Foundational Skills in Life Sciences

The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! Yesterday, it was in Physiology or Medicine. Today it was in Physics.    It was awarded to Dr. John Hopfield, and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”    It is somewhat (indirectly) related to my field, neuroscience!    Let’s learn about the work by watching a YouTube vid...

The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Dr. Victor Ambros, and Dr. Gary Ruvkun, “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.”    Let’s learn about the work by watching a YouTube video. It is the archived video of the announcement of The Nobel Prize.    Here is the URL of the YouTube video:    https...

We will complete the analysis of positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates of 2023. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negative controls in life-science experiments. This episode will be Part 2 of a 2-part summary of control experiments. This will also conclude Step 11 of reading the article, which is to examine the key gra...

Question of today: What is a practical tip for effective oral presentations? There are many important things to do, for delivering oral presentations successfully. But I will be happy to give you my number one tip and the reasons why. And this tip is not discussed often in scientific communities. I hope you will find it useful!    Disclaimer: What I'm going to tell you is my personal opinion....

We will examine the positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negative controls in life-science experiments. We will compare a total of eight figure panels. And we will learn important lessons from them, for designing experiments and for reading figures. This episode will be Part 1 of a s...

The first Q&A session!   Question of today: Is it OK to say, “I don’t know” in response to technical questions in an interview when you apply for a life-science research position in a laboratory? I will give you my answer and the reasons why. Disclaimer: What I'm going to tell you is my personal opinion. It is possible that it does not apply to you in your own specific situation, in your...

We will keep analyzing the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will examine the four positive controls in the third figure of this paper, and in other figures as well. Those positive controls did not necessarily show positive responses in multiple figures. We will observe that positive controls can show variable beha...

Let’s analyze the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will look at the first two figures and four positive controls therein. As always, we are impressed by the meticulous design of the experiments by the Laureates.       Here are the links to the Milestone Article 1  (Immunity, 2005) by the Laureates, Dr. Katalin Kar...

In this episode, we shift our focus from negative controls to their counterparts: positive controls. We will begin by defining what we mean by positive controls. Then we will refine that definition to encourage practical and cautious thinking.       Here are the links to the Milestone Article 1  (Immunity, 2005) by the Laureates, Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman of the Nobel Prize in Phy...

One-year anniversary of this podcast channel! Thank you for listening. Why did I start podcasting? The motivation or the trigger was the students’ feedback to my teaching and training: they loved it. My goal is to help you learn and polish your skills in life sciences. In this episode, I will talk about a little story of how I started podcasting.          (My email is active. But my website is und...

This episode continues from the last one. This will mark the end of our story about the life-science experiment that did not work at first, but worked well after extensive troubleshooting. We will talk about the remaining three lessons we can learn from the story. They will be about thoughtful approaches, and about probably the most important mindset in life sciences (What will it be?).          T...

In the last episode, we finished discussing details of the life-science experiments in our story. We observed that negative controls can be powerful tools for troubleshooting and ensuring data quality. The story gave us invaluable learning experience. What lessons can we learn? We will talk about three lessons related to negative controls today. They will help us design good research and evaluate...

We will see how the experimenters implemented a good, troubleshooting idea into a protocol that appeared to be challenging at first. We are continuing to discuss the troubleshooting of a real, life-science experiment in our story. Sophisticated thought processes made the experiment possible in the end. This episode celebrates the power of well-designed experiments. We'll see how meticulous pl...

We will discuss the fourth and final idea, for troubleshooting a real, life-science experiment in our story. This idea was based on the previous three ideas. Then the experimenters took an impressive step. They identified key unknowns about the experiment, and refined and updated their idea. The updated idea laid the foundation for designing the crucial, fourth and final troubleshooting experiment...

We continue our deep exploration into negative controls and their importance in troubleshooting life-science experiments. We follow a real-life story of an experiment that yielded unexpected results. Through the third troubleshooting experiment utilizing negative controls, the experimenters finally uncovered the culprit. We discuss how negative controls helped identify the problem and pave the way...

We will be happy to announce the launch of a new way to stay connected with the show - a FREE email newsletter! Sign up to get updates on upcoming episodes, behind-the-scenes insights, and more. Please join the community by sending an email to: ideas@synaptologica.com.          (My email is active. But my website is under construction. Please wait for a while. Thank you for the patience!) 

We will experience the fascinating world of scientific troubleshooting. In this episode, we will revisit a life-science experiment where researchers aimed to see if a specific chemical compound could enhance a particular function in cultured cells. Their plan seemed straightforward - a pilot experiment with a positive control (active compound) and a negative control (inactive compound). They wante...

There are many reasons why life-science experiments do not work well. Today, I will tell you a real story about an experiment. It is an experiment that did not go well. We will explore the problem that researchers encountered. In the following episodes), we will discuss how they identified the problem, and how they solved the problem. The story will help us understand the importance of negative co...

Today's focus: negative controls. In life-science experiments, negative controls play critical roles. In my view, they are more important than the positive controls! They form such a rich topic that we will spend at least a few episodes on discussing them. Today, we introduce basic aspects: 1) what the negative controls do in life-science experiments, 2) our practical definition by modifying...

I will list four sets of links mentioned in this episode. All are related to the Laureates, Dr. Katalin Karikó & Dr. Drew Weissman of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. Milestone Article 1: Immunity, 2005 - DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2005.06.008     - PDF: https://www.cell.com/immunity/pdf/S1074-7613(05)00211-6.pdf     - PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16111635/...

Today's focus: the power of text elements in figures. We explore how category axis labels in bar graphs, when meticulously organized, reveal key experimental conditions at a glance. For a prime example, take Fig. 2B from our milestone article 1 by the Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023. Here, the labels use two key strategies: 1) precise keywords accurately represent...

Dive deep into Step 11 of reading the milestone article written by Nobel Laureates. We will examine the most important bar graph. We will read the labels and the legend, and combine our knowledge with the Nobel Committee video. We will use the information flexibly to understand the story the graph tells.    This is Part 8 of the reading mini-series "Let’s read a paper written by Nobel Prize L...

Visual elements in scientific papers often convey information faster than words. In Part 7 of reading mini-series, we will discuss previewing the paper content by scanning the figures and tables. This step will help us gain a quick overview of Nobel Prize-winning research.     (My email is active. But my website is under construction. Please wait for a while. Thank you for the patience!)

In Part 6 of reading mini-series, we will discuss key steps before diving into a paper. We will verify the paper's identity and map its structure. These simple actions will give us a bird's-eye view of the paper and set us up for a deeper, rewarding reading experience.    (My email is active. But my website is under construction. Please wait for a while. Thank you for the patience!)

Welcome to Part 5 of our mini-series on reading. Today, we will discuss a crucial step before diving into a paper. This powerful step will shift your focus from passively absorbing the written content to actively engaging with the authors' intent. By understanding what they are doing with each sentence and paragraph, you will gain a clearer overview of the paper's meaning. So, what is th...