Bioscience Mastery
Tips for Choosing Your Lab Notebook Pen (and Why You Need to Choose Carefully)
Keeping a meticulous lab record of your experiments is a necessity. And it’s drilled into us to back up our computers, including backups stored in different locations to ensure vital records don’t get lost. But how do we protect the hard copy information in our lab books? You may not have given much thought previously…
Read MoreHow Scientific Researchers Can Write Effective Emails
Have you ever found yourself wondering why your emails don’t get quite the response you expect? Or no response at all? It is very easy to overlook the importance of constructing clear and concise emails that deliver the right message. In this article, we’ll cover key aspects of emails for your purposes as a scientist.…
Read MoreStruggles of a Life Scientist
Working late nights or weekends in the lab—we’ve all been there. Why isn’t your cell culture considerate enough to get to exponential phase during normal business hours, anyway? Maybe you just need utter peace and quiet while you pipette hundreds of wells worth of stinky beta-mercaptoethanol. Or perhaps you’re using your wealth of microbiology knowledge…
Read MoreHow to Get a Scientific Research Job in the US (If You Are Coming from Elsewhere)
Growing up in Australia, I remember a common phrase: ‘only in America’. Sometimes this was in reference to bizarre cultural events or phenomena but it was generally accepted that the USA was an extraordinary place, where everything was bigger, brighter, and more outrageous. America has fostered a culture of big ideas and innovation, partly because…
Read MoreWhat to Expect When Working with a Scientific Recruiter
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if someone helped you step-by-step through your job search? A good recruiter does exactly that! Recruiters provide value to job-seekers by reviewing resumes, finding jobs that may be a good fit, and providing interview tips. But how does that process work? In this article we’ll cover…
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 MoreHow to Marie Kondo Your Laboratory
Does your laboratory resemble the nest of an overly enthusiastic laboratory rat that went on a scavenger hunt and squirrelled away all that it has found? Do you find yourself playing Jenga with stacks of Petri dishes and freezer boxes? Have you ever attempted to decipher the meaning of the mysterious string of numbers on…
Read More7 Tips to Keeping Your Undergraduate Student Volunteers Interested in the Lab
Although we do our best to keep undergraduate students involved in experiments, they are often just in it for a letter of recommendation. Here are some ways to help them enjoy their lab experience and keep them invested in the projects. 1. Maintain Mutual Respect: The relationship between primary investigators (PI) and undergrads differs slightly…
Read MoreWhy Early Career Scientists Should Care about Mentoring Undergraduate Students
Let’s be honest: the mentoring of undergraduate students is sometimes the lowest on the list of priorities for a busy postdoctoral research fellow. Amidst experiments, research progress meetings, reviewing of literature, manuscript writing, grant applications, and convincing your PI to let you attend that conference in Hawaii, your undergraduate charges may be just mere afterthoughts.…
Read MoreTo Sonicator and Beyond – Large Cell Volume Lysis Methods
At some point you have to leave small-scale cell lysis and move to large culture volumes for experiments currently in vogue, be it microarrays, total RNA libraries, or large-scale pull-downs for interactome or metabolome analysis. And at this point, you have to change your lysis method from an on-the-bench in eppendorfs to one capable of…
Read MoreFour Free and Easy-To-Use Online Primer Design Tools
Designing and running PCR reactions in the lab has become so commonplace that the number of primer design tools available can be a bit overwhelming for a beginner (or even an experienced molecular biologist!). Below are four of my favorite online programs available to make primer design quick, easy, and effective. A quick note before…
Read MoreHow to Reconcile Being an “Aspie” and a Scientist
I received a very late diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, when I was already twenty. Before that, I was ashamed of my “social awkwardness”, but my passion for life sciences and research relieved me of my sorrow. After I learned about my condition, I was able to self-accept and be proud of myself (and continued to…
Read More10 Steps to Enjoying Fieldwork for Sedentary Scientists
Note: Physically competent field scientists who find fieldwork a breeze may scoff at the suggestions here As a bench scientist whose only form of physical exercise in the laboratory is pipetting, I vividly remember my first fieldtrip to the wilderness. It was a trip to an island off the coast of Singapore to collect water…
Read MoreScientific Illustrations Part II: Molecular Graphics and Animation
How do you explain to your friends and family what you have you’ve been working on all this time? Conveying the true wonder and intricacy of your work to the layperson can be tricky. They won’t be familiar with the lingo, and they might not immediately know how to interpret scientific graphs and figures. You…
Read MoreScientific Illustrations Part I: Schematics and Cartoons
Biologists have a long tradition of drawing specimens as a form of data collection before the invention of the camera. The ability to present information in the form of illustrations is an important but often understated skill in a scientist’s toolkit. Scientific illustrations in publications run the gamut from schematics, 3D models, cartoons, and even…
Read MoreLab Hacks: Tips to Save You Money and Time
Not every lab has the cash to shell out on fancy equipment. We share some trusty lab hacks and welcome you to share your own with us.
Read MoreLab Aches and How to Avoid Them
Pipetting all day? Scrolling and scrolling through Excel columns trying to make sense of your data? Spending hours at the microscope because your boss wants Nature-worthy pictures? It’s not uncommon that performing lab work forces you into unhealthy postures, and after a day at work your spine begs for mercy. How Your Posture Suffers on…
Read MoreHot Tips for Creating a Scientific Special Interest Group at Your Institute
Universities are often organized by faculties, colleges, schools, and/or departments. So, as an academic, you often work closely with colleagues studying similar subject areas. A common interest, however, often transcends the boundaries of this organizational structure. Enter scientific special interest groups. What Are Scientific Special Interest Groups? Scientific special interest groups are member-led initiatives within…
Read MorePhd Skills That Landed Me My Corporate Job!
Transitioning from a PhD in Biotechnology to the industry of my choice (scientific communication and marketing) involved an intense period of application and rejection. Every time I got a rejection letter, I feared that the industry probably did not want fresh graduates like me, that they wanted someone with years of experience. These were moments…
Read MoreNine Tips for Clinicians Starting a Scientific Career
There are many examples of the impact of physician-scientists on translational research. Dr Barry Marshall swallowed a steaming culture of Helicobacter pylori which eventually resulted in antibiotics curing peptic ulcer disease. However, the process of training these individuals is as effortless as training fish to ride bicycles. Our journeys into the laboratory have been equally…
Read MoreIntellectual Property: How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot
So you’ve discovered the Holy Grail all life scientists in your field are searching for – congratulations! The dollar signs start appearing and you realize that there is a huge scope for commercializing your research. But before you can actually collect the rewards, you need to have been thinking tactically about how to protect your…
Read MoreHow to Write a Flawless Methodology Section
Excellent research takes time and effort, and a publication is your chance to showcase your hard work. While your main motivation might be to share and discuss your results, your methodology section is key to the reproducibility of your work, acting as a foundation for other researchers to repeat and build upon your findings. In…
Read MoreExperimental Reproducibility: How to Get the Most “Bang” for Your Buck
As scientists, we are trained to design an experiment with the bigger picture in mind; the ultimate goals being to publish quality data and demonstrate scientific rigor. However, sometimes you need to focus on the little things, such as perfecting control and experimental samples, incubation times, and ordering reagents to truly ensure that you obtain…
Read MoreTen Tips for Pipetting the 384-Well Plate
I was so excited to start using 384-well plates for my assays. With so many wells, these plates are useful for testing many conditions in parallel, as required in ELISAs, siRNA library screens, and drug treatment dilutions. However, I quickly learned that pipetting in these plates is more complicated than I thought. This article contains…
Read MoreWays to Pursue Science Careers in Business After a PhD
Obtaining your doctorate is one of the toughest academic and professional tasks that you can take on. The stats on future employment in academic science careers are horrifying at worst or misleading at best. At the same time, many argue that we need more scientists with a PhD.1,2 With these statistics, it might be time to…
Read MoreSimple Tips for a Clean(-ish) Lab Drawer
Picture it: 6:00 pm on a Friday night. You have one or more experiments running. Maybe you’re doing a western blot, or following a staining protocol for an immunohistochemistry experiment, or just labeling tubes. But rather than working on active experiments, you’re helplessly searching through the lab drawer for that one pair of forceps, that…
Read MoreTop 5 Errors in Pipetting
Pipettes are not just fancy handlebars for your tips, they are essential for precisely measuring and dispensing liquids. These standard ‘tools of your trade’ enable you to accurately repeat experiments, validate results, make important comparisons between projects and eventually publish that outstanding paper. But there are a few pipette pitfalls. And they don’t just trap…
Read MoreWhat the Heck Is “Training Potential,” Anyway?
As a newly-minted PhD, I began my postdoc with wild fellowship dreams. I set a schedule, applying to 1-2 fellowships a month. Research experience and broader impacts were a breeze. Research strategy and specific aims, with help from my new PI, solidified quickly. For weeks, however, my “training potential” document remained empty. At first, I…
Read MoreNil by Mouth: Evolution from the Glass Pipette to the Robot
If you compare a biologist with a cook and the lab with the kitchen, the pipette will be analogous to the most important cooking tool – the knife. But while the knife’s design has remained more or less the same since man moved from stone to metal some five to twelve thousand years ago, laboratory…
Read MoreWhat to Do If You Want to Become a Freelance Writer
A lot of people today are drawn to freelancing and want to become a freelance writer. There are great benefits when you work from home (like doing work in your pajamas) or wherever you feel most comfortable. The appeal is even greater when you count in that you make your own hours and you are…
Read MoreHow to Get Over Impostor Syndrome as a New Graduate Student
You made it. You got into the grad school of your dreams! You worked hard, you spent hours working on your application, bravely navigated your way through the interview and you now are here. So, why do you feel like maybe you shouldn’t be? Why You Might Suffer From Impostor Syndrome The dreaded impostor syndrome:…
Read MoreWhat Is Reproducible Research?
Once upon a time, I thought reproducible research meant if someone else showed X in a paper, then I should be able to get X in my experiment. However, this actually refers to replication, an important but separate concept. Reproducible research is data analysis that starts with the raw data and arrives at the same…
Read MoreHow to Foster Lab Cooperation
Research isn’t easy. Not only do you deal with experimental failures and demanding supervisors, you also work with other lab members — people who are under the same pressures and stresses as you. Staff, postdocs, PhD students, and undergrads are often given bench space and a desk and encouraged to sort out the personal side…
Read MoreWhat to Do During That Awkward One-Minute Spin
We’ve all been there. Twiddling our thumbs. Staring off into space. Pacing back and forth. This is the dreaded one-minute spin. If you’ve dabbled in molecular biology, you’ve likely encountered this awkward time. Not exactly enough time to actually do anything else, but when you’ve got nothing to do but wait, one minute seems like…
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 MoreEarly Career Stage Funding – Advice for Graduate Students and Post-Docs
Are you stressing about applying for grant funding early on in your career? Are you worrying about lack of preliminary data or lack of experience in your current field? Here are some tips that can help. Why Apply at an Early Stage of Your Career? All of your experiences build upon each other to strengthen…
Read MoreLabeling For Life – Get a Good Self-Tracking Labeling System
When you work in a laboratory, preparing samples sets for many different experiments is a large part of the job. Keeping track of your samples can be tedious or even challenging if you don’t already have a good system in place. However, getting this right is a critical part of the experimental process. In this…
Read MoreGet Your Dream Job! How to Best Organize Your (Many) Applications
If you’ve ever been on the job market, you know how many job applications you can end up filling out and submitting. Sometimes the entire process takes months or even years to culminate in the right job offer! It can be overwhelming to keep track of what you applied for and when. This is especially…
Read More20 Telling Signs You’re a Scientist
According to Bill Nye, “Science rules!” – and I think most of us would agree. We are learning more and more about the world around us each day, as well as about ourselves. But is there a difference between a Science Fan, and a Scientist? Everyone has their own parameters, but below are some that…
Read MoreFlashing Red Signs During a Job Interview
In all the stress of having a job interview, it’s easy to forget that it takes more than one to tango. In fact, a job interview is like a new flatmate interview. While your prospective boss and colleagues are interviewing you and assessing your fit for the lab, you should also keep your eyes and…
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