Author: James

 

1. If you are stuck, there are most likely online forums where people have had similar problems. Just type your question into google.
2. Have a separate book you use to take notes during explanations, then immediately type them up in full before you forget them.
3. Make your notes are as exact and specific as possible.

 

• For techniques using machinery there are nearly always online tutorials on youtube, science blogs, or yahoo answers. These are all great resources, but check the manufacturer’s guidelines first. They probably know best.

 
My first year notebooks read like the ramblings of lunatic on LSD.  Numbers scattered everywhere, names and values written without explanation. I’ve still got them all, though I have no idea why. People could gather more information from books that have been burned.

One result was that I had to ask my supervisor for several explanations of how to use the same machine even before it stopped working. Fortunately, he was patient.

When dealing with nasty or impatient people that you are reliant on for help, the best thing you can do is make thorough notes the first time they tell you something. If they speak too fast, ask them to slow and repeat. If they are truly foul they may still be annoyed, but their reaction will be 1000 times better than if you have to go back later and ask them to repeat it as if you weren’t listening. This, in my experience, is what they truly hate because it makes them feel like they are wasting their time.

 

1. You should do a written risk assessment before a new experiment, but if for some reason you haven’t, at least think about the possible outcomes of each step.
2. If other people are involved always consider the impact of your work on them as well as yourself.

 

1. Check the hazard labels on any chemicals the first time you use them.
2. After finishing a procedure involving nasty chemicals, immediately change gloves. This will prevent you spreading those chemicals around your work area.
3. If you are itching, or worse burning, immediately remove your gloves and wash your hands.
4. Touching skin to water is not sufficient. Hold the hand under until you are bored and rub with soap. Taps are not magic cleaning devices, and some stuff sticks more than you would think.
5. Always check whether a new chemical needs to be used in the hood.
6. Know what chemicals are in “buffers”. As science relies more and more on buying kits which do most of the procedure for you, you will find yourself using nondescript things like “buffer QP”. It may sound like it is basically water, but that doesn’t mean it is.
7. Don’t reuse gloves. The procedure is likely to get whatever is on your gloves onto your hands.

 
I once knew a supervisor who used to keep his sandwiches in the fridge next to the ethidium bromide (a potent carcinogen), which he thought was perfectly safe. It wasn’t… though on the plus side no one ever stole his lunch.

I have also had a nasty experience with a nondescript buffer, which I researched only after I’d splashed it in my eye. Although the initial burning was disconcerting enough to head straight for the eye wash, my later edification as to its content made me return to give it a second shower.

In addition to washing my eye for longer, I would have been more careful when using the buffer had I known.

 

1. Compare high impact with low impact papers on the same subject, and see how many different methods each type uses to demonstrate their conclusions.
2. If there are limited possibilities for answering the same question, try answering a different but related question at the same time. You can always branch your project in a different direction.
3. DO NOT give up on every experiment that does not immediately work. A backup is important, but should not be immediately resorted to. Science takes perseverance. Look to correct the mistakes in your current procedure before starting a new one.

 

• Complicated machinery breaks. It is best if your backup plan is not reliant on the same machines. Get to know different machines, even if they just do the same thing. When one breaks, which it probably will at some stage, you won’t be completely stuck.

 
Not having a backup plan was one of my main mistakes. I spent several months trying to get a drug to have an effect on my cells when the sensible course of action would have been to either find a different drug or look for a different effect.

Both of which I did eventually, but if I had done so earlier I would have saved a lot of time. Later, I spoke to a man at a conference who asserted that the reason I got no effect was because the drug was killing any cell that absorbed it. Possible.