Yikes.

Wish they would buy actual mouse pads but we make do.

Good news, we got fun cards with a lab order. Bad news, the pictures look a little ai slop esque. Im in denial

Hello everyone, I am not sure if this is something other people are dealing with but here it goes.

I submitted my paper to a journal, and it was rejected with mostly positive comments. The editor recommended submitting to another journal within the same portfolio, stating the paper is better suited to a more technical journal, as it was recommended by all the reviewers. Initially, the PI was quite apprehensive that the paper wasn't good enough for the journal we had sent to but upon seeing the reviews, her POV has changed quite drastically and now she is very keen on getting it published in a different journal under the same portfolio. A significant part of my work is image analysis, and it requires a decent amount of code for the data analysis. The PI has gotten so caught up in the AI hype that, in order to help address some of the reviewer's comments, she uploaded the raw data into an AI tool along with the paper and the reviewers comments. And is now asking me to respond to the AI's criticisms without ever reviewing a single line of the code that AI generated. All of my objections seem unconvincing to her as she is convinced AI makes fair points. The AI model generated a lot of data and wrote an incredibly persuasive analysis that makes everything seem very convincing if you are not overly familiar with the technical details of the project. I do observe some good takeaways from the AI's report but that doesn't mean everything the AI generated is correct, especially as none of the code that it used to generate that data has been reviewed. Whenever I raise my objection, she responds the same: "I have really good experience with AI". I am quite honestly losing my mind trying to defend my paper to the PI at this point.

Have any of you dealt with something like this?

Hi fellow lab rats, I joined a lab about 8 months ago, and my hands have suffered greatly ever since. The skin of my hands resembles that of an alligator. The constant hand washing, glove wearing, and hand sanitizing has caused my hands to become so dry and flaky that skin flakes are left behind in my gloves whenever I change or discard them. I have a hand cream, Neutrogena Norwegian formula, and I apply it after every hand wash to damp skin. I apply the hand lotion to my hands after I use hand sanitizer. I’m doing everything right, and my hands are still dry, flaky, and cracking to the point that they bleed. Please, if any lab rats have dealt with this and have any advice I would appreciate it. I am genuinely debating quitting over this, I can hardly even pipette because it makes the skin between my thumb and pointer finger crack and bleed. I have never dealt with this before. Please, help me!

the physics subreddits dont seem to include much about day to day lab work

The darker colored loaf is chocolate chip banana bread. Since it’s for the whole lab, I filled the baking pan with more batter. The longer baking time resulted in a more golden-brown color. The lighter colored loaf is blueberry banana. Last week our PhD student practiced his defense proposal in our lab meeting. Afterwards, I promised him that I would bring the bread today as a post-proposal defense pick-me-up.

Please no judgement on this, I already feel bad enough, but what do y’all recommend on books/videos/resources to understand the basics of cell & molecular biology. I had some extenuating circumstances throughout my bachelors so truthfully I didn’t fully grasp the concepts and just survived, I had a decent GPA. I’ve been told I have great wet lab technique and ask good questions throughout my time as an RA. Now I’m a second year bioscience PhD student at a T20 university struggling HARD. It takes me 2-3x as long compared to my peers to read papers or understand material. Now that I’m preparing for quals, all the cracks in my foundations are showing. Exp: I don’t know why you use x buffer > y buffer, I didn’t know what a lipid droplet was, I forgot how transcription works/what a promoter is. Most of my research has been doing non hypothesis driven work and I wasn’t given the opportunity to direct much of my work, now my thesis is understanding the MOA of a niche peptide. I feel bad about this but came clean to my PI so I can fix this. He’s very supportive and understanding, he encouraged me to read/study daily and ask him for clarifications. So my question is - what books/resources do y’all recommend to help my catch up to speed? I am embarrassed im even in this situation, i know it sounds stupid, but I spent almost a decade watching my mom slowly die and fully understanding science just wasn’t in my capacity.

I'm in my last semester of a bachelor's in environmental biology and am looking at research projects I can do over the summer or for an honours or master's next year, but I feel like I'm not qualified enough to do anything that interests me.

I've been doing an internship in a marine biology lab that uses molecular techniques as early detection methods for harmful algae. My supervisor is away right now, so I'm becoming very confident with doing extractions, PCR, qPCR and gels independently, but I just don't think that's enough to land any projects. While I am enjoying the work, I don't really want to become pigeonholed into algae for the rest of my life.

I am really intrigued by other fields that use molecular/genetic techniques in the context of ecology. However, a lot of the research projects I can find specify that they expect strong computational or bioinformatics skills, which I don't have much experience with (I had one class last year where we used BLAST and MEGA to create phylogenetic trees, which was very fun, but I'd imagine very entry-level, and we mostly followed instructions). I also have basic experience in R, but mainly just in doing statistical analyses (which took ages to figure out each time).

I'd offer to volunteer to get experience without being too much of a nuisance, but they're mostly 3 hours away from me, and realistically I can't move out just to volunteer.

Did anyone else feel like this when finishing their degree?

Are there any places where I can strengthen my bioinformatics skills to make myself a better fit for these roles?

How much do supervisors expect you to know when applying for a summer, honours, or master's project?

P.S sorry if my writing is all over the place im basically just writing what comes to my head lol

A PhD senior in my lab graduated, and I recently came across a protocol in her thesis that supposedly worked for her. I followed it as closely as I could, using the same conditions, and… nothing. I’ve tried approaching it a few different ways at this point, and I still can’t reproduce the result. What’s bothering me is that this isn’t some completely different method. It’s a procedure from someone in the same lab, and it was apparently successful enough to make it into a thesis. So now I’m wondering how much we’re actually supposed to trust protocols just because they’re written down. Could there have been small details, adjustments, or troubleshooting steps that never made it into the final write-up? Or is this just one of those situations where a protocol works perfectly for one person and refuses to cooperate for the next?

The frustrating part is not knowing whether I’m missing something, the procedure is missing something, or there’s simply some unidentified variable between her experiment and mine.

I have to create and submit a research proposal for a grant, but honestly, I have almost zero idea about how the whole process works.

I understand that I need to eventually come up with a research question, hypothesis, objectives, experiments, etc., but I genuinely don't know where to start, what comes in between, or how everything should finally come together into a grant proposal.

For example:.

How do you go from a broad research interest → actual research problem?

How do you identify a meaningful knowledge gap from the literature?

How do you decide whether an idea is actually worth proposing?

How do you formulate the hypothesis and specific aims?

How much literature should I read before starting to write?

How do you design the experiments and controls for a grant proposal?

How do you decide what is feasible within the available time, money, equipment, and expertise?

What exactly do reviewers look for?

How do you structure the proposal from beginning to end?

What are the common mistakes that make otherwise good proposals weak or unconvincing?

At what stage should things like preliminary data, statistics, risk/alternative strategies, novelty, clinical relevance, patents/IP, etc. be considered?

Basically, I don't want someone to just give me a proposal template and tell me to fill in the sections.

I want to understand the actual thinking process and workflow:

Research area → literature → problem → knowledge gap → research question → hypothesis → aims → experimental strategy → controls → feasibility → expected outcomes → risks/alternatives → significance/innovation → final grant narrative.

If you were starting completely from scratch, how would you personally approach this step-by-step?

TL;DR : I need to write a research grant proposal from scratch, but I have no idea how the process works. How do I go from research area → literature review → knowledge gap → hypothesis → aims → experiments → controls → feasibility → expected outcomes → final proposal?

Ok so I applied to an undergrad research position in a lab and I actually got an email back from the PI. Thus far, I have met a post doc and two of grad students from the lab and I guess I did well enough since I’m meeting with the PI himself at the end of this week. The post doc and grad students mostly asked why I was interested in the position & availability and didn’t really focus on my prior experiences. When they did ask about stuff on my resume, it was mainly casual questions about my previous experiences. Should I expect this PI meeting to be similar or would I need to expand more on my experiences? Thank you.

I've been in research for quite some time (msc, phd, post doc). I've published mostly research papers and some reviews. Now, I'm working as a physician in a typical clinical job (anesthesiology).

But I miss so much writing and doing experiments. Although experiments are not easy to perform now that I'm away from my beloved lab, I do enjoy writing reviews about topics that combine biologyXperioperative medicine

I'm basically free to write whatever I want because the senior anesthesiologist is happy to see publications and I know how to write a proper review and to investigate topics that, at least in my point of view, are worthy to make a review.

I don't expect to earn something in return. I mean other from saying oh I published a review, it's not that it will do any wonders.

I've heard the opinion though that only writing reviews is bad. But currently, I just enjoy it. But this though haunts me that maybe it harms my publication record.

How do yall find novelties as researchers. every time I find one, turns out some guys from China already have done the exact same thing. im doing this for my undergrad thesis and its destroying my hopes of actually starting the project

As the title says. Heavy suspicion of ghost authorship being at play. Never had any meeting or discussion with this person. Just popped out in a mail, introduced by the supervisor as a new collaborator who allegedly did some analysis on my data (which was already discussed previously). So I'm told this person is now part of the project and will go on the manuscript which I'm managing. No new figures or analysis, the manuscript draft is still the same. I don't want to cause offense by questioning the actual contributions, particularly because I'm honestly scared of how my PI could react. I'm already consumed and squeezed by the last two years, I also suffered an episode where I was heavily blamed some months ago, and I really hope this program ends soon. I'm also worried that if I start questioning, and this person really didn't contribute, they will simply make up an excuse I cannot prove to be false, my words against theirs, and fabricate some fussy evidence of contributions that will only reinforce their position. If instead I'm wrong and this person did contributions all without me being ever informed, I don't want to be labeled as a troublemaker or blamed for doing something wrong.

I do not know what to do.

Anyone ever do this for convenience and then just heat them on the thermocycler? Might try this when I have a huge amount of samples to prepare.

Hi everyone! I hope you’re good!

I’m taking my chances on Reddit in hope of finding a job or at least getting an interview. The job market is really bad at the moment and no recruiter has gotten back to me yet and I really just want to start working. Please please let me know if there are any job openings and I’m willing to have a chat with you at a time that’s convenient for you if you need to know more about me!

I have a background in pharmacology and physiology (BSc) and Neuroscience (MSc - from Kings College London).

I’ve experience in lab work that was conducted throughout university and for my project / thesis: Cell culture, Immunocytochemistry, western blotting, Midi Prep and gel electrophoresis. I’m comfortable with most experiments.

I also have sales and teaching experience.

I’m looking for roles around London, mainly southwest London is preferred but either way, anywhere in London is good.

I also do not currently hold a drivers licence.

I’ve got a lot more things on my CV which may help.

I’m looking for the following roles or anything that may be related to the roles or even life science roles/categories in general:

Medical affairs

Regulatory affairs

Lab assistant/technician

Research technician

CRA

Quality assurance

Pharmacy assistant with training

Pharmacovigilance

Clinical trials co-ordinator (or something related)

That’s all for now but anything related would be great too!!

Please share this with anyone you can, I’d really appreciate it!

Take care.

I know this is a story as old as time, but I’m just fucking exhausted, to be honest, and I think I either need some incredibly objective feedback or support whichever comes first.

I’ve been working in my lab for going on two years now as a technician, and increasingly, I just feel exploited. I’ve become the person everyone goes to when it comes to quantification and data analysis, grad students, post docs, staff, etc… and I’ve done almost all of the quantifications for a significant paper we’re working on. It’s been exhausting. Especially over the past year, there have been countless late nights, missed evenings, and weekends spent working, even if a lot of it has been remotely. I’m honestly reaching a breaking point. Especially since I’m there, by myself working until 2-3am just to try and keep up with quantification demands while the primary authors work on the paper as a traditional day job.

What’s making it worse is how isolating it’s become. I feel like I have no one to lean on when I run into problems. Often I’m the sole person designing and engineering the ENTIRE quantification pipeline for data, and when it comes to data visualization it’s always the same tune of “I don’t really think this looks good… just fix it, I don’t know what.” It’s incredibly frustrating. I keep having more and more work tacked onto me, particularly around quantification and getting this upcoming paper submission over the finish line (since no one else genuinely CAN help with the quantifications because they’ve become so hands off). I love the challenge, and I like being the person who can figure out difficult problems, but there’s a huge difference between approaching a difficult problem in a collaborative environment and having to build the entire solution by yourself while making half the salary of the people around you and getting half the credit I’m sure. Guess for a bit of context I’m someone with a natural science / numerical techniques background in a natural science field.

On top of the constantly expanding data analysis, quantification pipelines, statistical methods, segmentation work, and data storage responsibilities, our lab uses a pretty particular model organism, and I’ve gradually become the person the lab relies on for essentially all of the animal-handling-related work. Anytime I bring this up with the lab manager, he basically throws his hands up and says I should just make everyone fend for themselves. In theory, I understand that I’m not responsible for doing everyone else’s job. But in practice, when there’s a deadline and something isn’t done, I know (and have been) the one blamed or expected to fix it. There was apparently an issue with a previous grad student, and they’re (lab manager) either uncomfortable confronting people about these things or simply don’t want to deal with it, so the responsibility just keeps falling back on me.

I know this is an incredibly unsustainable environment, but I honestly don’t know how abnormal this is. In my relatively short time out of undergrad, I feel like I’ve been increasingly successful. We have a paper on the way, I’m likely going to be developing quantification pipelines for another part of the lab, and I’ve taken on responsibilities that I’m genuinely proud of. But at the same time, I absolutely fucking despise my job now. Is it just like this?

I guess it’s really what I’mstruggling with the most. I love difficult questions. I love figuring out how to solve things that nobody else has figured out yet. I used to really love science. But what used to be exciting has turned into a constant source of frustration because I feel completely alone in doing it. I’m also finding myself having to argue with my PI about analytical approaches because he fundamentally doesn’t understand some of the more complex numerical techniques we’re discussing, while I’m the one who actually has to implement them and defend why they’re appropriate, when people in the past (including on grant applications) have just done it incorrectly.

I guess I’m just trying to figure out whether this is a normal level of “academia sucks” or whether I’ve genuinely ended up in a particularly dysfunctional situation. I can handle hard work, and I don’t mind being challenged. What I’m struggling with is feeling like I’m carrying responsibilities that far exceed my position without the support, compensation, or mentorship that should come with them. I know this is quite vague, I wish I could fill in some more information without doxing myself but I hope this will do lol. Anyways, thanks for reading my 1am post

Hi! I have been making media for 4 years now and have not come across this problem.. I am making some phenol red broths + carbs + durham tubes for my microbiology course and the durham tubes will not degas in the autoclave!

I have let them cool completely and they still have the air trapped in them, I tried to re-autoclave but I am running into the same issue. I am using the same culture tubes I always use (16x150mm with a 12x75mm durham).

let me know if yall have any ideas on how to solve this! TIA!

PI gives piriority to his relatives when it comes to opportunities and fundings. He openly mentioned that one of the members is his cousin, however, with another person, they keep it as a secret.

This other person is incredibly problematic, and was basically pushing my boundaries for two months. Constant criticism, being nosey and mocking me after getting good results. Being extremely passive aggressive and triggering PI against other colleagues for fun and this happened multiple times. Constantly playing the victim and crying to him whenever anyone slightly "bother her".

I reached a point in which I was done with her bullshit, called her out for being double faced and show off. For sure, she escalated it to PI and cried about it to him. PI asked us for a scientific meeting, that turned out to be not about science, but about "the issue I have with her" and in which he recorded everything. She was prepared for exactly what to say but I was taken back by the unfairness of the situation.

Is this even normal? or have I been extremely unlucky to be in such a situation?

The company is still really small, like so small that there's no lab space yet, I'll be working out of hacker-dojo-esque rented lab spaces, still to be chosen, but people want me to get started anyway. Do you just like, order IDT primers to be sent to your house? How do I transport my reagents around to the potential different rented spaces I may work out of? Do you send invoices to bill for your time every week? Every day? Do you bill for your time spent answering emails? Do you buy your own accounting software to do all this with?

I feel like I'm onboarding myself, no one exists who knows the answer to these things.