Avery S. Davis
I'm a senior at Khan Lab School where I lead both the KhanLab-BayArea iGEM team and the Speech and Debate team. I'm interested in synthetic biology, computer science, engineering, plants, and more!
Selected Writings
Plot Twist: NYC Airbnb Data Visualizations
Different data visualizations of NYC Airbnb prices I made show how the same data can provide insight or mislead readers. Visualizations hand-edited or made with Matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn in Python.
Gabriel's Horn
Gabriel's Horn is a shape formed by rotating y = 1/x around the x-axis and somehow has a finite volume but an infinite surface area. Looking at improper integrals gives some insight about the Painter's Paradox it creates.
The Fractured Superego: Asian American Identity and the Limits of Classical Psychoanalysis
Freud's model of the psyche breaks down when applied to Asian American identity. Starting from the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings and drawing on a number of psychoanalysts, see how contradictory racial expectations leave the Asian American psyche permanently unresolved.
Modeling Cyclones with Polar Coordinates
Modeling the spiral rainbands of tropical cyclones with a logarithmic polar equation. Using derivatives, I explain why the spiral expands the way it does, then compute the arc length and enclosed area of a real storm sized example.
Shrek, Toni Morrison, Subversion, and the Postmodernist Truth
A comparison of Toni Morrison's novel A Mercy and the Shrek film franchise, both of which set out to subvert a traditional story. Morrison's treatment of motherhood and power holds up to scrutiny while Shrek mostly falls back on the tropes it tries to reject.