 Book Review

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“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing” (Bradbury 139).

Fahrenheit 451 made me consider what I take for granted. Books have always been part of my world, but this story made me imagine a world where they were banned — where ideas, history — independent thought — were all erased. story—it’s a challenge. 

The book Fahrenheit 451 follows Montag, a fireman, but unlike the ones we have in our modern society, burns books and starts fires instead of putting them out. He is content with this job and claims to be happy. But is he really? He starts to ask himself this question when a new neighbor, known as Clarisse McClellan, moves in next door. Slowly, Montag starts to enjoy being in Clarisse’s presence, as she constantly thinks about life, and how the world is supposed to be. This sparks a change in Montag, but he has never taken action to it until one day, the alarm rang for a woman hoarding books. When they threaten to burn her and her books, she tells them that they will never have her books, and she lights a match, burning her house and committing suicide.

That scene haunted me. What could be so potent, so significant, that a person would rather die than live without it? Montag doesn’t know the answer, and neither did I, and that made his quest so gripping.

Bradbury’s world already sounded disturbingly familiar. The people in it are not imprisoned by ignorance; they embrace it. They immerse themselves in mind-numbing distractions, sidestep challenging conversations and recoil from anything that discomforts them. That one hit hard because it didn’t feel like any distant dystopia — it felt like a warning. His writing is dense and poetic, forcing me to slow down and really take in what he was saying. The conclusion left me conflicted.

There is hope, but at what price? The city’s gone, the world is broken, but there’s still a chance to rebuild.

Ultimately, Fahrenheit 451 is about something beyond censorship; it’s about what happens when we stop questioning, stop thinking, and stop feeling. It challenged me in an exquisitely uncomfortable way, addressing issues about the world around us. It’s not merely a story — it’s a provocation.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

The Sun Also Rises Book Review

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The Sun Also Rises is one of Hemingway’s most important contributions of describing life after World War I of the Lost Generation. This was a required book that is read by Juniors at our high school. It discusses themes revolving around the aimlessness of the lost generation, male insecurity, and the destructiveness of sexual tension.

The story follows a couple of main characters, including Jake Barnes, the novel’s protagonist, and Lady Brett Ashley, the woman he loves but can’t be with. Jake, an American journalist living in Paris (also called an expatriate), is left impotent due to a war injury, which adds a layer of emotional frustration to his relationship with Brett. Brett, on the other hand, is beautiful, charismatic, and desired by nearly every man in their social circle—but she’s also emotionally unavailable and constantly searching for something more. She is seen constantly with different men at every single page turn of the book. It is almost as if she is looking for something that she can’t find herself.

The book captures the essence of the “Lost Generation”— which was a term Hemingway popularized to describe the disillusioned and aimless young people who came of age during and after World War I. Jake and his friends: Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell, wander through Paris and Spain, drinking, fighting, and engaging in meaningless affairs, all in an attempt to fill the void left by the war.

One of the most significant parts of the novel takes place in Pamplona, Spain, where the group travels to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. One of the characters that you meet here is Pedro Romero, a young, talented bullfighter, who serves as a really big contrast to the insecure and broken men around him—especially Jake and Cohn. Romero is the best bullfighter and youngest in Spain and he seems to have his life all figured out, which Jake admires very much. At the end of the book, we see that Brett eventually goes on to date Romero, only to get dumped and run back to her “husband.”

One of the main themes of The Sun Also Rises is escapism, but it doesn’t provide any real solutions. The characters drink excessively, engage in toxic relationships, and avoid their problems, but in the end, nothing really changes. The novel leaves us with the famous last line between Jake and Brett: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” which continues to show the aimlessness and the unhappiness of the Lost Generation.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

National Holidays to Celebrate in March

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  1. International Women’s Day (March 8): As part of Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day celebrates women from all across the globe and the different contributions and achievements they have made throughout history. As a historical occasion, recognizing women’s contributions through the years can provide more insight and detail about the development of our world overtime.
  2. Working Moms Day (March 12) : Working Moms have a job 24/7: they go to their paid job in the morning to afternoon and then spend the rest of the day taking care of their kids and families. As part of this holiday, taking the time to honor them with even a small gift or thank you can mean everything.
  3. The First Day of Spring (March 20): Spring signals the start of new beginnings and growth. Take this spring to start over and fresh, as you step into the new season.
  4. National Puppy Day (March 23): Who wouldn’t love an adorable puppy? For those of you with your own dog, this is the perfect day to give them the time of their lives, whether that’s hanging out at the park or gifting them their new favorite toy. And for those of you who don’t, local pet shelters are always available when looking at places to volunteer or adopt!
  5. National Epilepsy Awareness Day (March 26): Epilepsy is a brain disorder which can cause seizures. While treatments are available, the condition cannot be cured, meaning that it is even more important that we take the time to remember the struggles they experience and be considerate towards them.

Book review – Lord of The Flies by William Golding

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Lord of The Flies is a psychological fiction that follows a large group of British schoolboys, ages 6-12, who end up stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash during a fictional worldwide war, likely referencing World War II.

The boys initially attempt to establish a sense of community. Ralph, one of the older boys, is selected as chief of the island, taking responsibility of leadership. He emphasizes the importance of being rescued. However, as time passes, darker truths of human nature get revealed in the book as the boys descend slowly into savagery.

The book has many powerful qualities, I’m excited to share the ones i found the most interesting and meaningful.

Themes and ideas

  • “Humans are Inherently evil”

The book demonstrates how almost every single kid on the island becomes out of touch with sense of civilization, and becomes savage. Without influence, the boys develop an animalistic lust to hunt and kill, which supports this message Golding is believed to have implied.

  • Fear

The boys are consumed with running thoughts that result in the increasing fear of the unknown “beast” which drives the boys to absurd violent behavior. Regardless of being unsure of what the beast is, the boys, especially the younger ones, are kept up at night.

Symbols in characters

  • Ralph

Ralph is one of the most civil boys on the island. He clings on to the hope of being rescued, while other boys cascade into violent savagery. He was a good leader, and therefore symbolizes order and structure.

  • Jack

Jack breaks away from Ralph’s civilized society and forms a violent tribe, therefore he is one of the first to depart from societal culture that everyone is used to. Jack represents savagery, and the supposed truth of human nature.

  • Piggy

Piggy is one of the smartest characters in the book. He is also one of the boys only hope of being rescued or retaining civilization. He has rational thoughts, but not many listen to him. He symbolizes civilization and struggle to maintain intellectualism in the island.

Overall, the book was a very intriguing interpretation of human nature. It has deep themes about survival and instinct. In real life, times of war or poverty can be the cause for many people to resort to similar dynamics, such as violence and power struggles. I would suggest the thought provoking novel to any people who are interested in complexity of human nature. The book is recommended for high school students.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free as an audiobook from Libby.