Recent Writing: Chemistry on a Saturnian moon and parenting in a pandemic
Olivia Wilkins
I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently. I’m working on an astrochemistry book for the American Chemical Society, and it is in the developmental editing stage. Last week, I turned in a revised draft to my editor. The book is supposed to be published in July, so I’m really excited. We’re about to start the art development, and I’m illustrating a lot of the figures myself! (If you want to support my artwork and get sneak peaks of my work, which right now is mostly book illustrations, you can join me on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. For $3+/month, you’ll also get monthly science art in the mail!)
I’ve also been writing for other platforms. Two weeks ago, I published a Lab Note for Massive Science, a content and media company delivering science content… all written by scientists! In my lab note, I wrote about the possible detection of a molecule called hydrazine on one of Saturn’s lesser known moons: Rhea. Hydrazine is a chemical used in rocket propellants, and it is found in small amounts from natural sources on Earth. In the note, I talk about some hypotheses regarding hydrazine (if it is on Rhea at all), as well as how we might learn more about this chemical mystery. I hope you check it out!
This past Friday, a short essay I wrote about parenting in a pandemic was posted on Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), a magazine published by the American Chemical Society. Each month, C&EN has been publishing essays by graduate students in a series called “Grad school, in students’ own words.” In my essay, I talk about the new challenges the pandemic brought to being a grad parent and the big change I made in response. You can find my essay, along with many other grad school perspectives, on the C&EN website.