Archive for the ‘In the lab’ Category
How I paid 62 cents for a brand new hardcover bestseller.
I went to Borders tonight because I had $15 in Borders Bucks that needed to be spent this month before they expired.
Retail price of book: $25.95
-Apply 40% off coupon-
Subtotal: $15.57
-Apply Borders Bucks-
Subtotal: $0.57
TN 9.25% Sales Tax: $0.05
Total: $0.62
Saving money is one of my interests, but what does it have to do with nanotechnology research? Read the rest of this entry »
Arrangement in Gray and Black 01
TiO2 particle? Or cat food?
What makes you indispensable?
Grad student scientists want to become their advisor’s go-to investigator. This position makes you privy to the advisor’s more closely held thoughts and often spares you from working on trivial/crappy projects. (Within reason: you don’t want to be so trusted that they end up overburdening you with every task they deem important—since we know profs believe everything they work on is of the utmost importance.) A post on Keith Ferrazzi’s blog lists ten tips for becoming indispensable at work. Some of his ideas strongly resonated with me, in the context of doing research.
1. Get out in front and analyze cutting-edge trends and opportunities.
I want to get better at this practice. As grad students we become occupied with our particular project and how to get it done. But the big-time scientists out there seemingly predict what next year’s Nature-level hyped topic will be, and get to work on it this year. I don’t have a ready idea for what to try on this topic, because the “cutting edge” of science that you read is something that was submitted up to 12 months prior to publication. Read the rest of this entry »
Where do you like to recharge online?
A lot of science is waiting five- to twenty-minute intervals for a sample to finish drying, or to finish centrifuging, or to finish reacting. Often, this interval is too brief to do any serious reading that requires information retention, but just enough time to recharge the mind by doing a puzzle or reading interesting non-science ideas. My favorites are below; what are yours?
Career/Networking
Puzzle Games Read the rest of this entry »
