The Catalyst · Writer
Yair Ben-Dor
Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Website Developer, The Catalyst Magazine
- 9 stories
- Writing since December 2024
- Meet the team
Yair is a recent summa cum laude graduate from George Washington University with a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. A DMV local, Yair is passionate about using STEM as a unifying force to make research accessible and collaborative across D.C. institutions and universities. His interests lie in how STEM provides an evidence-based framework for understanding the world, turning scientific curiosity into real-world impact. He is currently applying to medical schools with the aim of becoming a physician.
Stories by Yair Ben-Dor
Newest first-
Profile
Thirty Years to a Heartbeat: The Maryland Scientist Behind the First Pig Heart Transplants
Muhammad Mohiuddin spent three decades learning how to keep a pig's heart alive inside another species. In Baltimore, his work reached two human patients, and now it is headed for a…
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Profile
The Helicopter Being Built in Maryland to Fly on Saturn's Largest Moon
Planetary scientist Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle is leading Dragonfly, a nuclear-powered rotorcraft that will hop across Titan looking for the chemistry that came before life.
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Profile
The Smithsonian Scientist Building a Frozen Backup for the World's Coral Reefs
Mary Hagedorn has spent nearly two decades learning how to freeze coral and bring it back to life. Now she is racing to bank every species before the reefs disappear.
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Book review
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Kean transforms the periodic table from a static academic chart into a dynamic ledger of human history, geopolitics, and elemental physics.
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Profile
The College Park Entomologist Turning a Fungus Into a Weapon Against Malaria
Raymond St. Leger has spent his career studying fungi that kill insects. Now his engineered strains are being tested in West Africa, where malaria still kills hundreds of thousands of…
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Feature
The Declarative/Procedural Model: Understanding Language and Memory
Architect of the Declarative/Procedural Model: Michael T. Ullman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University and director of the Brain and Language…
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Profile
The Gaithersburg Mathematician Rewriting the Internet's Locks Before Quantum Computers Can Pick Them
Dustin Moody leads the NIST project that chose the world's first post-quantum encryption standards. The hard part now is getting everyone to use them.
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Feature
How Cutting-Edge Research in Washington, D.C. is Reshaping Science and Medicine
Three researchers in Washington, D.C., are currently shaping our future through groundbreaking advancements in technology and medicine. From revolutionizing computing with brain-shaped…
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Profile
From Music to Nuclear Policy: Professor Christopher Cahill’s unexpected Journey in Science and Policy
Professor Christopher Cahill, a distinguished multidisciplinary professor at George Washington University, is a leading expert in inorganic and materials chemistry, specializing in…