Rachel Lance

What should the control group be for this experiment? A puddle?

I recently made pancakes where I had chilled the batter first. It led to a huge increase in floof. I’m gonna try it on a waffle.

Did you know there’s a whole subreddit about this?

From the whatisit community on Reddit: Found on the beach. Didnt touch it Explore this post and more from the whatisit community

Do not touch the spicy rocks.

www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/c...

The only calls they consider “problematic” are the ones at 3 am where people obviously don’t need emergency help. Real example of a call: “my toe has been hurting for three days.”

They will literally come to your house and change the batteries in your smoke detector if you can’t. They’re there.

I was married to a firefighter for a long time, & something I learned well is: 911 is there for you.

Even if you just THINK it’s an emergency… and you honestly think it’s an emergency but aren’t positive…

even if you turn out to be wrong they are there for you. They are more than happy to come.

Oh hey look. Predictable consequences.

Is there a vaccine against existential crises?

Yeah. I have no regrets over mine. But dang was it a jarring transition.

It is. And sometimes you’re in the grocery store holding a can of beans when it hits you that the life you thought you had has vanished, and you have to choose between abandoning your groceries versus crying at the beans.

But it gets better.

Let’s get to work, y’all.

SAME. I have no height cutoff, but I do have a cutoff for men who make disparaging remarks about MY height.

The Balto statue stands atop a rock outcropping near East Drive at East 67th Street in Central Park. Sculptor Frederick George Richard Roth (1872-1944) created the statue, which was donated by the Balto Monument Committee. The public art went on to receive the 1925 Speyer Prize by the National Academy of Design. Balto himself attended the unveiling, which was held just eleven months after his famous run. (Andy Bass photo, 2025)

A southwesterly view of the Balto statue in New York City’s Central Park. (Andy Bass photo, 2025)

A northeasterly view of the Balto statue in New York City’s Central Park. (Andy Bass photo, 2025)

A bronze dedication tablet is mounted on the rock outcropping directly below the Balto statue. It reads, “Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards, from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the winter of 1925. Endurance, Fidelity, Intelligence.” (Andy Bass photo, 2025)

100 years ago today, December 17, 1925:

The Balto Monument, a statue of the heroic sled dog, was unveiled in New York City's Central Park. The Siberian Husky led his team of dogs for the final 55 miles of the Great Serum Run of 1925 that stopped a deadly diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska.

I’m honored. You are a permanent fixture on my advance copies list!

Yes! Although I’ve struggled to find much that was more specific, which annoys me. 😊

I’d never heard of it before starting this research, which is WILD!!

An explosion so big it blew a football-field-sized crater in NJ and rocketed shrapnel down Fifth Avenue??? Cmon!

I accept you 💜

I will look her up, thank you!

On Jul 30, 1916 German agents blew up Black Tom, NJ and the devastation reached miles into Manhattan

Pleased to announce this scene kicks off my next book, a true spy-vs-spy thriller of bombs, sabotage, invisible ink, and America's first female Special Agent!
#AmWriting
@pegasus-books.bsky.social

Ah, thank you! I am honored to be in the same sentence as anything bat-shit crazy. 😀

Somewhat, but again, it's hard to do these tests because of the ethics.

We know head-out immersion behaves like full immersion, and there's some date with legs-only but I don't think enough to be statistically meaningful.

It's tiring and a lot of the reason for my social media spottiness.

I hope you love the read, thank you for your support!

Fresh Air Hear the Fresh Air program for Nov 14, 2025

Did you know that much of what we know about diving links back to research for D-Day?

Catch the Chamber Divers episode re-run today on @nprfreshair.bsky.social !

www.npr.org/programs/fre...

I asked ChatGPT to write a limerick about my scientific work!
(it's not great)

There once was a sub called Hunley, so small,
That launched its black‑powder torpedo against a war’s wall.
Though no bullet or breach
Marred the hull—yet the screech
Of the blast wave inside proved fatal for all.

Riddle me this one: with people immersed in water to their necks, but their heads out and dry, their O2 susceptibility is consistent with in-water norms.

The water conductivity is an interesting theory, I've not thought about that before! I'm not sure how that would work as a mechanism, though.

You're right, that would be hard to get past an IRB. ;)

Maybe!! But there's not a lot of data

Oh thank you, that's so kind. Ben and Noel are the beeeeeeest

Thank you, I appreciate that.

I've been kept awake nights wondering about the dry versus wet oxygen conundrum. And the way O2 seizures don't show up on EEGs! Wild.

The underwater image that forms the cover art for The Great Dive podcast, with the caption "The 'Car Talk' of Scuba Diving." A caption has been added reading "Now with more Rachel!" for this particular episode.

Everything you think you know about O2 and diving may be wrong... and it's definitely stolen!

Today's episode of The Great Dive Podcast wraps up their series on how the body uses (and gets abused by) O2 when diving.

It also corrects a decades-old theft

Listen: www.thegreatdivepodcast.com/podcasts