About Me

I'm a college chemistry and biochemistry professor.

HOLLY PHANEUF, Ph.D. is a diminutive, energetic biochemistry professor who has long been in love with molecules and how they work. She grew up in Southern California, and was thus startled to find herself living in Salt Lake City by age 20. She found solace at the University of Utah, where she obtained B.S. degrees in both biology and chemistry, as well as a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry. She spent several years at the University studying the chemistry of antioxidants and synthesizing her own anti-oxidant and liver protecting drugs. Envying the synthetic talent of plants, she shares her awe for nature’s chemicals, according to one of her colleages, “by jumping around like an excited gas molecule” in front of classrooms filled with college students. Dr. Phaneuf has shared her love of science with radio and T.V. audiences, and has also lectured at national park ranger stations. Besides feeling affectionate for molecules, Holly enjoys rescuing feral cats, winemaking, cooking, dance, music, and as an avid amateur astronomer has accidentally discovered an asteroid, which she has recently named "timerskine".

She lives with her husband, artist and inventor Tim Erskine, who shares her interests, and their cats, Quark, Alberio, Neutron, and Mrs. Interference Fringes ("Fringie").

More detailed bio and book evolution:
My fascination with herbs began early in life, and I recall ambitiously thinking as a very little girl that I might use them to acquire magical powers. I would be able to fly, become invisible, and save the world in three easy steps! My dollhouse contained a secret lab where the occupant could develop magical herbal potions.

My goals have grown more realistic over time, having spent years working in actual labs. I am now content to quell gas pains with chamomile.

Growing up, I read as much as I could on herbs from whatever resources I could get my hands on.

I was disappointed, however, that the books vaguely stated that a given herb was good for a particular problem, with no mention of what “good” meant, or of what was really happening.

As the late physicist Richard Feynman said, knowing the name of something does not give you any knowledge about the thing. You can know the common and Latin names of an herb, and you can even give it the name "antiinflammatory", but what is it actually DOING? A PROCESS must be described, in order to explain the action of the herb. (The whole concept of naming an entity in order to gain power over it is an ancient and intriguing concept--I believe it pops up in the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin. Naming helps, but in order to really understand a thing, we need to know what it does, step by step, along its journey.) I find the adventures of molecules inside our body fascinating, and I hope that others will, too.

The omission of these processes in popular literature gives the reader the misleading impression that herbs produce an effect by some mysterious or magical means. But herbs contain smorgassboards of chemicals which go to different places in the body and do very interesting things. These chemicals are mysterious only because they are so small, we can not see them with our eyes. But they are real, physical entities, and it is my intention to help portray a vivid (and hopefully entertaining) picture of what scientists know about their activities.

Why do plants contain such a dog's breakfast of chemicals? Plants can not run away or perform karate on voracious predators, so they have to synthesize their own chemical weapons, to prevent themselves from being eaten. Alas, this means that a lot of plant chemicals might be nasty. They are mainly nasty to bugs and microorganisms, and some, accidentally, have very interesting pharmacological effects on us.

I hope that this site will appeal to those who are unsatisfied with vague statements like “milk thistle is good for the liver,” who want to know what “good for” really means.

As a teenager in western Pennsylvania, I was employed by a Slippery Rock University botanist to help preserve the local ecology. Trained to identify and document herbs and mushrooms, my love of the subject apparently became infectious, transforming my forays into educational herb walks for the community.

An offer to record my music when I was a teenager (I play the Celtic harp and sing) lead me to Salt Lake, where I am pleased to help increase the diversity of the populace (sombody's got to.)

The opportunity to study western plants arrived with my transplant to the University of Utah. After receiving bachelors of science in both biology and chemistry, I obtained my doctorate in the science of drug discovery and design: medicinal chemistry. Medicinal chemists are trained to synthesize new drugs, or to discover them from nature. Sometimes we take pre-existing natural or synthetic drugs and modify them so they have fewer side effects and better therapeutic action.

I spent six years inventing new drugs (these drugs were designed to protect the liver from various toxins and worked modestly well) at the University of Utah, as well as performing basic research in molecular biology. Dr. Jeanette Roberts stimulated my interest in antioxidant chemistry, chemoprotection (taking therapeutics to prevent chemical injury), and radioprotection (taking therapeutics to prevent free radical and radiation injury), which was just starting attract the interest of mainstream science at the time. (I studied glutathione and synthesized antioxidants that released L-cysteine, targeting them to liver cells using galactose.) Our lab had a rather exciting grant from NASA to study drugs that could protect astronauts from radiation injury.

I could be doing more lab bench research and certainly making more money, but I have decided to substitute physical income with emotional income, and I teach and write full time. I absolutely love it!

Kahlil Gibran said "work is love made visible." What I love is in sharing my awe and enthusiasm for seemingly ordinary scientific phenomena with nonscientists. Scientific data is my source of awe, without which I would become hopelessly cynical.

My accidental discovery of an asteroid from a homemade observatory launched media opportunities with television and radio stations.

I've been delighted to give science talks at national parks’ ranger stations, Salt Lake’s Hansen Planetarium, and for the Salt Lake Astronomical Society. I have put lab bench research aside in order to devote all my time to teaching and writing.

In spending ten years teaching college chemistry and biochemistry to nonscientists, I've discovered that my students are also intensely curious about how herbs work. I have, in addition, noticed that their capacity to take pleasure in learning these mechanisms has been greatly underestimated.

Having spent many unsuccessful years seeking a book that describes why each herb is thought to have its alleged effect, in simple, nontechnical terms, I at last decided to fill this void myself. I have written "Herb Demystified", with the aid of some wonderful editors at Marlowe and Co.

I hope that this site will stimulate interest in the topic and keep me in touch with common questions people have about it. So, email me if you have a question--I look forward to talking to you!