Personal Development

Do you fear failure every time you do an experiment? Do you feel constantly stressed about obtaining poor results? Do you feel personally culpable when an experiment goes wrong? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, you may be suffering from perfectionism. For a scientist, this is a particularly damaging trait…

How are you working toward wellness now? This article provides a framework you can use to think about how your holistic life influences your life as a scientist!

Everyone else in the lab is so much smarter and more capable than you and feel that your accomplishments so far in your career are no big deal. On top of that your ligation didn’t work… again.., your boss is always on your back and you are dreading your upcoming poster presentation. Sometimes you feel…

The great thing about being a scientist is, well… that you get to be a scientist!  And it can be fun and rewarding. But being a scientist can be a nasty stressful business too. As I come to a turning point in my ‘academic career’, I find myself making mental notes of the pros and…

A while back, I read an article on Bitesize Bio entitled “When Your Partner is NOT a Scientist” that piqued my interest…for the wrong reasons. And I discovered that I hold polar opposite views on balancing a marriage and an occupation as a scientist. So I was compelled to write this article, not to be…

Unlike Nick Oswald I think I can multitask in the lab. If I organize my day efficiently and perform lots of experiments and other tasks in parallel, I get more done. But there is a school of thought – the one described in Nick’s article – that says no-one can really multitask, that our brains…

I’m sure you’ve heard of Parkinson’s Law, or at least the modern-day generalisation of it. It states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  When I first heard this, back in the mists of time, I thought Mr Parkinson was damn right, had a chuckle at a very accurate…

In my  last article I looked at how to efficiently self-manage the scientist in us all. But, to transform efficient and elaborate planning into a mass of (publishable) results, you need to be technically proficient. Here, I’ll look at some ways to acquire and improve your technical prowess, while on your way to becoming a…

In an ideal world, every PI would be a nurturing and challenging mentor who carefully guides your project and is invested in developing your skills as a scientist. In the real world, however, that kind of leadership can be hard to find. In any case, one of the most important and useful mental steps you…

A recent  article published by The Scientist called Power Couples gave advice and examples for scientist couples who have successfully balanced their life at home and in the lab.  It was interesting from the perspective of how two very busy and career motivated people work together to have it all: raise a family, run a lab, and stay in love…

As a newcomer to a research lab, looking at the seasoned, experiment-beaten postdocs around you, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the task of acquiring their level of knowledge and expertise, and of making any sort of impact within the lab and wider community, is huge and daunting. But…

Undergrad courses teach you to learn in a specific way. You have to cram in as much information into your brain as possible, hold it in there, then regurgitate as much of it as possible on exam day. Of course, actually understanding what you are talking about, and working from basic principles, helps but the…

Everyone is worried about getting results, aren’t they? Results are what you need for success in science – they are essential for bringing the funding in. But focusing on results per se is not a good way to work because, as a scientist, you can’t “get” results. You can’t “make” them happen. Essentially in every…

Where do you want to be, career-wise, in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years? Is the position you are in at the moment helping you to reach that goal, or are you stagnating? These are questions I think everyone should be asking themselves at least a couple of times a year. Career Growth During Study…