Violent metaphors

“I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine” -Neil Armstrong

There were only two possible career choices for me: astronaut or archaeologist. I chose the latter based on a combination of reasons, which included watching the Challenger explode in kindergarten, having bad eyesight, and discovering Elizabeth Peters books in fourth grade.

I combined Ph.D.s  in archaeology and biology to become an anthropological geneticist. These days, I delve deep into the genomes of living and dead people to see what I can deduce about their origins and prehistory. I divide my time between traveling to the high Arctic to excavate human remains and collect DNA samples and sitting in front of a computer reading lines of code and endless strings of AGTCs.

I’ve been training in martial arts since I was a little girl, and have had a few fights in Muay Thai, MMA, and boxing. Throughout the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and befriend some of the most extraordinary people in the fighter community, and I hope to share some of their stories and insights here.

My fellow scientists are curious about my love of fighting; my fighter friends seem to be interested in my scientific research. This is a place where I write about both aspects of my life.