The hidden material debt inside your phone: 30–40 elements, the human and ecological cost of mining lithium and cobalt, and the chemistry of sodium batteries and urban mining that could pay it back.
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Writing & Media
Essays, video, and podcasts at the intersection of science, policy, and philosophy. Original sources linked; archived here so they outlast the platforms that hosted them.
The reflective breakdown episode: the creators discuss how the D&D module was designed to communicate the science of protein misfolding and neurodegenerative disease, and what worked. Gabriel joins the discussion. Episode 3 of a three-part
Continuation of the sci-comm D&D adventure. The party advances the "misfolding" storyline; Gabriel plays. Episode 2 of a three-part arc.
A science-communication–inspired Dungeons & Dragons module built around a neurodegenerative-disease ("misfolding") storyline. Gabriel plays in the campaign, using tabletop roleplay as a vehicle for communicating science. Episode 1 of a thre
A short documentary on Puerto Rico's failing fossil-fuel grid and the grassroots cooperatives building reliable renewable microgrids themselves. NMC 2025 science-communication final project.
How industry and politics shaped modern medicine — from Purdue's OxyContin machine and the benzodiazepine surge to the psychedelic renaissance and the cultural debt owed to healers like María Sabina.
Three centuries of the scientist on screen — from the Mad Scientist of Frankenstein to Shuri and Oppenheimer — and what those portrayals do to public trust in science.
A Long and Winding Road
EssayA first-year's plain-language tour through his own research title — self-assembly of magnetic colloids with shifted dipoles — and what it was like to meet science as a stranger.
The Best Laid Plans
EssayHow the UPR student strike detoured a Puerto Rican undergrad into an improvised New York summer — a short, wry travel story with a guest appearance by Prof. Ilona Kretzschmar.