Why Every Challenge Leaves Something Valuable Behind
If there is one thing life has taught me, it is that challenges are unavoidable. No matter how carefully we plan, how hard we work, or how much experience we gain, difficult situations will eventually find us. Some challenges arrive gradually, while others appear without warning. In either case, they have a way of testing […]
The Questions I Wish I Had Asked Earlier in Life
When I was younger, I spent a great deal of time looking for answers. I wanted to understand how things worked, why certain things happened, and what could be done to improve the lives of others. That curiosity eventually led me into science, research, and a career built around solving problems. Looking back, I can […]
Why I Still Consider Myself a Student
When people reach a certain age or level of experience, there is often an assumption that they have all the answers. Society tends to view experience as the destination, as though learning eventually comes to an end and expertise takes its place. While I understand why people think that way, my own experience has taught […]
The Older I Get, the More I Value Simplicity
When I was younger, I thought progress meant adding more to my life. More goals, more projects, more responsibilities, and more things to accomplish. Like many people, I believed that success was closely tied to achievement. The harder I worked and the more I accomplished, the more successful I would feel. There is certainly value […]
What I Got Wrong About Water Quality Early On, and What I Do Now
Testing Methods That Tell Half the Story When I first started examining water properties in the lab, I measured what everyone else measured: pH, mineral content, contaminants, total dissolved solids. Those numbers told me whether water met regulatory standards. They did not tell me much about how that water would behave inside a living system. […]
A Situation Where the Standard Advice Does Not Apply
When Everyone Tells You to Pivot, and You Know You Shouldn’t There’s a moment that comes in almost every long research project. The results are slow. The skepticism is loud. People who care about you start suggesting you try something easier, something more immediately profitable, something the market already understands. The standard advice in that […]
A Tool That Earns Its Place: Why Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Became Part of My Research Toolkit
What This Tool Actually Measures Bioelectrical impedance analysis, or BIA, sends a low-level electrical current through the body and measures how quickly it travels. The speed and resistance tell you something about fluid distribution, cell membrane integrity, and tissue composition. It is not a guess. It is a reading. I started using BIA devices in […]
What I Would Tell Someone Starting Out in Water Research Today
Begin with a Real Question, Not a Hypothesis When I started graduate studies in biology in the 1970s, the expectation was that you came to the lab with a theory and then designed experiments to prove it. That approach works if you already know what you’re looking for. But if you want to discover something […]
When Research Lives or Dies in the Setup
I’ve watched countless studies fail before the first measurement. Not because the hypothesis was wrong, but because the design made it impossible to see what was actually happening. In biological research, especially when you’re working with something as subtle as cellular hydration or water structure, the distance between a rigorous study and a useless one […]
Why Are We Measuring Hydration by How Much Water We Drink?
Walk into any health conversation today and someone will ask how much water you drink. Eight glasses a day. Half your body weight in ounces. A gallon if you’re really serious. The question is always about volume. But I think we’re measuring the wrong thing. The body doesn’t just need water. It needs water that […]