Taking Time for Baby

By Bob Grant Taking Time for Baby Having a child changes everything. But it doesn’t necessarily have to disrupt your research while you’re out on leave. Alicia Timme-Laragy with baby Collin Erik Timme Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) postdoc Alicia Timme-Laragy was overjoyed at the birth of her first son, Collin, in March 2008. She had made all the preparations for his arrival and for a 10-week maternity leave from her work in the WHOI l

Written byBob Grant

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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) postdoc Alicia Timme-Laragy was overjoyed at the birth of her first son, Collin, in March 2008. She had made all the preparations for his arrival and for a 10-week maternity leave from her work in the WHOI lab of toxicologist Mark Hahn, where she studies the response of the transcription factor NRF-2 to toxins in developing zebrafish embryos.

But after Timme-Laragy had begun to work full-time following her maternity leave, she realized that something was amiss. She hadn’t planned for how exhausted and run-down she’d feel going in to work after a string of sleepless nights and seemingly endless feedings. One day in the lab, she was struck by one of the dizzy spells she’d been experiencing for a few weeks. Rather than dissipating after a little while, this one continued for several hours. Timme-Laragy and Hahn called for the on-campus medics, who administered oxygen ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
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From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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