Everybody is different when it comes to how they like to run their work space.  Some people just find a space in the lab and work wherever there’s room, sharing their tips and pipettes, while others like to have a designated area to do their lab work in, with their own equipment. Personally, I much [...]

There are six little words that can instill both excitement and trepidation in the heart of a graduate student: “No one’s ever done this before.” What those words really mean, of course, is “No one’s ever published this before,” and you are either standing at the edge of a great discovery or a chasm of [...]

Back in 2010, Bitesize Bio’s senior editor, Jode Plank wondered whether the release of the iPad would eventually see us ditch the paper lab notebook in favor of more searchable, organized and legible electronic lab books. Electronic lab books have been around for a while, but the disconnect between the desktop computer – and to [...]

“Don’t let school interfere with your education”  - Mark Twain We all started our PhDs with stars in our eyes, hoping to make great contributions to technological innovations in our field. However, by the time we are a few years into the program, weighed down by the failures and frustrations of graduate life, we forget [...]

If you’re involved in biological research, chances are at some stage you’ve submitted tissue specimens to a histology lab. Somehow they magically produced beautiful slides for you – each containing thin sections of your specimens, ready for microscopic evaluation. Have you ever wondered how the histology technician does this?  Read on for the five important [...]

When running a quantitative Western blot, it’s crucial that your sample preparation is consistent.  Incomplete protein extraction from one sample will skew your results when you compare it to the protein content of a sample that was extracted more thoroughly.  And after the protein extraction, it’s important to handle the samples in an identical manner [...]

Working with RNA? What fun! Those little, nearly indestructible RNases are everywhere – on your skin and mucous membranes, in the water and (some of the) enzymes you use, on lab surfaces, even in airborne microbes! Here are 10 ways to keep the RNases at bay, and keep your precious samples safe:

It’s common practice in many laboratories to hold weekly lab meetings, where all members of the lab discuss their exciting new results, experimental pitfalls, new papers published in their field, etc. For the last several years, our lab meetings have been very formal. By formal, I mean that whoever is presenting that day prepares a [...]

Effective sterilisation techniques are essential for working with isolated cell lines for obvious reasons you don’t want bugs from the environment growing in your nice culture medium, and equally, cultures must be sterilised before disposal. So what are the most common methods of sterilisation, and how do they work? Unsure? Read on… WET HEAT (Autoclaving) [...]

You get that familiar blue screen or an application hangs, usually one that’s been tanking your memory. No keystroke response.  The deer-in-the-headlight look on your face prompts your colleagues to ask, ‘is everything ok?’ while they secretly laugh at you. Rebooting 27 times will not save you now. Your computer has breathed its last. Even [...]