Handbook for Pure Science

When I started working in a lab, I thought being clever was enough. “Each variable in an experiment is a Chess piece,” I told myself, “and the successful experiment is nothing more than moving the pieces in the correct way, at the correct time.” …

The Definitive Dank Plasmid Name Tier List

All placements are scientific fact; dispute at the risk of being a science denier. Plasmids are rated on these factors to determine their rank: (1) Dankness, (2) Applicability of name to vector function.

The Art of Corner Cutting

The “Winging It” strategy is the 9th circle of Hell (Treachery) in Dante’s Inferno. You will find yourself frozen in place by gusts of chaos and uncertainty generated by what will seem to be a literal demon. First, realize the benefits of the situation…

Zen and the Art of Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorting (FACS)

It’s Time to Evolve Your Consciousness The day has finally come: you’re tired of sitting at the microscope with your Hunchback of Notre Dame lookin’ posture, haemocytometer, cell counter, and trypan blue in hand, clicking away. You look down at your ice box, unable to pull your eyes away from the source of the subconscious

Forbidden Technique: Productive Procrastination

I am a lazy motherfucker. Don’t get me wrong, I work and think about my vocation constantly- without end. However, when it comes down to implementing abstract ideas in the form of bench work my mind makes like Wile E. Coyote and chases conceptual road runners that have absolutely no relation to my intended goal.

Forbidden Technique: Bootleg Coomassie Blue

Out of Coomassie Blue 2 Hours Before Lab Meeting? Probably Not. Coomassie blue, or SimplyBlue Safe Stain as we use in my lab, is a nonspecific protein dye used to allow visualization of SDS-PAGE bands. If you need some in a hurry there’s a quick and easy substitute that you probably have on hand: Bradford

Homebrew T4 DNA Ligase

So You Wanna Make Ligase, eh? Few things bring the gentle molecular biologist to anger, but the experience of setting up your perfect ligation reaction only to find the DNA ligase tube as dry as the agarose gel that’s been on the bench for 3 weeks is one of them. You’ve put hours of work