We believe there is an opportunity to reduce the cost of invaluable research.
5 g Carbenicillin
You can pay 468 with USB, 320.50 with Fisher or 39 with P212121.
100 g IPTG
You can pay 2341.70 with Fisher or 99 with P212121.
Innovative products, you bet.
It’s coming, Monday.
Start hyperventilating now.
Last night, I was faced with a decision. I had 2 movies to choose from and, after some contemplation, decided to pass on Twilight: New Moon (apologies to the 14 year old girls in my readership). Instead, we went forExtraordinary Measures.
The movie, based on a true story, was about the Crownley family and an underfunded scientist. The family had 2 children born with Pompe, a progressive and (at the time) fatal disease. Their future was looking bleak with no drug currently available. The movie follows the research and scientists responsible for ultimately designing a drug for this disease.
I found the movie quite inspiring. If you feel like you’re losing your ‘oomph’ or passion for your work, this is a great movie to watch.
Have you seen the movie? What did you think?
We have doubled the number of resources in our tool page over the past couple of weeks. The focus has been on trying to bring together websites that are useful for macromolecular crystallography.
If there is a resource that we are missing and you’ve found it helpful, feel free to leave a comment.
Phenix (Python-based Hierarchical ENvironment for Integrated Xtallography) has been developed for the determination of macromolecular crystallographic structures. Phenix is a leader in automating the structure determination process.
I am going to start playing around with Phenix, but first wanted bring together helpful resources about the program suite:
Are you using Phenix? Why or why not?
What resources have you found especially helpful? Do you have any tips or tricks for getting started?
Artem comments:
late graduate students and Postdocs are vulnerable…
the challenge is to stick out from the background of young researchers…
Vulnerable in the sense of being attacked
The logical response is to defend, but be careful how you do so
The reflex is to follow protocol, keep your head down and get a paper published. What other options do you have? You aren’t in charge, it’s not your lab.
Getting ready to move on, you search for job openings, ask your boss who they know, polish the CV and get ready for interviews.
The job opening appears and 300 people apply. A mountain of applications, all saying the same thing.
Maybe the riskiest thing you can do, is not take any risks at all.
This is the part of the post where you want 10 things to try
This is the part of the post where we list what is remarkable
This is the part where I don’t tell you what you are capable of
If you are a US citizen attending graduate school then you may find this advice helpful.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and/or CPA therefore they should be contacted before following any of this advice.
At the beginning of each year you have the ability to fill out a FAFSA, which essentially allows the government to determine whether you are eligible to receive financial aid. If you are eligible then you can receive a loan up to $8500 that can be subsidized. Subsidized meaning the loan does not accrue interest until 6 months after you graduate. My guess is that most graduate students are at least partially eligible who are not supported by their parents.
The numbers will vary depending by school, but let’s say a graduate student is making $25,000 a year. If it takes 5 years to complete your degree then you would be eligible to take out $42,500 (minus universities fees of ~1.5 percent on the loan).
A couple of years ago, savings accounts were paying about 5 percent interest, which on $42,500 is $2,125 (minus taxes) during your last year. If you are making ~$25 k a year then this is a significant amount of money. However, at the moment saving accounts and CDs are yielding about the same as the university fee so you could argue that it is not really worth the effort, fair enough.
The crowd that I think can really benefit are those that are planning on taking out loans (or currently have a loan). I have a number of colleagues that have taken out relatively high interest rate loans on vehicles or to attend medical school. The interest rates on these loans can be more than 12 percent. Currently, subsidized loans after the grace period are at 5.6 percent (ref).
Don’t forget this is a loan and must be paid back. You have to decide for yourself whether taking the additional risk is worth it.
1) 32 percent on an exam can be a great score
2) 4 mountain dews do not equal a full night of sleep
3) The phrase “if you put it on a slide, you have to know it.”
4) Learn a whole lot about very little
5) Personal hygiene is not universal
6) Snacks offered before a guest lecture do not count as a meal
7) Don’t end a first date with ‘I love you.’
—
What lessons did you or are you learning?
1) Bio-Rad thermal cycler: The PCR song
2) Eppendorf pipetting: Boy Band
Enjoy the weekend!
As Peter Müller may say Artem is looking for a Jedi Knight.
Protein Science Intern (St. Louis, MO)-000W8
Description from the Monsanto site:
We currently have an opening for a Summer Intern in Structural Biology and protein biochemistry. This is an excellent opportunity for a fledgling scientist to work on challenging projects and to learn advanced skills in protein expression, purification, and crystallization. Working under the guidance of a research scientist the prospective candidate will be given an opportunity to contribute his/her work towards an important project related to Monsanto’s agricultural technologies. The opportunity to publish results in a peer-reviewed journal may also become available. The duration of the appointment is structured to last 8-10 weeks with 40 hr per week commitment during the Summer months of 2010. This position will be located at Monsanto Chesterfield facility in St. Louis.
More details as well as where you need to apply are found on the Monsanto site (for easy searching use 000W8 as the Requisition Number)
I wanted to take a moment to wish all those celebrating this time of year, all the best!
Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement this year. I am constantly amazed at all the visits, comments, emails, and phone calls.
I truly appreciate all those that have helped to make this site better.