Date Night with Chemistry and Cats

How does a human zygote differentiate into around 200 types of cells? How do embryos know how many fingers they are supposed to have? Finding and describing all human genes in the Human Genome Project was expected to help answer these questions. Yet, as it turns out, knowing only where genes are and what their functions are has given surprisingly few answers to the puzzle of this amazing complexity. In my talk, I will focus on one of the aspects of this regulation with a small help from my favorite things in the world: books and cats.

Can I still flirt with my date and still talk about my science? Oh sure, I communicate my research well enough to publish scientific articles, present at international conferences, and secure funding for future projects. But can I ever get a second date?!? Discussions with other scientists about my research are often easy compared to chats about my work with a romantic interest. Join me as we explore how a topic like chemical chirality can be shared with a non-scientist in a more fun and attractive way, while carefully navigating the bad forms of scientific communication.