I write both sci-fi and sci-ed, and often blend the two. My work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, as well as popular science outlets such as Scientific American and Reactor Magazine.

The Everyday Einstein Podcast by Quick and Dirty Tips / Macmillan Books

For just over two years, I was the writer and host of the Everyday Einstein science education podcast (since rebranded as Ask Science), part of Macmillan’s Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.

The podcast was regularly in the top 10 K-12 educational podcasts on iTunes, and transcripts of some episodes were featured in Scientific American.

Podchaser contains an archive of the 100+ episodes I wrote and hosted, which include standalone writing, interviews, and book reviews.

Scientific American

Some episodes of Everyday Einstein were also adapted into articles for Scientific American:

• Can Turmeric Prevent or Cure Disease? Scientific American, 25 March 2015
• Should You Worry about the Ebola Outbreak? Scientific American, 26 November 2014
• What Is Gluten? Scientific American, 31 October 2013
• Correlation vs. Causation Scientific American, 2 August 2013
• What Is “Supersonic”? Scientific American, 10 July 2013
• What’s a Capacitor? Scientific American, 6 March 2013
• Why Are Weather Forecasts Often Wrong? Scientific American, 9 January 2013
• What is a Neural Network? Scientific American, 14 November 2012
• Why Do Apples Turn Brown? Scientific American, 19 September 2012

TOR / Reactor Magazine: The Science of Future Past

The Science of Future Past explores whether early science fiction writers were predicting the future, or helping to define it.

The first part of the series explores the fictional technologies in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, while the second explores those in Frank Herbert’s Dune.

• Dune - Sandworms of Arrakis Reactor Magazine, 7 August 2013
• Dune - Hunter-Seeker Reactor Magazine, 1 August 2013
• Dune - The Box Reactor Magazine, 10 July 2013
• Foundation - Food Preservation Reactor Magazine, 21 February 2013
• Foundation - Transmutation Reactor Magazine, 1 February 2013
• Foundation - Spy Beams and Field Distorters Reactor Magazine, 24 January 2013
• Foundation - DNA Steganography Reactor Magazine, 8 January 2013
• Foundation - The Priesthood of Science Reactor Magazine, 3 January 2013
• Foundation - Did Asimov Predict Wikipedia? Reactor Magazine, 12 December 2012

TOR / Reactor Magazine: The Science of Allomancy

The Science of Allomancy series explores hypothetical scientific explanations behind the metal-fueled allomantic powers of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series.

• The Science of Allomancy in Mistborn: Iron and Steel Reactor Magazine, 22 August 2012
• The Science of Allomancy in Mistborn: Pewter Reactor Magazine, 13 June 2012
• The Science of Allomancy in Mistborn: Zinc and Brass Reactor Magazine, 30 May 2012
• The Science of Allomancy in Mistborn: Copper Reactor Magazine, 23 May 2012
• The Science of Allomancy in Mistborn: Tin Reactor Magazine, 15 May 2012

TOR / Reactor Magazine Standalone Articles

• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and the Science of Scale Reactor Magazine, 31 August 2012

Selected Essays and Features

• Elemental: How I Used Video Gaming Research to Get Healthy Elemental, 30 August 2019
• The Writing Cooperative: Three Questions Every Writer Has To Answer To Be Successful The Writing Cooperative, 6 August 2019
• Medium: The Crazy and Wonderful State of Web Development The Writing Cooperative, 7 October 2016 (This article is also included in the list of readings for CompSci 290 at Duke University)

Science Fiction / Science Education Books

I've published two science fiction novels (Half Worlder and Starship Thieves) and the two-volume Science Fictioned series, which takes ideas from cutting-edge, scientific research papers and turns them into short science fiction and fantasy stories.

Peer-Reviewed Research Papers

ORCID: 0000-0002-7776-2519

Google Scholar Profile

• Ensembl Genomes 2016: more genomes, more complexity. Kersey, Paul; et al. – Nucl. Acids Res. (04 January 2016) 44 (D1): D574-D580
• Ensembl Genomes 2013: Scaling up access to genome-wide data. Kersey, Paul; et al. – Nucl. Acids Res. (1 January 2014) 42 (D1): D546-D552
• Using Interpolation to Estimate System Uncertainty in Gene Expression Experiments. Falin LJ, Tyler BM (2011) – PLoS ONE 6(7): e22071.
• Systems Uncertainty in Systems Biology & Gene Function Prediction Falin LJ (2011) – PhD Dissertation

Conference Presentations

• Adapting Teaching to the Needs of the Learner VT Hokie Stone Commemoration – 2010
• System Uncertainty in Gene Expression Data VT Graduate Research Symposium – 2010
• Microarray Data Inference ACC Interdisciplinary Forum for Discovery in the Life Sciences – 2010
• Microarray Data Inference ISCB Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology – 2010
• OpenCL – Now Everyone Has a Supercomputer (Almost) Virginia Bioinformatics Institute – 2009
• Inference of Functional Modules in Regulatory Networks Virginia Bioinformatics Institute – 2007

University Courses

I've designed and taught a number of university courses over the years. Where policy has allowed, I've made the content of those courses publicly available.

BYU-Idaho

• Machine Learning and Data Analytics

Southern Virginia University

• Game Design Patterns and Game Development
• Software Engineering & Software Project Management
• Database Systems
• Theory of Computation
• Software Engineering

University of the Cumberlands

• Essentials of Gamification
• Games for Learning and Simulation
• Advanced Multiplayer

The My Cousin Jane Podcast

My Cousin Jane is a podcast produced by Jane Austen’s cousin, Lee Falin—well, her 8th cousin, 6 times removed—about the life and works of Jane Austen.

Rather than explore the “literary themes and ethos of Jane Austen”, or something else you might hear about in a graduate level English Lit class, My Cousin Jane presents a light hearted, chapter-by-chapter collection of segments that one could think of as the “Deleted Scenes” or “Bonus Features” of Austen’s works.