Software and Online Tools
Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Biology: An Easy Intro to AI for Researchers
Get a short introduction to AI including key terminology, example applications of artificial intelligence in biology, and resources to help you get started.
Read MoreLearn to Draw a Molecule in PyMOL™ in 8 Easy Steps
Discover how to easily draw proteins and nucleic acids using molecular visualization tools with our step-by-step tutorial.
Read MoreUsing Word to Write Your Thesis: Miscellaneous Bits and Bobs
Rounding off our series of tips for writing your thesis in Microsoft Word, the final post covers page numbering, shortcut tips, and cover pages.
Read MoreUsing Word to Write your Thesis: Creating a Master Document
The end is in sight! You’ve drafted your individual thesis chapters and now it’s time to combine them into a single thesis master document. Follow our easy step-by-step instructions to get your thesis submission-ready.
Read MoreUsing Word to Write your Thesis: Making a Table of Contents, Inserting Captions, and Cross-referencing
Our latest tips for thesis writing with Word highlight three useful tools that can help you effortlessly create an easily navigatable thesis using built-in Word tools.
Read MoreUsing Word to Write your Thesis: Creating an Outline
Get your thesis writing off to a great start by learning how to create a thesis outline in Microsoft Word.
Read MoreTeach Yourself Python: A Guide for Biologists
Automate almost everything by learning Python. Discover why Python is a useful language for Biologists and discover how you can teach yourself!
Read MoreVideo Conferencing Services for Scientists
If to you Zoom is just a feature on a camera and BlueJeans is what you wear to work, then let us enlighten you.
Read MoreWhat is a DOI and Why Should You Care?
DOIs got you confused? Find out what they are and how to use them.
Read More7 Types of Software Apps You NEED in Your (Science) Life
Here we take you through 7 of the best science software apps that can save you time and money!
Read More5 Digital Tools to Increase Your Productivity in Research
Scientific research is a constant battle against time. Whether it is your Masters, PhD or Postdoc, you always feel the pressure to generate data for external validation. For that, you need to spend your time on the bench and not at the desk, but that can be hard. Unfortunately, non-laboratory tasks occupy a large segment…
Read MoreCrafting Multi-panel Images Into Figures
So, you’ve slaved away in the lab for months and now you’re ready to create your first figure –whether it’s for a thesis or a journal – way to go you! Now you could always use Word or PowerPoint to compile your first image, but don’t – ever do that! (And if you plan to…
Read MoreResources for Becoming a Programming Biologist
Have you ever entertained the idea of learning to program? Have you tried but felt discouraged by the overwhelming amount of information out there? If you answered yes to both of those questions, I encourage you to try again with the following resources. Computer science is one of the best subjects to self learn. …
Read MoreHow to Start Using Coding to Automate Image Analysis Part 2: Batch Processing Multiple Images
In Part 1 of this article, I introduced you to using code for basic image manipulation in ImageJ and working with the command recorder to expand your coding vocabulary. I covered how to make a simple macro, how to edit it and then save it to be run again another time. If you skipped the…
Read MoreBrushing up on your excel skills, part 3
Having brushed up on our referencing, constructing calculations and basic functions, let’s move on to some intermediate functions that could potentially save you time and hassle in the lab. First up, filling! Filling Filling is my new favourite useful function in Excel, one that admittedly I didn’t know existed until very recently, but I’m making…
Read MoreBLAST OFF! The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool Explained
BLAST is the most popular bioinformatics online tool. But in order to properly use it, you have to understand that is not just a search query against a database but something far more complicated, and the information you get back far more…precious!
Read More10 Things to Look for in Molecular Biology Software
Here are the ten things you should look for when choosing a DNA design program to satisfy all your molecular biology software needs.
Read MoreOnline Schools for Learning How to Play in the R Coding Arena
So, you come from a non-coding background, but given the rapid growth of your research results, you have accrued a pile of data that needs data mining. Now, you can leave this to your bioinformatics core facility, but if you’re curious to understand how they arrive at their conclusions (or you don’t have a BI…
Read MoreHarness the Power of BioEdit and Microsoft Excel for Quick BLAST Summaries
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) remains the cornerstone of biological sequence analysis. When users have one or few queries, the data are easy to interpret based on the graphical output that the search provides. However, when you have to analyze hundreds or a few thousand queries, running graphical outputs can be computationally intensive, difficult…
Read MoreHow to Start Using Coding to Automate Image Analysis Part 1: The Simple Process
Pat yourself on the back, you saw a post with the word “coding” in the title and you didn’t freak out or glaze over. That’s the first step. Coding seems to have such a stigma attached to it; people tend to think that it’s incomprehensible nonsense that they could never learn, and that it has…
Read MoreBrushing Up On Your Excel Skills: Part Two
Last time we brushed up on cell referencing and constructing formulae to use Excel for some basic and some slightly more advanced calculations. This time we’re going to move on to using some built-in Excel functions and go through how to apply all that we’ve done so far to a worked example that is relevant…
Read MoreBrushing Up On Your Excel Skills: Part One
Microsoft Excel can be a really powerful, useful tool for certain kinds of data processing and record keeping, and the chances are you probably don’t even know how to use half of the functions it comes with! That’s OK, personally, I find Excel a bit less user-friendly than Word, but also it’s a programme I…
Read MoreMy 10 Favorite R Packages and the Cool Things You Can Do with Them
One of the best parts of R is how extensible it is. Over the years, the community has put together hundreds (thousands?) of amazing packages to make your workflow easier. The downside of this wealth is that it can be hard to find packages that do exactly what you want! Therefore, I’ve put together a…
Read MoreThe 9 Online Calculators You Need to Know About
When you think of a “calculator”, you probably think of the plastic gadget in your lab desk drawer or an app that came with your phone. But there are so many helpful calculators online that do a lot more than just add and subtract numbers. Here is a list of some of the wonderfully convenient…
Read MoreHow Does BLAST Work?
More than a pun on the explosive growth of sequencing data, BLAST makes annotation and comparisons of similar sequences much easier. Created by a group at the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information in 1991, the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool is arguably the most heavily used tool for sequence analysis (that’s available for free,…
Read More10 Favorite Online Tools for Molecular Biology
What did we do before the internet? And where would we be without handy online molecular biology tools? Apparently in the ‘olden days’ doing a simple gene or protein alignment required programs that used dynamic programming algorithms such as the Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman algorithms. These required long processing times and the use of supercomputers or…
Read MoreThe Beginner’s Guide to LaTeX
For those of you who read the previous post about LaTeX and are interested in giving it a go, but just don’t know where to start, this article should get you on your feet. I used LaTeX to write my thesis and was (mostly) self taught, so I know how scary it is to begin…
Read More4 Great Websites for Bench Scientists
Friends and colleagues are excellent sources of scientific information. The Internet is too, because it is a virtual library at your fingertips. If you are looking for a great solution to a common problem (i.e. how to eliminate RNAse contamination in a laboratory), the information is waiting for you. For help with more difficult problems…
Read MoreBio-Software for Linux
After Peter’s Introduction to Linux, those of you brave enough to accept the challenge will now have Linux installed on your machine so today I want to highlight to you some of the wonderful free software that is available for biologists using Linux. Before I start, I should mention that virtually all tools of modern…
Read MoreFree Online Bioinformatics Tools
PapersIn recognition of a fresh new year and a fresh new direction for Bitesize Bio, I thought I’d start my tenure as the fresh new Bioinformatics “guru” by introducing you to a handful of websites that will help you locate established as well as fresh new and (mostly) free online molecular biology and bioinformatics databases…
Read More10 links: Free Mac Software for Molecular Biologists
I’ve put together this list of 10 pieces of free molecular biology software for Macs. I hope you will find at least some of it useful. If any of your favorite free programs are not included, please email me and I’ll add them or you can leave a comment with a link. If you are…
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