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Search below to delve into the Bitesize Bio archive. Here, you’ll find over two decades of the best articles, live events, podcasts, and resources, created by real experts and passionate mentors, to help you improve as a bioscientist. Whether you’re looking to learn something new or dig deep into a topic, you’ll find trustworthy, human-crafted content that’s ready to inspire and guide you.
A chromatogram in a report and a chromatogram in Empower™ look identical, but only one can be interrogated. This article outlines four placement decisions for your critical review items, plus how to build the list, document the workflow, and test whether it actually detects anything.
Experiments that never seem to end often start with questions that are too open-ended. Learn how to adapt SMART goals to your experimental design, define clear metrics and endpoints, and build research questions that give your work direction, make results easier to interpret, and help your studies reach a meaningful conclusion.
Your grants are submitted, your experiments are running, and your next paper is paper is nearly ready…and you’re exhausted! But maybe you don’t have too much work. Maybe you have too many windows open in your mind’s browser. Here’s four rules to help you manage your lab projects, and getting through the day with more ease.
Learn how to create clear procurement records that track what was ordered, what arrived, the documentation included, and any problems encountered. These six simple steps will help you stay organized in the lab and reduce the need for you to rely on memory alone.
Preparing a manuscript involves plenty of work beyond writing: author lists, affiliations, disclosures, funding statements, references, and figure preparation. This post covers the tools I use to handle that admin, why I choose them over AI, and how they help. If you’re first author on a multi-author paper, this is for you.
Onboarding Empower™ Users is most effective when training focuses first on core terminology, compliance, and daily workflows using your lab’s real data. Teaching less initially builds a solid foundation, enabling quicker, confident analyst independence. Competence, not time, should guide when to expand training to advanced topics.
You don’t have the time to read every paper, so stop trying! Here’s how I decide whether a paper has earned my attention: I break-up the paper into sections, then evaluate the main claim, compare the discussion with the introduction, turn the results into closed questions, and, finally, critically assess the controls. Here’s how you can do the same.
This article focuses on overcoming key challenges in the process of writing a scientific review paper, including selecting relevant papers and framing a clear hypothesis. It emphasizes creating a coherent narrative, organizing notes effectively, and designing clear figures to support your story. This practical guide will help you craft structured, insightful reviews that highlight gaps and connections in the literature.
Most Empower™ labs have trained their analysts and written their SOPs, but still see inconsistent workflows, recurring mistakes, and the same go-to experts fielding every unusual situation. The reason is almost always the same: what gets taught is where to click, not why decisions matter or how to troubleshoot when workflows break down. Here’s how you can build competence more effectively.
Scientific collaboration is valuable, but saying yes to every request outside your core research focus can stall career growth. Building a strong reputation requires owning a niche and producing work that advances your research identity. Being selective helps you gain recognition, leadership opportunities, and lasting visibility. This article offers practical advice on balancing collaboration with career growth.
Navigating bioscience careers involves defining clear questions, identifying knowledge gaps, and testing assumptions before making major changes. Understanding sector-specific challenges and seeking mentorship can reduce uncertainty and support better decisions. Recognizing the difference between productive stretch and overwhelming panic zones helps manage transitions effectively, ensuring career shifts are deliberate, resilient, and aligned with personal and professional goals.
Geobacillus stearothermophilus is a thermophilic bacterium whose highly resistant spores are used to test autoclave sterilization efficiency. Its spores survive extreme heat due to molecular defenses, making them ideal biological indicators. Proper autoclave validation requires biological indicators rather than relying solely on gauge readings or chemical indicators to ensure complete sterilization in medical and laboratory settings.
Ever re-run the same experiment three times just to keep getting “bad” results? In reality, no result is “bad” and experiments never “fail”. Instead, they produce data; sometimes that data is clear, sometimes it is not. After running an experiment, your results are either conclusive or inconclusive, and an inconclusive result is not useless. If…
Choosing the right filter plate starts with understanding your assay biology. What must happen at the membrane determines everything that follows. Choose filter plates according to membrane chemistry (binding vs non-binding) and the correct pore size for your target (cells, proteins, or small molecules). Finally, ensure plate architecture and automation compatibility support consistent flow, minimal crosstalk, and reproducible results at scale.
Biological mechanisms are, by their nature, dynamic. They involve interaction, causality, and specific sequences that unfold over time. Standard scientific communication, however, tends to use static media that cannot represent time. This means that when you show a complex signalling pathway on a slide, your audience must first decode the spatial relationships, then infer the…
Gel and blot imaging has come a long way. Film gave you sensitivity but slowed you down with darkrooms and inconsistent results. Camera systems sped things up but still left you fighting noise and limited dynamic range. Laser imaging now gives you cleaner signals, sharper focus, and far more flexibility across sample types.
The traditional career pathway for most scientists is to get a degree, a postdoc, and then a permanent position. But in the 21st century, a PhD no longer ensures security or a smooth career path. Your career plan is in your hands, and this means you must proactively control your professional identity. Here’s how you can…
To generate reliable quantitative bioluminescent data, you need more than a strong luciferase signal. Optimize bioluminescence assays for high-sensitivity detection by controlling substrate handling, timing, plate-reader settings, and normalization so technical noise doesn’t mask real biology. From luciferase and substrate choice to reader optimisation and in vivo bioluminescent imaging workflows, these practical strategies help you produce reproducible, interpretable data you can trust.
A strong research interest statement can be the difference between being considered for a position and your application ending up in the bin. Check out these tips on how to make your statement stand out from the crowd.
Learn how Agile project management can improve clarity and structure in your biology research. This guide introduces four practical tools—iteration, time boxing, prioritization, and Kanban boards—with lab-based examples.
Making the jump from Word to LaTeX to prepare your scientific documents involves a steep learning curve. We’ve made the transition easier by collating the basic commands you need to know to format text in LaTeX, including bold, underlined, and italicized text, and creating itemized lists.
As biological datasets get larger and larger, more biologists are turning to cloud computing for their storage and analysis. This article explores the advantages of cloud computing for biology and lists some online services you can use for your projects.
Alkaline lysis is ideal when you need high-purity plasmid DNA for applications like cloning. Boiling lysis is a low-cost alternative suitable for routine screening tasks. However, it generally yields lower-purity DNA and is limited to smaller plasmids. This article breaks down the applications of the two approaches.
LaTeX is a powerful document preparation system that can give you beautifully typeset documents. But getting started using it isn’t the most intuitive process. This beginner’s guide gives you easy instructions on LaTeX document setup, layout, and how to deal with common syntax errors.
It’s easy to let organizing your lab book slide down your list of priorities. Read our guide to easy ways to keep your lab book up to date and organized.
Skepticism and inquiry might sound the same, but they are not. A skeptical outlook can induce negative bias, whereas inquiry lets you approach a question in an unbiased way. This article explains why you should embrace inquiry over skepticism and how.
Performing reproducible research is critical in science. This article discusses eight steps you can take to make your research more reproducible.
Liquid nitrogen isn’t just cool, it’s potentially deadly. We share our 10 tips for staying safe while working with liquid nitrogen.
A neglected pH meter means less reliable experiments, poor reproducibility, and your time wasted. So, learn how to use a pH meter correctly!
Autoclaving something that isn’t autoclavable is usually embarrassing, dangerous, or both! Read this simple guide to autoclavable materials in biology labs to demystify what you can and can’t autoclave.
Researchers must show the statistical accuracy, validity, and significance of their data. So here are two ways to compare two sets of data.
Keeping track of new literature can be a time-consuming process. Here are some helpful hints and tips to help you keep up to date.
No matter how small or large, chemical spills require immediate attention. Learn how to manage spills by following these 4 essential rules.
Facing hours of cell culture, or some other repetitive and mundane lab task? Why not cheer things up with a podcast or two! Discover our top 10 favorite science podcasts for researchers, from Sawbones to The Life Scientific.
Autofluorescence, background fluorescence in unstained cells or tissues, often interferes with microscopy clarity. The article outlines causes, such as natural fluorophores like NADH, and offers strategies like selecting distinct fluorophores and optimizing sample prep to minimize its impact and enhance image accuracy.
Spreadsheets for managing chemicals? That’s not the right way to organize your lab. This article explains a better way—registration systems. Learn what they are and how they offer a huge productivity boost on their own and when integrated with electronic lab notebooks.
This guide to troubleshooting microplate assays highlights different microplate features and reader settings and explains the best strategies for obtaining high-quality data.
Biological agents, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi, are categorized into four biosafety levels (BSL), each indicating a different threat level. These levels increase progressively, with level one organisms posing the least risk and level four the greatest. This article details each biosafety level, explaining their necessity and providing examples of organisms handled at each level.
Accuracy and precision are critical for achieving reliable and reproducible results. Read on to discover what these terms mean and how to improve your accuracy and precision.
Responding poorly to criticism of your grant proposals could ruin your chances of getting funding. Apart from removing your emotional response to feedback, there are many things you can do to address criticisms of your proposals. This article breaks them down for you.
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