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Blog Details for "The Molecular Biology Blog"
The Molecular Biology Blog The Molecular Biology Blog Tech tips, technology updates, news and comment from the molecular biology field Articles
Transferable Job Skills in Science
2008-06-09 12:07:00 Relating to my post last week on jobs in industry, concerning the slight disconnect between jobs in academia versus industry — the NatureJobs podcast has a special episode this past week from NatureJobs: From Academia to Industry [mp3]. In it, Pfizer’s Anthony Harrison talks about transferable skills that could help you move from a university-based ... More About: Science , Careers , Skills
Around the Blogs
2008-06-06 09:47:00 In this week’s around the blogs: How to talk to your professor, fragrant E.coli and chromatography-inspired poetry. Short and Schweeeeet. The Female Science Professor gives some hilarious advice to students on the etiquette of talking to their professors. Flash DNA sequencing. This post at Discovering Biology In a Digital World flags up some neat flash animations of ... More About: Blogs
How to reduce your lab?s environmental impact
2008-06-05 09:49:00 Bioscientists are generally nature-lovers at heart, but the average bio lab is incredibly wasteful. Here are some ways to reduce your lab's environmental impact. More About: Environmental , Reduce
Thoughts on Industry Jobs
2008-06-04 11:46:00 Last week, Sandra at Discovering Biology in a Digital World had some interesting thoughts on Life science PhD’s as industrial strength technicians. What I thought interesting was this bit: This wasn’t for a technician job, but a few years ago, I was in the position of hiring someone to help me on an education project. I ... More About: Industry , Jobs , Careers , Thoughts
This Week?s Best of the Kit
2008-06-03 17:12:00 Lazy DNA ligation, low carbon footprint bunsens and back-to-basics E.coli... they're among our picks of the kit for this week. More About: Week
Birth of the Cell Doctrine
2008-06-02 12:09:00 As a general rule of thumb, it is recommended to be familiar with the history of one’s scientific field, and not merely the contemporary trends of thought. That’s generally why I liked The Birth of the Cell so much when I read it. Dissatisfied by the standard accounts of the origin of the cell doctrine, Henry ... More About: Books
Around the Blogs
2008-05-31 07:11:00 While I generally am a lurker on other people’s blogs (I admit it), I have a long list of blogs that I subscribe to in my Google Reader feed. And since it’s Friday, I thought it time again to share some of the postings from around the blogs that caught my eye. On the Five Stages ... More About: Blogs
Avoding the Lure of The Internet
2008-05-31 07:10:00 The internet is a great tool, but can also be a real source of distraction. Here are five ways to avoid it's lure while working, and stay productive. More About: Internet , Productivity , The Internet , Lure
Around the Blogs
2008-05-30 12:57:00 While I generally am a lurker on other people’s blogs (I admit it), I have a long list of blogs that I subscribe to in my Google Reader feed. And since it’s Friday, I thought it time again to share some of the postings from around the blogs that caught my eye. On the Five Stages ... More About: Blogs
Avoiding the lure of the internet
2008-05-29 07:39:00 The internet can be a great source of distraction when you are trying to work. Here are some ways to control your surfing habits and save valuable time. More About: Internet , The Internet , Lure
How I Chose a ?Grad School? (UK edition!)
2008-05-27 13:33:00 In the US it's called Grad School , but in the UK we just call it "doing a PhD". Nick gives his story on how he chose his PhD position along with some advice for those currently looking for a PhD. More About: Careers , Edition
How I Chose a Grad School
2008-05-26 12:24:00 A reader recently asked for an explanation “about choosing grad schools, taking the GREs, visiting campuses, speaking to potential advisors, and how you guys decided on where to go.” For me, to be honest, I think that I was astoundingly naive in my decision-making for where to go for graduate school. For starters, I didn’t know ... More About: Careers , School
Around the Blogs
2008-05-23 14:24:00 This week is dominated by career-related posts discussing life in science. Check ‘em out! Postdoc Malaise It’s hard to stay motivated when there feels like so many obstacles standing in the way of your career. Why It’s So Hard to Get That Course You Need A faculty member explains one of the frequent difficulties cited by students trying ... More About: Blogs
Scientist, GSOH. Seeks Similar.
2008-05-20 02:41:00 How does the lonely scientist find that special someone with whom they can share their copy of Molecular Biology of The Cell? More About: Scientist
Building Science in a Small Country
2008-05-19 13:51:00 Dan makes some interesting observations on the grant funding system in Cyprus, the country he recently relocated to. More About: Science , Building , Country , Careers , Small
Animated DNA replication
2008-05-19 07:24:00 A stunning animation of DNA replication More About: Animated
Around The Blogs
2008-05-16 13:01:00 Time for our weekly look around the best of the blogs… More on Google Reader. This article on the Bootstrapper blog, along with Bala’s article on Google Reader for Academics, will help you on your way to Google Reader mastery. All our ideas in one basket. Mr Gunn at Synthesis commented on a very interesting project, that ... More About: Blogs
How to Refold 653 Insoluble Proteins
2008-05-15 07:22:00 Bacteria are good hosts for expressing recombinant proteins, mainly because they are easy to manipulate and grow. But their relatively simple expression systems can’t cope with every gene you throw at them so proteins will often fail to express properly. Sometimes the protein is fully expressed but cannot fold properly. This is particularly common when the ...
Sequence and Ligation Independent Cloning
2008-05-14 14:31:00 Regular readers will know about the advantages of T4 DNA polymerase-mediated ligation independent cloning. The fact that it is faster, more efficient and allows easier parallel cloning than conventional cloning has made it my method of choice in the lab. But the technique does have it’s downsides - not least the requirement that existing vector multiple ... More About: Sequence , Independent , Cloning , Molecular Biology
Post-Modernism versus Science
2008-05-13 12:44:00 A few months ago I mentioned about how people shouldn’t take science, on faith, but instead on data. Put another way, this is about post-modernism, or anti-modernism, where facts and their interpretations are all relative, at least to some degree. I came across an outstanding essay on the subject by Daniel Dennett over on Butterflies ... More About: Science , Post , Versus , Post Modernism
How Cancer Begins
2008-05-12 12:39:00 Every major field has its leading thinkers, and the biology of cancer is no different. What makes their impact heard better is when one of those leaders writes a book about it. Given my interest in molecular biology of cancer, I naturally have my favorite such book on the topic - Robert Weinberg’s ... More About: Books , Cancer
Around the Blogs
2008-05-09 11:55:00 This week’s around the blogs focuses on lab life and impacts of science on society. That’s a big area to cover, but there are still only a handful of really noteworthy discussions in the last couple of weeks on the topic. Check ‘em out. Relationships in Lab Groups - How do the dynamics of ... More About: Blogs
Don?t Overdo The Multi-tasking
2008-05-07 07:56:00 Multi-tasking used to be my favourite way to get ahead. During my PhD I saw others around me working extremely long hours in the lab and not really having much of a personal life and quite early on I made the decision that this was not for me. Although I enjoy my work, having a good life ... More About: Science , Multi
Would you Sterilise Growth Media With A Microwave?
2008-05-06 08:00:00 We have had a rush on time and money saving techniques on Bitesize Bio in the last few weeks. Ways to re-cycle electroporation cuvettes, reduce gel buffer costs, do fast restriction digests and re-cycle midiprep columns have all been suggested. In this article I’ll add the possibility of using a microwave to sterilize or decontaminate growth ... More About: Media , Growth , Microwave
Defining Life Itself
2008-05-05 17:29:00 What is this thing called ‘Life ?’ One popular game in the relevant area of philosophy is to provide robust counter examples, which reveal failures in operational definitions of life. Failed attempts include physiological, metabolic, biochemical, genetic and thermodynamic definitions of life, all of which face problems. For example, a metabolic definition finds it hard to ... More About: Books
Around the Blogs
2008-05-02 09:24:00 As per tradition, it’s time for the weekly roundup of informative blog posts outside of your regular Bite of Bio. This week, it’s striking that the posts to choose from have an extra supply of posts on the science, and light on the personal or social commentary that bloggers enjoy so much. So ... More About: Blogs
Enduring Grant Writing Edits
2008-05-01 10:35:00 Staying in science - getting funding and getting peer reviewed - is tough. That’s one of my main gripes with creationist simpletons who imply that scientists are uncritical of their peers, and that criticism is directed solely at those who refuse to take their claims at face value. They have no clue whatsoever what they’re talking ... More About: Books , Writing , Grant
Re-cycling Electroporation Cuvettes
More articles from this author:2008-04-30 10:24:00 If you have ever worked out the price of an electroporation cuvette you will realise that, at several dollars each, they are worth recycling. Accounts on how amenable electroporation cuvettes are to recycling vary, but I find that as long as you treat them well it is possible to use single cuvette many times. It’s the metal ... More About: Cycling 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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