How using your iPhone before bed can disrupt your sleep. How salad dressing tastes exceptionally creamy to some people and not others. How different species of marine mammals independently lost their ability to taste sweetness. How your brain alters its processing abilities when you try to multitask. How bringing back a little known agency could help make Congress more tech literate. These are just a few of the topics I’ve covered in the 100-plus pieces I’ve written as a freelance writer.
My writing has been published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Pain Research Forum, BrainFacts, Greater Good, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Rhode Island Public Radio, the Washington Post’s On Parenting blog, and other outlets.
Before my life as a full-time writer and editor, I was a bench scientist for more than a decade. While in high school and college, I studied the brain circuits involved in obesity at Oregon Health and Science University with Drs. M. Susan Smith and Kevin Grove. After college, I studied voltage-gated calcium channels (or as I like to call them ‘the gatekeepers of the nervous system’) in Dr. Diane Lipscombe’s lab at Brown University, where I earned a PhD in neuroscience. I began freelance writing as a graduate student and continued while working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown before deciding to leave the lab behind and become a full-time freelancer.
Thanks for stopping by.
Summer E. Allen, PhD 
Hello, Summer,
As a STEMinist & mother, I thought you might be interested in a project I am running on Kickstarter called ‘Grace from Outer Space’ (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jennabryson/grace-from-outer-space).
The book is already written; I am holding the campaign to raise funds for the illustrations and so that I can turn it into an interactive eBook app!
What kind of book is it? ‘Grace from Outer Space’ is a rhyming picture book story for children, approx. ages 4-8 years old. It’s full of fun, space-science stuff (facts such as the temperature of the sun, and interesting theories, such as dark energy!) and lots of imagination (for example, our young heroine, Grace, imagines perhaps black holes are where all the lost socks go).
This project has been featured on Brainy Daughter (http://brainydaughter.com/), and includes fans like Sam Cristoferreti (ESA astronaut), and Wollstonecraft author, Jordan Stratford, who said of the project that it is a “…truly important Kickstarter getting girls turned on to space sciences”.
That’s precisely why I wrote this story: to help inspire little girls to look up at the stars. With a plethora of princess, fairy, ballerina and glamour-type merchandise on the children’s market, our girls are severely lacking in smart, curious, science-y characters like Grace. Through Grace, herself a child, I aim to inspire girls to learn about science, technology, and to see what a cool place our universe really is. I believe by reaching girls early-on in their lives, we can open-up a world of possibilities for them as adults. Truth is, you can’t really *be* a princess when you grow-up… but you can be an astronaut or an engineer. And I hear they’re well-paid.
Thank you for your consideration, Summer! I can be reached readily by email, should you have questions; I’d be more than happy to do an interview or guest blog if you’d like.
~Jenna Bryson
author/creator ‘Grace from Outer Space’
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gracefrmotrspc
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gracefromouterspace