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The Academic Awards, PhD Comics Style

2010-03-08T05:20:00Z

In honor of last night’s Academy Awards, PhD Comics has provided us with their version of The 2397th Academic Awards:

PhD Comics continues to provide great entertainment to students and researchers who can commiserate with the characters portrayed in the their comics.

Find this comic and other PhD comics at phdcomics.com. While you’re there, also be sure to check out ‘Moesday’ which depicts a regular week in the life of a graduate student.

Bond as a Graduate Student

2010-03-07T11:00:00Z

Back in 2007, Joel Gilmore created the following video of the well know 007, James Bond, as a Graduate Student. The video was an invitation he made for a party celebrating the completion of his PhD.

Thanks to @nparmalee, @LadyScientist, and @scicurious of the twitterverse for bringing this great video to my attention.

How successful do you think Bond would have been as a grad student?

Science Quote of the Week #10

2010-03-04T16:00:00Z

This week’s quote comes from George Wald.

“Science goes from question to question; big questions, and little, tentative answers. The questions as they age grow ever broader, the answers are seen to be more limited.”

A "Hella" of an Idea

2010-03-03T13:00:00Z

“To Whom It May Concern:

For all intents and purposes, the SI prefix system has served the scientific community extremely well since its inception. However, we believe there is one significant flaw in the system which demands immediate attention.”

So begins the mission statement of a facebook petition calling for the designation of “hella” as a prefix for 10²⁷. “Hella” means “very” or “a lot of” in North Californian slang.

“As you know,” the statement continues, “the largest number with a designated SI prefix is 10²⁴, which carries the name “yotta-”. However, in our world of increasing physical awareness and experimental precision, this number is no longer a satisfactory “upper bound” in scientific nomenclature. The analysis of many physical phenomena reveals natural quantities in excess of 27 orders of magnitude, a number which is currently ignored by the SI system.”

Austein Sendek, a physics student from the University of California, is the founder of this movement. He calls the naming of “critical importance.” Over 28,000 people have signed and joined the facebook petition.

The Telegraph reports “If the change is approved, the hella would be the first new SI prefix introduced since 1991, when the International Committee for Weights and Measures approved yotta and zetta (21 zeroes).”

Professor Ian Mills, a British chemist who heads the Consultative Committee for Units (CCU) – the committee which would have to approve the “hella” addition told the Telegraph that it was unlikely the change would take place as most of the existing SI prefixes are derived from Latin or Greek, and he does not think the committee will change that precedent.

What do you think about this hella idea?

For more infomation and to sign the petition visit the The Official Petition to Establish “Hella-” as the SI Prefix for 10²⁷ Facebook Page.

Buy a “Hella” T-shirt at the MakeHellaOfficial Store

Science Quote of the Week #9

2010-02-24T11:30:00Z

This week’s quote comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Science does not know its debt to imagination.”

BioKM Update: Link your data

2010-02-23T12:19:00Z

BioKM is launching an update to our linking system and helping you connect the dots of your research by showing you its complete picture. Now you won’t have to waste time and frustration searching for your project related papers or protocols. You won’t need to keep looking up references to which plasmids or antibodies you are using in your project. When it comes to writing a paper, you’ll have all your project’s information organized and in one place. Click the link icon next to an item and it immediately becomes linked to your project. View all of your project’s related materials and their locations, events, tasks, papers, and protocols. Check out the following video to see how the linking system works.

Sign up for a free trial of BioKM, a web based laboratory management program. To find out more about BioKM, visit www.biodata.com.

Building a Motivated Research Group

2010-02-22T08:00:00Z

Uri Alon, a PI in the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, recently published an article in Molecular Cell where he discusses how to build a motivated research group.

Motivation in a research group is very important as that is the way that work actually gets done. Its not enough to go uninspired through the motions and conduct experiments because if it doesn’t work out – what is going to push you to keep trying? I personally have spoken to many involved in research asking what it takes to be successful in science and research, particularly for those in the academic field. The two words I have heard over and over again are perseverance and motivation. Now that we have established that motivation is important in the laboratory, how can we instill motivation in our students, lab members, and maybe more importantly – ourselves?

Dr. Alon presents a study done by psychologists Deci and Ryan who have been studying conditions that enable self-determined behavior (such as motivation) since the 1970s. You can read the specifics in Alon’s paper, however the result of the study were a “surprise” because it seems ”that money and other rewards in these types of tasks apparently act to reduce motivation. “

The question remains: What makes people motivated?

Deci and Ryan concluded from a range of studies that there are three conditions for self-determined behavior: competence, autonomy, and social connectedness. Alon explains how he implements each of the conditions in his lab and how it has been successful.

Instead of throwing new, fairly inexperienced students into complicated procedures, Dr. Alon strengthens his students’ competence by taking the time to gradually build competence and confidence. Alon explains that easy steps allow for positive reinforcement. His experience has been that once a student’s confidence was boosted, “his motivation skyrocketed.”

The second condition essential for motivation is autonomy. Alon explains autonomy as “the sense that the project emanates from the person and not from an external source.” Threats and punishment are obvious detriments, however Alon was surprised to learn that intimidation also lead to a decrease in autonomy.

Social connectedness, the third of Deci and Ryan’s conditions, is when a student or researcher is taken under the wing of someone else in the research group. Alon describes how his weekly lab meeting has become an event that enhances his group’s social connectedness. Discussing birthdays and the news helps bring the group together. “Our connection to a community and a culture,“ write Alon, “provides us context and empathy during our struggles, celebrations and acknowledgment during our successes. “

Dr. Alon concludes his essay showing how to choose an appropriate research project using a method that he says enhances self-motivation. A Venn diagram shows how it is important for students to combine their passion, talent as well as the objectives of the lab to find a suitable project. Alon explains this theory, “Being in the intersection of talent, passion, and scientific objectives is motivating, because talent is related to competence, passion is an ingredient of autonomy, and shared objectives enhance social connectedness.”

This essay is very important, not because it brings a new message, but rather because it touches both on personal and group motivation – something not all PIs consider. While each lab member being motivated on his own is great, working as a motivated lab team results in more success and a happier research environment.

_{References: Alon, U. (2010). How to Build a Motivated Research Group Molecular Cell, 37 (2), 151-152 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.01.011}

Science Quote of the Week #8

2010-02-17T14:30:00Z

This week’s quote comes from Henri Poincare.

“Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.”

The Perils of Being a Graduate Student

2010-02-14T07:00:00Z

PhD Comics has once again hit the nail on the head with the following comic:

Cecilia’s Adventures in Thesisland, Pt. 6

Ahh, to be a Grad Student…

Find this comic and other PhD comics at phdcomics.com. While you’re there, also be sure to check out their hilarious Valentine gift ideas from professors to grad students.

Science Quote of the Week #7

2010-02-10T05:00:00Z

This week’s quote comes from Sir William Bragg.

“The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.”

Funny Science Videos

2010-02-09T05:00:00Z

SciencegeekGirl recently compiled a list of all sorts of science geek resources. On her list is Biocompare’s Funniest Science Videos. I suggest checking these funny and informative videos out when you have a minute.

My personal favorite is this GTCA song from BioRad:

^{If you have trouble viewing these videos, you can also see a complete list of videos on Biocompare’s YouTube Channel.}

Share your favorite science video with us!

Revisiting 'Autism, Vaccines, and The Oprah Effect'

2010-02-07T06:00:00Z

In June I commented on the autism – vaccine controversy and the role that Oprah had in promoting it. Seven moths later, I am revisiting this issue. 12 years ago, Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues first published his findings in The Lancet providing ‘evidence’ suggesting they had tracked down a shocking cause of autism – that being the MMR Vaccine. Last week The Lancet published a retraction of Wakefield’s paper stating that “it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect.”

Steven Novella of Science Based Medicine has a detailed article about this which I highly recommend reading. I can only agree with Novella’s conclusion: “I applaud the Lancet for finally retracting the Wakefield study and removing it from the published record. It should not, however, have taken this long.”

Got to wonder what Jenny McCarthy and her pal, Oprah have to say about this.

Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Paper:

Science Quote of the Week #6

2010-02-03T12:50:00Z

This week’s quote comes from Wernher Von Braun.

“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Tips for Editing Laboratory Reports

2010-02-03T05:00:00Z

John Bochardt recently posted tips for editing laboratory reports in the Lab Manager blog. In the article he quite correctly points out that many laboratory professionals have difficulty in writing reports and that the process often takes longer than it should with the result being a poorly written report.

As scientists we have “scientific methodology” ingrained in our blood. This has provided us with a rigorously structured approach to science and has given us a formula for working towards success. Unfortunately, scientific methodology has also created an insular environment that has enabled us to hide behind scientific jargon and poorly written pieces of literature. One area that we can focus on to improve on our written work is the area of context. Context is the way we organize disparate pieces of information and random thoughts into fully developed ideas that flow. Context has become increasingly important in the scientific community. Years ago, biologists would often focus on their favorite gene and perform a million and a half different experiments to define the gene’s transcriptional and translational activities. While this was very useful in creating publishable results it was quickly discovered that it is much more effective to study a gene in context of it’s biological surroundings than in isolation. This gave rise to the field of genomics and proteomics and to the advent of microarrays, multiplex bead arrays and various other differential display technologies. Everyone now understands that while protein X may behave a certain way under one condition (i.e. acidic, basic etc) it likely behaves very differently under a different set of conditions and that the interplay between the multitude of biological materials (DNA, RNA, Proteins etc) is the key to our biological responses.

Just as we have discovered the importance of studying of our favorite gene in the appropriate biological “context,” we must define the organization of our experimental methodology and results in their appropriate “context.” This will provide us with more clarity and assist us formulating our written thoughts in the same structured manner that we approach scientific experimentation.

Thesisland by PhD Comics

2010-02-01T12:15:00Z

I recently saw this PhD comic and thought I’d share this with you. For those of you that are working or have ever worked on a thesis, you are bound to have one (or two or three) of these days.

Cecilia’s Adventures in Thesisland, Pt. 1

Find this comic and other PhD comics at phdcomics.com