Heartwarming stories about science

Erin Barker struggles with a disease that only makes her give up four things; they just happen to be the four things worth living for. Re-issued specially for our Women In Science magazine issue. Check it out at magazine.storycollider.org

Actress Rachel Bitney Wecht describes the challenges of wooing a physicist: The Story Collider’s own co-founder, Brian Wecht. “I knew that with enough time and pressure you could take a dinosaur and make gasoline. So I figured with enough time I could take a physicist and make a boyfriend.” Rachel Bitney Wecht has been performing and teaching improv comedy in various venues around the globe since 1999. She currently lives in London where she spends her time correcting British people's pronunciation of American words. Every week the Story Collider brings you a true, personal story about science. Find more and subscribe to our podcast here: storycollider.org/.

Deborah Berebichez was told she couldn't study physics because it wasn't for girls -- until she got assistance for an unexpected reason. (En Español: http://soundcloud.com/the-story-collider/deborah-berebichez)

At ten years old, David Gelles finds himself abandoned and swimming in an ocean with a storm coming. Alone. Except for the pod of dolphins. “I had this little disposable plastic camera and I’d put it up to my eye and look through the lens, and a whole dolphin head would fill the frame.”

New York Times reporter Amy Harmon is making no progress on her story about an autistic man trying to live and work independently — until she finds a way to reconnect with her subject matter. “Did I mention I’d been working on it for 18 months? My family was going to disown me if I didn’t finish the story.”

When Dawn Fraser’s twin is diagnosed with Down syndrome, their parents decide to raise them as equals — a task that produced a new twist on the racetrack. “If there is anything my family’s really good at, it’s surprises.”

What do you do if you’re a trans woman about to transition, and you might someday want children? Elana Lancaster tells the story of a partner’s quest to freeze her sperm. (explicit) “Change is kinda tricky. Even when it’s something that’s really welcome, and that you’re looking forward to, it’s also scary as shit.”

Logan Smalley and his friends took a trip across the country that was everything the classic American road trip should be — except one of them was dying. “I looked over at Darius — he’s got a walker now with little tennis balls on it — and he’s got a smile on his face I’ll never be able to describe.”

Single mother and aspiring scientist Nancy Parmalee takes the long route to her PhD. “I just remember walking out of the grocery store and thinking, ‘I am living the wrong life. There is another life out there — surely there has to be.’”

A neuroscientist tests the limits of wonder when his own father suffers a stroke.