If you happen to use twitter (who wouldn’t you…) then go meet biotecher – the uber-connected biotech twitter account that is concentrating and soon aggregating all the biotech twitterers in one location.

Just check biotecher’s list of friends and you will certainly find some familiar faces to start stalking… uhm… following!

I’m off… see you soon.

Baby steps
As time went by, her many friends began to gather in groups but always close together. (Boston & London)

Goo-goo Da-daa
Soon after, she began to talk and so did her friends. A bunch of them began chit-chatting away. (blogs) And shortly after the rest of them followed along in their one fashion. (forums & groups)

Kindergarten
She’s still a little girl but she’s already the main attraction at Kindergarten. (Network)

If she’s already managed all this and is only just turning 1 year old, imagine what the future has in store for this little lady named Nature Network.

Have a happy birthday little NN! :)

Some discussion took place regarding how such information could be disseminated. It seems that reputable scientists always do things properly (and/or they prefer to keep their flaws to themselves).

Anyhow, I’ve found a blog that is doing the dirty work.It’s called Worst Result Ever and it’s a blog with information regarding experiments that resulted in not-so-great info.

Although it’s not the best form of archiving this type of info, I guess it’s a good start!

Thanks to Shirley Wu from OneBigLab for the link.

One area of this openness that interests me is the disclosure of so called “bad protocols”. I’m still very new to science, but I know that a lot of researchers work hard on their projects and sometimes the theory just doesn’t match the reality and so, the mis-result brings them back to the drawing board.

Failed experiments are taking place all the time, and a way to help out is make such information available to the scientific community.

I saw the usefulness of such “no-no techniques” during a recent class where a professor told us to perform different steps than that of the protocol because he’d been there, and done that… and it wasn’t the best option.
So, by telling us that he’d failed before, we didn’t have to and could use his new findings to move forward.

This is just a small example of what I think could be a great resource. A “how to waste time in the lab” repository so researchers can avoid common pitfalls.

This could be a repository online with all the usual web2.0 paraphernalia but would probably require some anonymity for those afraid of showing their “bad protocols” :)

This has been a topic of discussion that I’ve had with a few of my friends from time to time.

I’m a couple exams away from completing my Master’s degree in Biological Engineering and I’m still not sure what it is that I would LOVE to do in the future.

This may seem odd for some, but here in Portugal the academic pathway until one completes a degree can be very very wide spread.

My degree for example is anything but specific. I’ve had advanced levels of teaching in industrial downstream processing as I also have learned my fair share of molecular biology, genetics, immunology and even wastewater treatment!

Although this system is now changing with the Bologna Treaty, it makes it a bit difficult to focus on what I really can and will do in the future.

In an age where being very good at very little is probably better than being quite good at a whole lot, it breaks my heart that I like so many different areas and yet don’t know which one is MY area.

My friends tell me that I’ll find my spot when I complete my degree and start working, but how sure can I be that I’ll get a chance to work in every area that I’m interested in?

So, was it love at first sight for you? Or did you have to date around to find the right one? (scientific area of interest, that is!)

Although I tried to read a couple books here and there, I never really got past the first chapter for one reason or another. Either the book was focused on a specific piece of software or it was too code intensive with pages of programming language lined up (yawn!).

But this Monday, I felt the click! Yeah, I’m that type of student. I accumulate information and then suddenly I click! It all comes into focus and connects together.

So, in one 5 hour session I learned that by simply looking up a random gene or even a sequence (either DNA or Protein) I could find out interesting information regarding various aspects of my object of study. Namely, topology, inter cellular location, possible domain functions, just to name a few!

I know this is just the tip of the iceberg but it’s just opened my eyes to a field that I was curious about but now am VERY interested in.

I’ll be writing about this in more detail and in newbie baby step style to maybe show others the every-so-cool field of bioinformatics!

Here you can see the postcards and sharpies all displayed nice and tidy:

I tested one of the sharpies on my smiley foam ball. Now he’s all ready for Halloween! :D

So here’s the result:

Feel free to use it on your other blogs to attract more readers to the Nature Network.

Note: It’s good for white backgrounds but I can mix up another version for dark backgrounds too if requested :)

After the virtual conference, I popped back to RL and went on a quick video hunt for SciFoo talks or other big science conference talks but my search came out empty. Why is this?

So much hype over video websites that focus on science but when it comes to gathering the big honchos and having them show their stuff, only those present are allowed to see and listen?

Why not record audio/video of these conferences and make the info available to those that couldn’t attend or couldn’t attend all the talks that took place?

I’m sure Google can manage a couple extra gigs of video for this… :)

I haven’t concluded my degree yet and since my university and faculty don’t really open doors to any lab work throughout the 5 year period of my course, I’ve still to feel the pressure of having to publish my work. So please forgive me if I sound to optimistic :)

I’m an active blogger and blog reader. A wiki reader and contributer. A SL avatar and a real life biological engineer graduate-to-be.
These tools and many others are proving to be invaluable in helping with the communication and collaboration between old-school scientists and even newcomers like myself.

Although the publishing system is a tough one to budge, I can bet that given the momentum and the enthusiasm that is growing there will certainly be changes in the near future.

I for one find that open science brings so much more opportunities to scientists and therefore it can only make this field richer in content and discovery.

As a budding scientist, I’m looking forward in anticipation and not “fear”.

While designing my bioprocess and the components that will make up the production line, I’m forced to research papers for information on the best practices and results achieved.

What makes things very difficult is that since I’ve never had any real hands-on experience with such industry, certain things don’t really match up when I confront the theory and practice.

I’ve found that my options seem to be well made and based on proper assumptions but after some chatting with professionals in the area, they always have some inside info that bring me back to the drawing board.

I’ve also noticed that there is no real industrial bioprocessing community available online like that is found for the life sciences (e.g. biology, genetics, etc)

In fact, one paper that I was trying to get my hands on was from 1969. It’s title and abstract had everything I was looking for but it was nowhere to be found.

After some searching, I found out the original author had recently turned 90 years old!!!
Despite the fact that I could not email this person, how out-dated would the paper be?

My project is about the industrial production of beta-lactams, and although there has been some advances over the years, most procedures seem to still be the same, namely extraction and purification of the fermentation broth.

So, how old does a paper have to be before it is “out dated”?

Well, today I ran across Mario Pineda-Krch’s blog where he presents his own list dubbed Ten Simple Rules for Fledgling Academics. Although some of the rules are listed in the previously mentioned papers, it’s still a good contribution :)

Although these lists might not bring much news for the experienced researchers, they are invaluable to folks like myself that are still getting started.

I’d like someone to write a Ten Simple Rules to picking a research topic. Anyone want to give a hand?

All through my course, we’ve always been told to research this, analyze that, calculate whatever. But when we are all done and finally scientists per se, who or what makes us pick a research topic?

My course program is very extensive and delves into various areas either related to biotechnology or broad engineering. And this is great, especially for someone like myself, the ever hungry for knowledge.

What makes me somewhat uneasy is the fact that when I’m requested to perform certain simple tasks such as protein purifications or DNA transfections, my practical knowledge is far behind my theoretical counterpart.