Nori's Field Notes

06/16/2026

🔬🦠 Welcome to Paramecium Cult! 🦠🔬

No, we're not actually starting a cult. We're just a community of science nerds, advocates, and lifelong learners who believe curiosity can change the world. 😎

My name is Nori, and I'm a biology student, researcher, disability advocate, autistic self-advocate, and future scientist with a passion for making STEM more accessible to everyone. Here you'll find a mix of biology facts, microscopy, research adventures, scientific curiosity, disability advocacy, accessibility discussions, educational content, and the occasional moment where I get way too excited about something living in a drop of pond water. 🧫♾️✨

This page is built on the belief that science and advocacy go hand in hand. Knowledge should be accessible. Education should be inclusive. Disabled people belong in STEM. Whether we're talking about microorganisms, neuroscience, accommodations, research, or breaking down barriers in higher education, there is a place for those conversations here. ♿🔬💚

Whether you're a fellow STEM student, researcher, advocate, aspiring scientist, or someone who accidentally clicked on a page named after a single-celled organism, you're welcome here. Science belongs to everyone, and together we can build a more accessible and informed world. 🌎✨

So grab your microscope, your curiosity, and your passion for learning. The only requirement for joining the Paramecium Cult is a willingness to ask questions and keep growing. 🔍🦠

Welcome aboard! 🚀

06/15/2026

♾️✨ During Autism Acceptance Month in April, I had the immense honor of planning and hosting a student-led event at Rock Valley College called Legos and Accommodations. It was more than just an event. It was an opportunity to have the conversations I wish more people were willing to have. ✨♾️

Together with our RAISE students, we talked about advocacy, accommodations, and the reality of navigating a world that is not always built with disabled people in mind. We discussed accommodations in the classroom, but also the places people often forget about, including the workplace, our communities, and even our personal relationships. ♿📚🤝

As an autistic and disabled student, advocate, and leader, this event held a special place in my heart. Autism Acceptance Month is about more than awareness. It is about creating a world where disabled people are understood, respected, supported, and empowered to succeed. 🌟

Using Legos as a hands-on way to discuss accessibility and equity, we explored the importance of self-advocacy, knowing your rights, and recognizing that accommodations are not special treatment. They are tools that help create equal access and opportunity. Watching students engage, share their stories, and discover the power of their own voices filled me with hope for the future. ♾️

Advocacy starts with education, but it grows through courage. Every time we speak up, ask for what we need, or help others understand accessibility, we help build a more inclusive world. That is a mission I will never stop fighting for. 💪♿✨

06/14/2026

🫳💭 Sometimes I catch myself wringing my fingers, trying to swallow a hard truth: history is never surface deep.

Behind every monument, every celebration, every border, every law, and every story we are taught, there are layers of triumph, pain, resilience, injustice, and humanity waiting to be uncovered. The more I learn, the more I realize that understanding history means being willing to sit with uncomfortable truths rather than turning away from them.

Knowledge is a gift, but sometimes it is a heavy one. Still, we owe it to those who came before us to listen, learn, and tell the full story. 📚🕯️🌎

06/14/2026

🧠✨ Just a girl sitting here thinking about increased levels of white matter in the brain and its possible correlation to dementia. 🤔📚

Some people unwind by watching TV. I unwind by falling down neuroscience rabbit holes and asking myself a million questions about why the brain does what it does. 🔬💭

The more I learn, the more fascinated I become by the complexity of the human brain and the possibility that understanding these patterns could one day help us better understand, prevent, or treat dementia. Every discovery starts with curiosity, and I've got plenty of that. 🧬❤️

Back to overanalyzing research papers and connecting dots that may or may not let me sleep tonight. 😅📖

06/13/2026

In this week's edition of Sampling the Stateline, WIFR’s Jake Pearson visits Uncle John’s Family Restaurant.

06/13/2026

At Saturn’s north pole, nature has created one of the most extraordinary weather patterns in the Solar System: a giant hexagon.

This isn’t a rough six-sided shape or an optical illusion. It’s a remarkably precise atmospheric structure stretching nearly 30,000 kilometers across — large enough to fit Earth inside it. With straight edges, distinct corners, and a powerful vortex spinning at its center, the hexagon has fascinated scientists since it was first spotted by Voyager in the early 1980s.

Over the course of 13 years, NASA’s Cassini mission observed the phenomenon in unprecedented detail and found something even more astonishing: the hexagon barely changed. While its color shifted from deep blue to golden hues as Saturn moved through its seasons, the six-sided geometry remained intact.

Scientists believe the structure forms through powerful jet streams moving at different speeds, creating a standing wave that locks the hexagonal pattern into place. Similar shapes can be produced in laboratory experiments using rotating fluids, but Saturn’s version is on an entirely different level.

What makes it so remarkable is its longevity and stability. Unlike laboratory polygons that eventually break apart, Saturn’s hexagon has persisted for decades without losing its shape. There are no continents, mountains, or solid surfaces guiding it—only atmospheric physics operating on a planetary scale.

A perfect geometric figure floating in the clouds of a gas giant, as if carefully drawn across the sky.

On Saturn, even the weather can look engineered. 🪐

06/13/2026