All over the country today a new crop of eager young scientists begin their journey of discovery. Graduate school is a great time of learning and exploration, but it can also be stressful – especially the beginning. Perhaps the hardest part about the transition to grad school is the uncertainty involved. When will I graduate? Who should I work for? What’s expected of me? Can I drink the lab ethanol?
Graduate school can be pretty overwhelming at first. So many questions, so few answers. With all of these new responsibilities, it’s hard to know how to prioritize them. As a result, every decision can seem epic and therefore incredibly stressful.
Ligations can be painful. Let’s just get that out of the way up front. When I was first learning them as a grad student they were significantly more painful because I had no idea how sensitive they were to the amount of DNA added. So as a beginner, I thought “I’m having trouble getting this insert to go in, I’ll just add more insert.” Bad call.
Sundays represent many things to many people. For chemists, this Sunday marks the birthday of physicist E.M. Purcell, discoverer of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Born on August 30, 1912, Purcell discovered NMR in 1945 and shared the Nobel Prize in 1952 with Felix Bloch, who independently discovered it one month after Purcell.
Until we perfect the teleporter, transporting fruit will always pose a problem – particularly when the transport involves thousands of miles. However, by elucidating the mechanisms of ripening for individual fruits, producers have developed reliable methods of transportation, which is why we can enjoy a banana split in the middle of winter.
Training to be a research scientist as a graduate student and postdoc does not mean that our only career options are at the bench. In fact, these days more than ever, Ph.D.s are finding new opportunities to apply their expertise to a diverse range of exciting career paths. We spoke with Nicole Mahoney, Ph.D. about her decision to pursue a position in technology transfer and how the skills she learned in her graduate and postdoctoral work benefit her now.
Life as a new postdoc is tough. Life as a new postdoc in a new country can be tougher. In Part 2 of our interview with Wesley Straub, Ph.D. (Read Part 1 here) we asked the former postdoc to provide a survival guide for the first six months of the position. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect when starting a foreign postdoc.
Choosing a postdoc is a very important decision in a scientist’s career. Selecting the P.I., institution and field are all factors in creating the perfect springboard for our careers. However, where you perform the postdoc can be just as important. To help understand the realities of selecting a postdoc outside of the United States, we talked with Wesley McGinn-Straub, Ph.D. about his decision to perform a postdoc in Germany.
Circle the word that doesn’t fit: Notebook, Bacteria, Spreader, Transform, Vacation.
If you selected “Vacation”, you’d be…
I sometimes feel like there is only one way to learn anything in lab: the hard way. A lot of little details in lab go unmentioned, yet can make or break an experiment, and you won’t know it until things either don’t work, or go horribly awry. Losing a day and a half because you didn’t realize that all plastic is not created equal falls into the latter category. Losing someone else’s day and a half is, well, infinitely worse.
Loading ...With a Free Account You Can:
Just enter your name and
email address to get started