Hello! 

I'm glad to see you've found your way to this funny little corner of the internet.

My name is Louisa Ulrich-Verderber ( I know it sound funny, but I like it). I'm from northern Vermont and have had, and am still having, a white-water-rapids-ride of a life. 

I was born four months early and weighed only one pound. There was only a 1% chance of me coming out of the whole ordeal with no major disabilities. Whether by karma, fate, or random chance, I did survive, and I'm writing this today without even needing glasses. Because of this immense amount of good fortune I have always, even when I was little, known I had to do something to give back to the world that has given me so much. 

My parents feel this way too. Since we were old enough to carry a bag ( about four if I recall correctly) my parents have be taking us all over the world. They are both dentists and lived abroad twice before we were born. They believe steadfastly that the first step to giving back to the world it to actually see the world itself. We never go on tours, and only research places that are off-the-beaten-path and have the untouched look that signifies a lack of tourists. We have looked elephants in the eye in the Kalahari Desert, swum with massive migrating schools of manta rays, and plucked iceberg ice from the oceans of Newfoundland. All these trips and adventures have taught me what a wonderful place the world really is.  

I first started making change when I was twelve. One weekend, my dentist mother/welding artist decided she was going to built a life sized stegosaurus sculpture in her dental office front yard. It was up to me to assist my father and mother to create the ten foot tall and twenty foot long sculpture. I only worked on the head, but in the course of one weekend I learned how to weld using a MIG welder, operate an acetylene torch, and was engulfed in a ball of flame (I unknowingly cut into a hydraulic pipe). From that day forward I fell in love with welding and have been creating sculptures large and small for the past six years, and donating a large majority of them to charity auctions. To date, I have donated sculptures that have raised over $20,000 for local charities. You can find my work and BEaSPARK. com. 

Along with my artistic interests I have always loved science. My ideal birthday gifts as a child were a DIY robot kits and a chemistry sets. I have never had a fear of what most people would call "creep crawlies," and I have always jumped at any opportunity to get messy in the name of science. I have taken every science course my school has to offer, and I intend to pursue a career in the field of Biomimicry after college. For those who may not know, biomimicry is the study of the natural world in order to solve human engineering and designing problems. For me this is the perfect fit, a job that combines, artistic creativity with biological observations? Sign me up! 

These passions of art and science are rooted deeply in who I am, and as such I needed a way to express them more fully, and thats what this blog is about. On here you can find me talking about the architecture of caddis fly casings, or how neat I think Neanderthal tools were. Whether you are an art lover or a budding scientist, you'll find something here to interest you.