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Molecular Biologist Problems

@molecularbiologistproblems / molecularbiologistproblems.tumblr.com

My personal journey through science. (and the roadblocks that come along the way)
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big-pizza
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justnoodlefishthings

honestly fuck viruses they’re not even alive they’re just strands of punk ass DNA that go around fucking up us normal and god fearing life forms you don’t even have a nucleus you stupid bacteriophage looking horizontally transmitting RNA clump

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cancerbiophd
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stttudy-blog

tips for science majors (and all college students)

hey everyone! i decided to compile a list of tips for college students, specifically science majors because a lot of people are starting college soon. a lot of these could apply to any majors in general, but i’m simply speaking from my own experience.

  • handwrite your notes! I know it can be tempting to type them on your laptop because so many science classes are so heavy with information and lectures move so fast, but handwriting notes is super helpful and a lot of times an easier option, especially when drawing diagrams and writing reactions 
  • make at least 2 friends in every class to study and share notes with. chances are you won’t understand everything perfectly and getting a different perspective might make things clearer. also helpful if you miss a lecture!
  • practice questions are your best friend! this is true for most classes, but they’re absolutely necessary when it comes to classes like organic chemistry. look up practice questions and tests online and use them.
  • if you don’t already know any statistics, learn the basics. stats is ESSENTIAL and has come in handy for almost every science class i’ve taken. knowing what a t-test is, p value, alpha value, etc. beforehand is super helpful for labs and reading papers.
  • practice reading scientific journal articles as much as you can. this is a skill that i’ve yet to master and can be really frustrating but knowing how to process and understand those dense articles is really important no matter what you want to do in your life. most school libraries have subscriptions to most major databases like pubmed and journals like nature and science, so dedicate some time once or twice a month to read an article that’s interesting to you. focus on trying to interpret the figures and summarizing the data.
  • youtube is great for explaining scientific concepts you don’t understand. because certain processes and molecules etc. are so complex and may be hard to understand from a textbook with words and 2-D pictures, videos on youtube might explain and help visualize things better. there are some good ones out there but googling the topic you’re looking for usually brings up some helpful material!
  • khanacademy (my all-time fave i would literally die for khan academy guy he can have my firstborn) 
  • crash course
  • interactive biology
  • bozeman science (also has videos for ap bio/chem/physics/environmental science!)
  • minute physics 
  • get involved in research as early as possible. even if you don’t think you’ll like it, getting involved in research is a great experience for anyone. research professors and their work and email as many as you can before the semester starts to see if you can work in their labs. not only does it look great on your resume but you’ll also learn so much about the scientific process.
  • get a chalkboard/whiteboard for your room. it’s a great study tool to practice drawing mechanisms, reactions, processes, figures, etc. it literally saved my butt in organic chem last year.
  • don’t get stressed if you don’t know what you want to do with your major. try different things. do research in different labs on varying topics, talk to your professors and advisors, do some shadowing, talk to people in different industries.  
  • rewrite your notes and redraw diagrams. rewriting notes is a good tip for anyone, but redrawing diagrams in a different way than they’re presented in your textbook or lecture in a way that you understand better is super helpful.
  • don’t put lab reports off until the last minute. lab reports are the bane of my existence, but there’s nothing more stressful than doing one at the last minute before it’s due and realizing your results made NO sense. start them as soon as you finish the lab and don’t be afraid to ask for help from your lab instructor or other students.

those are all the ones i could think of at the moment! hopefully some of these are helpful for some of you :-) 

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dngay596-deactivated20191221
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oddity-txt
typopandas asked:

Chicken nugget's wings look disproportioned and I don't think he'll be able to survive in the wild due to his handicap. Maybe keep him?

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oddity-txt answered:

Yeahh I’m pretty sure that his left wing is deformed. It hasn’t straightened out and his Chrysalis was a little whack

I’m worried. He flies like a dork- a little frantic and uneven, but he can still fly. I don’t have any means of keeping him though so I’m not sure what to doAny suggestions for a handicapped yet handsome butterfly?

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hi, i think chicken nugget might be a chimera! a chimera is an organism with cells from two different zygotes, usually a result of a merging of sibling zygotes during gestation. anyway this can result in organisms with both male and female cells, and in animals with sexual dimorphism like many butterflies, having a “split” like chicken nugget is common!

here’s an example of a butterfly chimera with a split:

and here is the sexual dimorphism of spicebush swallowtails, with the male on the left and the female on the right:

male spicebush swallowtails are also smaller than the female, which would account for the size difference of chicken nuggets…chicken wings

as far as flight ability and care goes, i have no clue, but congrats on your beautiful new child!!

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oddity-txt

CHICKEN WING IS BREAKING THE BINARY oh my god oh my god thank you for this info my bro is a fucking hella rad chimera non fuckig binary,, oh my god We’re nb bros I can’t believe this

He’s not a boy or a girl folks He’s chicken nugget

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Blog Inactivity Notice

Hello friends! I'd like to thank you all so much for your support during the hardest time of my life. After experiencing systemic homophobia in my undergraduate career, I've been able to get my bachelor's degree, and I've decided to reward myself with something I've always wanted: a trip to Japan. I will be gone for three weeks, so my already sparse activity will become virtually nonexistent. When I return from Japan I intend to begin studying for the GREs and researching PhD programs in neuroscience and molecular biology with the hope to begin a program in Fall 2017.

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adventuresinchemistry
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papercraneswriting

Science Terms for Non-scientists

There is a huge amount of misunderstanding around common science terms. So here I am to blow away the fog! Hopefully some of you can find this useful for both everyday life and your writing.

Hypothesis: A statement made by a researcher regarding what they think is going on. Also called an “educated guess,” as in the person has the background knowledge to attempt an explanation prior to any testing. A hypothesis must be testable.

Observation: Literally what it sounds like. It is a fact of something a person sees. For example, a researcher may make an observation that the sky appeared orange at sunset or that their rat ate 24 food pellets in month. There is no thinking about it, no extrapolation, just the facts.

Law: This is a statement made following repeated experimental observation. A law is always true under a given set of conditions. They are not theories, as they do not try to explain what is going on.

Theory: This is the explanation for the repeated observations. It is supported by experimentation. Note: theories can never be proven true, only false (you can never test every single instance of the situation). You can just build evidence to support it.

The scientific method (though not always followed):

  1. A person makes an observation.
  2. The person forms a hypothesis attempting to explain the observation.
  3. The person comes up with ways to test the hypothesis.
  4. The person implements these tests.
  5. The person evaluates results and revises the hypothesis if needed.

Field: This is the sub-specialization of a scientist. For example, a biologist may be a general biologist, marine biologist, molecular biologist, cancer biologist, neuroscientist, immunobiologist, epidemiologist, ecologist, behavioral researcher, neuropsychologist, etc.

Field work: This is the type of experiment that is performed outside of the lab. For example, an ecologist may be performing evaluations of stream conditions. While they are physically at the stream, they are doing field work.

Bench work: This is work inside the lab. For example, a scientist who is actively working on something like cell culture or running a gel is doing bench work.

Science writing: This is writing with a focus on science! It may be writing scientific articles, writing protocols, evaluating and editing proposals, or writing for popular press and audiences. Yes, this is its own separate career, typically requiring a background in at least science and possibly scientific writing or journalism.

Journal: This is where scientific papers are published. Some common journals in my field are Nature and The American Journal of Medicine and Neuron. There are a lot. And some are very obscure. They are rated by this thing called “impact factor” that is supposed to relate to journal quality (better impact factor gives your research better exposure), but in my opinion is nonsense. Also, you should trust peer reviewed journals more than journals that are not peer reviewed…that means that other professionals in their field have evaluated the paper.

Principle Investigator (PI): This is the person in charge of a particular study. Often that is the person who runs the lab out of which the study comes. Their name will be last on the paper. Note: name order on papers is very important. First and last author are the important ones. If your name is in the middle, you’re not as big of a contributor unless it is noted otherwise in the journal.

I hope you found this interesting and informative! Hopefully I will be able to post a biology-specific post like this soon. :)

Happy writing!

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the-science-of-our-times
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adventuresinchemistry

Biology subfields

Genetics: punnett squares are overrated nerd

Molecular biology: CRISPR

Biophysics: the best

Structural biology: is xray crystallography even relevant anymore, dork?

Cell biology: have fun with your MAP kinase kinase kinase kinase, nerd

Zoology: you’re still a thing?

Marine biology: are you a dolphin nerd or an orca dorka?

Microbiology: sterile conditions bitches

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abandonthefort

fuck you X-ray crystallography is super relevant for membrane proteins I’m feeling so attacked right now and I’m not even a structural biologist I’m a neuroscientist

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adventuresinchemistry

NOPE

You can’t add entirely new proteins into cytoplasmic loops to get things to crystallize and then claim biological relevance. Looking at you GPCR crystal structures

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