r/labrats

There’s this major STEM university right near where my grandparents’ live, RPI.

I am actually so excited right now, I only just came to the realization I’m allowed as a non-student and non-employee to just show up to university lectures for free…

I thought I had to like, sign up for classes or something… I didn’t know I could just straight up spawn on campus like that…

I’m an artist, an independent filmmaker to be specific, and I’ve always loved STEM-related stuff but I hate school and never want to actually go to university…

I do however, love independent learning and I’m so happy now because I’m finally going to be able to do that I think…

I’m just wondering though… In general, what kind of people should I expect to encounter there…?

The lectures I’ll mainly be going to are the smaller ones regarding topics such as science, engineering, biology, physics, astronomy, stuff like that…

General context. I just started my phd at a prestigious university w/ an 8-week rotation style program. Problem is, only 2 days into this rotation and i’m realizing i not only hate these techniques but also absolutely hate the people in this lab. They are incredibly degrading, dismissive, and pessimistic. Is it okay if I speak with my chair about leaving this rotation early and adding on another rotation? Is this problematic? I know for a fact I will not be joining this lab. Advice??

In case you were not aware, administration recently announced that foreign students pursuing their PhDs are limited to 4 years in the US. Apparently this doesn't just apply to future students, but to current as well. It isn't clear how this can work, and what will happen to, lets say, current 5th year students. Given that non-US students make up a significant proportion of the US scientific endeavor, does anyone know if the US Scientific Societies like AAAS and ACS, or universities as a whole, are mounting any coordinated opposition to this policy, which has the potential to degrade US science and technology for decades to come?

I am designing a research poster for an upcoming conference and I want it to be the sexiest one I have ever made. With that being said, I would love to see your poster design opinions, especially unpopular ones.

I for one am partial to a tasteful background gradient <3

I am the only senior member at the moment in a relatively small lab after our last post doc left last year. I have essentially been keeping the entire ship afloat for the last year. My PI keeps loading more and more work on my plate and expecting me to juggle multiple scientific (and completely unrelated) projects, grant writing, ethics applications, staying up to date on the literature, writing a paper, editing another paper, reviewing a grant proposal all while managing all our junior students and teaching them techniques and helping with their projects. He refuses to hire a new post doc or take on senior students that could actually benefit the lab and from my persceptive relieve some of my work load. Anytime I feel like I actually get something even remotely close to finished some other urgent task comes up, interrupting any work flow and throwing everything into a state of half done half not done.

I can’t possibly do it. My hints and even straight up admissions that it’s too much have been brushed aside. And honestly hours later usually followed up by another request for work. Usually I am able to juggle and stay on top of things but lately it’s just been too much and the amount of overwhelm is causing my motivation to plummet, like no human could possible get all this done or juggle this much at once and do anything remotely well. I have no idea how to bring this up without falling way out of favour and because our grant situation is extremely tight getting into a situation where the security of my job is threatened because of his perceived lack of performance from my end.

The lab is so reliant on my I would feel horrible leaving and almost like I’m betraying him and the students, especially with all my projects basically half finished but I honestly feel so mentally checked out and overwhelmed at this point, it’s hard to even sit down to do the things I know I can actually accomplish.

Iam trying to study if my compound could inhibit nfkb activation when stimulated with LPS, that is at the end measuring p-NF-kB p65 levels, Now with my western blot I can see a clear total NFkB Levels, but p-NF-kB is little ambiguous. Now here my protocol details:

cells: Thp1 dervied macrophages

lps concentration: 20ng/ml

stimulation time: 30min

fbs concentration: regular 10% in RPMI media,

Are these factors correct, many say i have to reduce fbs concentration or even reduce it to zero, or should i increase lps concetration like 100ng/ml and what about stimulation time

Any suggestions would be great

Hi all,

I recently started a lab manager position, and I haven't been in charge of maintaining freezers, inventory, and such before.

I've noticed both our -20 freezer and -80 freezer are getting a lot of icy buildup, which is making it hard to find things.

Is there something I should be doing to prevent this? Scraping it every so often? Planned defrosting?

We have long-term sample storage in the -80, as well as long-term storage of reagents in the -20.

Hello everyone!

I am having a little bit of trouble deciding what I want to do next in my career. Soon, I will graduate with a BS in Human Biology. I have undergraduate research experience in histology, pathology, and bone biology. (Publishing a paper soon, woot woot) I absolutely am in love with the lab, and I for sure know that no matter what I do in life, I will always be in a lab. I am considering so many ideas at once, mainly histotechnologist, medical laboratory scientist/clinical research, or pathology. Now I am just debating whether I can actually live sustainably with these jobs. I keep hearing so many different things about pay and opportunities. My first love is histology, of course, but I heard that it is too narrow of a field and does not pay well. I love research and pathology as well, but I have been told the only path to it is PhD, which I kinda just want to stop at my master's and certifications. I have always thought about obtaining my certification first, then going back for a master's, but family is putting the pressure on me to start a master's now even though I'm a little burnt out right now. (I'm both graduating early and doing research I am TIRED) I'd love to get my master's to continue research but I am not even sure what kind of master's to even apply for. :((

So if anyone has some advice, kind words, cool jobs, or stories of ways they reached their career paths I'd love to hear it.

I was recently asked to peer review a paper; I was very happy, it’s one of my first as an early career post doc, and the topic is of interest to me. However, I became increasingly disappointed with the sloppiness of the paper, starting from the writing (very long, convoluted sentences sometimes repeated verbatim one or two paragraphs later), to the analyses (entirely generated by Claude, not one tool was referenced or used and the figures are quite a giveaway) and even the references (some are duplicated, some are not fitting). There are a lot of numerical inconsistencies throughout the text and figures and there is no methodological transparency whatsoever. I’m very conflicted on what to do, straight up reject or suggest major revisions to try and save what’s worth saving? Is it true or just a myth that if a reviewer suggests rejection they just gets replaced until the paper gets eventually published? Thank you!!! Please be kind, I’m trying to learn myself 🙂