by
You’re tired. Possibly cranky. Definitely starving.
It’s been a long day in lab and as you gather your bag to head home, your mind shifts to dinner. The local grocery store closed about an hour ago and the pizza delivery guy knows you so well he’s starting to ask you to hang out on weekends, which is getting uncomfortable…
by
In science, much significance is placed on peer-reviewed publication, and for good reason. Peer review, in principle, guarantees a minimum level of confidence in the validity of the research, allowing future work to build upon it. Typically, a paper (the current accepted unit of scientific knowledge) is vetted by independent colleagues who have the expertise to evaluate both the correctness of the methods and perhaps the importance of the work. If the paper passes the peer-review bar of a journal, it is published.
by
It’s hard to get more literal in the BenchLife channel than actually creating a Life while at the Bench! For many women, the decision to have a child while still a postdoc brings up more questions than an undergraduate summer student… We turned to new mom and former MIT postdoc Joanne Gibson to find out about her experience balancing pregnancy and the lab.
by
If email had knuckles, inked across one hand would be the letters “L-O-V-E” and across the other: “H-A-T-E.” This probably describes some level of almost everyone’s relationship with the electronic beast. And with the likes of texting, IM and Twitter, the beast is only getting stronger…
by
We’re always looking for a good protocol. In the lab, a proper technique can be the difference between a successful or a failed experiment. In the kitchen, it may be the difference between a moist, delicious piece of salmon or a dry, tasteless hunk of pink stuff.
That’s why when a good friend of mine, Bill Macaitis, first showed me how to use a digital infrared kitchen thermometer to cook salmon, I knew my life would never be the same…
by
There’s a street in Nashville, Tennessee called “Demonbreun”. It’s a sure-fire way to tell tourist from local. Anyone can bust out a “y’all”, but utter “Demon-brewin’” and your cover is blown. Oh, and there will be laughter.
In science, there are a number of words that, if horribly mispronounced, can make us look like a hack and of course, will elicit laughter. In many situations, a word’s pronunciation may be more stylistic – like you say “toe-may-toe”, I say “toe-mah-toe.” This is not one of those situations. This word has an answer. After sitting through hundreds of seminars and group meetings and still not understanding how the word was actually supposed to be pronounced, I figured it’s time to get the answer.
by
Today we’re following-up on Friday’s post (A degree of stress), in which we observed a trend towards elevated levels of stress during our postdocs. Although the trend emerged from only a small sample size, it seemed to be striking enough to warrant further consideration. Namely, why is the postdoc so stressful and what, if anything, can we do to alleviate it?
by
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to eat Au Bon Pain again. Probably not for years. There are only so many bagels and pastries one can eat in their life. And thanks to group meeting, I’ve filled my quota for a while.
I’m the first to admit that I lack all imagination when it comes to supplying the lab with food. Generally, my mornings to get food unfold as follows:
by
A number of factors influence the stress levels we feel in lab including our project, boss, funding, spouse, kids, weight… the list goes on. In research, there are predictable periods of elevated stress, such as the Ph.D. qualifying exam and defense, which undoubtedly shaved years off the end of our lives. But are there global trends to the stress patterns we can anticipate through the early part of our career in research?
by
This type of inhibition is used in blood pressure regulation, amino acid synthesis and glucose degradation. If it’s good enough for our bodies, then it’s good enough for our site… what are we referring to?
