Who could have predicted maize geneticists would be so interested in maize genes? The entry I posted last night on Purple plant1 and Colored aleurone1 easily received more traffic in its first day on the site (it’s still got a long way to go before it catches long term readership attractors like water chestnuts and [...]
Posts under ‘Campus Life’
Scientific Posters
I’m involved in the designing of two posters my lab will be taking to the maize meeting in a weeks time. What are scientific posters?
A cross between a very short paper and a very short, on demand, research seminar, a poster is a dozen square feet of scientific data. We grad students cobble together some [...]
The Sacrifices People Make For Science
My heart bleeds for those poor scientists forced to spend the week at Marco Island for the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference. Not only do they have to put up with temperatures in the 60s (~20 C) and views like the one attached, but consider the grueling workload they labor under even after [...]
Science Confessions
Tweets by scientists about the funny/sad experience that is life in a research lab.
Thanks Brassica oleracea
If you see a guy holding this stalk of brussels sprouts reciting the definition of qPCR in a promotional video from Agilent, it just might be me. 
(How many biologists carrying telegenic vegetables are they likely to find on campus?)
A Reminder: National Lab Mustache Day
… is coming up a week from tomorrow (Friday, February 12th). It’s been two and a half years since I last sported a mustache, but I recently found out about this holiday and it’s too awesome not to bring back the ’stache. (Temporarily of course)
For more on National Lab Mustache Day, check out … the [...]
Grad School Admissions Essays
This is the second year I’ve had the privilege of reading the personal statements of the prospective new grad students being interviewed by our department. It’s interesting to see the strategies people take in trying to sell themselves. Broadly applicants can be grouped into three categories (at least successful ones, the department doesn’t let us [...]
My First Day Teaching (prologue)
I don’t actually start for another two and a half hours. But at 2 pm pacific time I’m going to assume the role of a graduate student instructor (Berkeley’s fancy name for a TA) in the first of the two discussion sections I’ll be teaching every week.
As first classes to TA go, this one feels [...]
Make Sure Your Voice is Heard
Another positive side effect of extending my stay in Iowa for another week (besides having the chance to work from a room with a view), was getting the chance to see the Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak give a presentation on the same themes are their book “Tomorrow’s Table” here on campus (I’ve reviewed the book [...]