This was a wild week of science for me. I’m mostly taking today off, meaning “only” working a few hours on a Sunday. I submitted an R01 application on Tuesday. This is a huge grant application that is a major undertaking to write and put together. Getting it out the door this week was a big […]
Reflecting on the wild week that was Read More »
In what NIH describes as “outside-the-box” thinking, an MIT team led by Edward Boyden has found a way to use a diaper ingredient to transform microscopy including brain imaging. This is cool stuff. Boyden’s group found that the super-absorbent diaper compound sodium polyacrylate, can be used in a very novel way for microscopy. For any who have
This is your brain on diapers: new mindbogglingly cool imaging trick Read More »
Idioms are helpful expressions. It seems many common idioms can be co-opted to apply to science and others can be taken almost literally with no change but funny implications for scientists. Please post your spins on science idioms here as comments or on Twitter with the #scienceidioms hashtag. There’s a madness to your methods section
Funny Science Idioms Read More »
The idiom “you’ve got rocks in your head” means that you are stupid. What if I told you that you really do have rocks in your head and so do I. In fact we all have rocks in our head. Really. You’ve probably heard of or even had kidneystones or gallstones, but rocks in our
Ear rocks & brain sand: there are rocks in your head Read More »
What’s in Your Lab? There can be weird old stuff in the freezers, fridges, and elsewhere in labs. Most labs try to do the equivalent of a spring cleaning now and then to make a dent in the accumulation of this kind of stuff. Recently the NIH found various old stuff in their labs including two very
NIH Finds Old Small Pox, Ricin: What’s in Your Lab? Read More »
Would you go to grad school again? I am doing some polling on whether people who have finished graduate school would go again, why or why not, and what their current position is at this time. I found the responses to be surprising and interesting. Almost two-thirds of respondents indicated they would do grad school again
In polling, would you go to grad school again & why or why not Read More »
Science is a wonderful field to be in, but there are many challenges too and in some ways things have gotten more complicated and difficult including with grad school. Below are four polls for people already with M.S.s or Ph.D.s in science. Knowing what you know now, would you still go to grad school if
Given a do-over, would you still go to grad school again? Take our polls Read More »
I enjoy Vancouver and photography so today’s post brings them together for Vancouver photos. I took a chance today to walk around Vancouver a bit while visiting ISSCR 2014 and got a few fun photos with my iPhone. Vancouver is a very cool city with pretty nature, diverse people, and lots of art. Next to
Vancouver photos for ISSCR 2014 Read More »
I’ve been doing a series of blog posts about scientists called “The elephant in the lab” in which I discuss taboo, but important topics in science. Today we are focusing on the top 10 dumbest things that scientists do…and hence today’s entry in this series might be called “Dumbo in the Lab” instead of “Elephant in
Stupid scientist tricks: what we do that we shouldn’t Read More »
I’m discussing the seamier side of science in a seven part series on what I call scientific sinning or the “seven sins of scientists”. The first four pieces in this series really stoked a great deal of interest and debate, covering Failure to Cite, Paper or grant killing, Need for Speed, and hype. Today in the fifth installment
Seven sins of scientists part 5: snobbery Read More »