Labelling tiny plastic tubes and doing a lot of washing up – that’s how I summed up the daily grind of the lab bioscientist in my last post. Now that I’m back in a lab coat and safety glasses on a daily basis, let’s see how accurate my memory of the lab was with an account of what I got up to at work today. Today, started slowly. In general, I’m very much a morning person. I work best in the [read on...]
We’re a motley bunch of nerds at nerd hyphen alert, evident not least in the various ways that we have each tottered through – and largely left – the world of scientific research. Among our number, one has completed a PhD but decided to pursue academia no further, another has temporarily suspended (his second) PhD research pursuits to develop other related interests, whilst the most legitimate career scientist of us all is now a undergrad studying the vagaries of econometrics and [read on...]
Science is mostly about gathering data. Well, it’s mostly about gathering data that can be used to test a hypothesis. Ok, perhaps it’s a tad more complicated than that in practice, but… not much. The scientific method essentially boils down to 1. making a hypothesis. 2. gathering appropriate data 3. analysing said data, and 4. rejecting or accepting hypothesis on the basis of the analysed data. Yup. Like I said. Gathering data that can be used to test a hypothesis. [read on...]
Never again lose sleep or freak out about the fate of your article. Send it to the The Journal of Universal Rejection. All submissions are guaranteed to be rejected immediately. About the Journal: You can send your manuscript here without suffering waves of anxiety regarding the eventual fate of your submission. You know with 100% certainty that it will not be accepted for publication. You retain complete rights to your work, and are free to resubmit to other journals even before [read on...]
*Cue stirring title music * Do you recognise this scientist? Did you notice them acting suspiciously with a Photoshop brush tool on the afternoon of 2nd February? All information could help us to catch the person or persons responsible for this incorrect paper. Tune in later to watch actors reconstruct the events surrounding the article submission in this week’s …Retraction Watch. A little disappointingly, Retraction Watch is not actually a spin off of the prime-time crime-solving BBC TV phenomenon fronted [read on...]
[fb-like] Ever wondered when you put out a saucer of milk for your favourite feline fur ball*, just exactly how Tiddles executes the intricate manoeuvre of drinking it? Well, wonder no more! This month, Physics boffins and cat lovers have been united at last to precisely address this very matter in a publication in Science entitled; “How cats lap: Water uptake by Felis catus.” Wishing to uncover the mechanism by which Garfield and co lap up liquid (in this case [read on...]
[fb-like] Apoptosis by Drew Berry at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research I stumbled upon this after reading an article in The New York Times which described the growing field of molecular animation, in which scientist animators use graphics and video magic to visualize the intricacies of cell biology. This particular film depicts apotosis, a process in which a cell begins to self-destruct in a form of controlled cell death. The frenetic imagery and soundtrack confers an interesting [read on...]
[fb-like] “Erm…I don’t want to alarm you but I can see lots of wavy lines at the periphery of my right eye. This is not really normal…right?” So started a phone call to my boyfriend 6 months ago, soon after the onset of said visual oddness. Shortly after I began to idly wonder if the wavy lines were in any way connected to the difficulty that I had encountered just a few minutes before in focusing on the screen of [read on...]
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