In a recent issue of Cell, there’s an interesting commentary on Molecular Movies… Coming to a Lecture Near You. The article got me thinking - wouldn’t it be useful if there were more skilled graphics and animation experts at the disposal of researchers?

Conveying the information content of your average proposal, report, lecture, or public exposure moment in a way that gets and keeps the attention of the non-expert is something that comes very difficultly to the average scientist. I know it does for me, not being experienced in anything beyond PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator.
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It’s official - biologists DO have a sense of humor, well some of them at least.

This is the story of how one of the most famous and quirky naming conventions in biology came into being. It’s a story of discovery, comedy and the triumph of people power over the establishment.

Read on to find out the story of how the Southern, northern and western (etc) blots got their names.
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Last week’s issue of Science has a book review that might appeal to any Bitesize Bio reader: First Adventures in Science. The book in question is Falling for Science, a collection of essays by grad students (current and former) and mentors on the crucial roles particular objects played in sparking their choice of science as a vocation.

The topic makes me think of how I chose molecular biology as a field of study, wide-eyed with thoughts of playing in the lab for a job. At the time (~1994-95), the promise of the Human genome project was big in the news, I was inspired by a great High School Biology teacher, and I was in awe of the idea of a career filled with curiosity and laboratory-based tinkering.

Of course, I quickly learned the annoying truth that a lot of molecular biology involves endless repetitions of DNA preps, running gels, etc. And the inexperienced researcher gets bogged down for long periods of time in troubleshooting.

But with focus and direction, I do get to live out my early idealized version of what it would be like to be a laboratory scientist. I work relatively independently, identifying questions (and hypotheses) of interest, and acquiring/evaluating the data to answer those questions. Curiosity and data analysis ARE my job, as corny as that sounds.

Some interesting and thought-provoking posts from “Around the Blogs.” Some are weeks-old… sorry ’bout that, but that’s what happens when you take a couple weeks off. Check ‘em out, starting with:

Graduate School and Teaching, AKA ‘Why Grad Students Should Teach,’ by guest Joel Corbo at Cosmic Variance. The post was written with physics students in mind, but applies equally well to biologists.
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The June 20th issue of Science had an interesting story worth noting (interesting to anyone into molecular pharmacology, anyway), on Drugs, Industry, and Academia. It caught my attention because of some conversations that I’ve been having recently with colleagues and friends in the industry - how is Big Pharma going to maintain itself amid slowing drug discovery trends?

Now, I’m working at a generic pharmaceutical company for the time being, and the coming decade will be a boom for companies who aren’t following discovery model - so many very profitable drugs will be coming off their patents over that time.
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A good way to streamline the way you work is to keep a Roladex on your bench or desk containing all of the little bits and pieces that you need to do your job - things like stock solution recipes, abbreviated protocols for example. (for 19 more ways to streamline your work, click here)

Having these notes at your fingertips allows to you work faster because you don’t have to find the original information from the original source; a text book, your lab book or a colleague.

TiddlyWiki is a great piece of open source software that can be used as a 21st century version of a Roladex. It’s creators call it “A non-linear, re-usable notebook”, which is a pretty good description. Read more »

Catching up on the news after being away for two weeks - Lawrence Krauss had short comment in the New Scientist, Stop creationists undermining school science. The very quote-worthy punchline being:

Say that you are in charge of developing a state-wide high-school curriculum in French-language studies, and that you need the advice of a group of experts on how to put together the ideal programme. Is it better for officials to appoint these people, or for the public to vote on who they regard as the most attractive candidates for the job?
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Efficient time management is essential if you are to get the most out of your time in the lab. Breaking down projects into individual tasks and planning out when to do them is relatively easy. But the thing I find most difficult is accurately estimating the amount of time to allocate for each task.

I tend to be ridiculously optimistic with my estimates, so experiments and other tasks always take longer than I expect, resulting in a mad rush to get things finished at the end of the day.

But (as is often the case) Steve Pavlina has the solution. Read more »

Is it just me who thinks that biology researchers can be a bit sloppy when it comes to making and dispensing reagents accurately? Analytical chemists would laugh at our faith measuring cylinders for anything other than fairly rough work like making up media.

When it comes to more accurate work, like making up assay standards, measuring cylinders just just don’t cut it anymore. Here are a few ways to ensure that your stock solutions/standards are as accurate as possible, allowing you to get your experiments off to the best possible start.

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If you’ve been interested in the Folding at Home project, but wanted to play a much more active role then your wait is over. Join Fold It!

Protein structure prediction: As described above, knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs. A small proteins can consist of 100 amino acids, while some human proteins can be huge (1000 amino acids). The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom. Figuring out which of the many, many possible structures is the best one is regarded as one of the hardest problems in biology today and current methods take a lot of money and time, even for computers. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.

I came across this interesting project from the HHMI Research News article.The game is a project developed by the Baker Lab.You can find more details about the game here. Have fun folding!