One of the new blogs on the block at Nature Network is Stripped Science, in which Viktor Poór posts short comic strips about lab life. Viktor is a PhD student working on a peptide called hepcidin that is important in iron metabolism.
Working in the lab can be quite boring — repeating the same steps of pipetting or centrifugation all day long — and Viktor wonders what lab life might be like from a bacteria’s point of view. He also has some amusing fantasies about fighting boredom in the microscope room. In another strip, he shows how cell-culture contamination can be turned from a frustration into a pastime, and in another, he offers biologists some tips about the best way to spend their time at conferences — and it isn’t listening to the presentations, networking or sightseeing.
Stripped Science brings smiles of recognition to Nature Network users, including, no doubt, any bacteria among them. Viktor welcomes comments and suggestions, which you can make online at the blog, now posting at a regular frequency of twice a week.
Nature 451, ix; 10 January 2007