Category Archives: Uncategorized

When I look back on my research career, one thing that stands out over the years is a particular sensation deep within – a nagging, pressing imperative that preys on your innards. It’s so subtle that you can sense it … Continue reading →

I’d like you all to meet my new friend, the Biomek FK – a very expensive piece of kit. She’s a robot. She’s meant to make my life a lot easier, and my experiments more reproducible. She can take the … Continue reading →

British academia runs on tea. It’s true. I’d forgotten what it’s like to work in a scientific university environment in this green and pleasant land. The entire building seems to decamp to the tea room as a ritual occasion, once … Continue reading →

Some of you may already have heard through the London grapevine about the plans Wynn Abbott (as director of SciCult) and I (as editor of LabLit) have cooked up to hold a competition entitled Stripping Off the White Coat. We … Continue reading →

Tomorrow marks the end of my first month in the lab. You might expect me to report that the time has flown. But in truth, I have lived through each minute in painstaking real-time, and not all of it has … Continue reading →

I have often thought about what it might have been like to have lived through pivotal years when scientific thinking or practice was undergoing a period of intense change. To have been a scientist in 1859 when Darwin’s Origin of … Continue reading →

On Friday, I began my first experiment in over four years. Now, my normal inclination when planning an experiment is to squeeze in as many samples as humanly possible. And this, to be layered on top of a week’s worth … Continue reading →

This past Friday, my interrupted career as a scientist resumed. My first day in the lab came equipped with its own intrinsic shock absorber, coinciding as it did with the entire lab moving into a new institute – all of … Continue reading →

No, I can’t believe it either: exactly one week remains before I re-start my career as a bench scientist. In two day’s time I pack up my desk, bid a tearful, even maternal farewell to my lovely team of young … Continue reading →

Those of you who reside in Britain and are staunch Guardian readers will be familiar with the DVDs that come free with the Saturday edition. The films on offer are never interesting enough to entice you buy the paper when … Continue reading →