Nature’s survey of almost 4,000 researchers shows that you’re not alone if you struggle to make ends meet or your last pay rise is a distant memory.

I got this MRSA plushie two decades ago, a few years before I actually started my career in the life sciences. I was digging through some old stuff at my parents' house and completely forgot they gave it a little black cape for being a multi-resistant "superbug."

Nothing like finding an $8 set

My pd advisor was a big deal and was requested to write a review article for science about the evolution of a thing he had originally cloned in the 80s. I had done evo-devo in grad school. He talked to me and 2 other pds in the lab about the article and asked us separately to review his draft. I said hey you need to add two paragraphs like this and add a figure like that. He asked me to do some genome searches to figure out how the genes were structured, so I did that and coughed up the numbers for the departmental graphic artist to use in making the figure.

I was not an author, and I also wasn't acknowledged (no one was. He acknowledged the contributions of the entire lab.) I feel like even though I didn't draft text word for word, I did edit the thing and provided concepts that were later included. AND I coughed up numbers for genome alignments.

To give a bit of background I posted a few days ago asking for feedback if I should continue working while on paid time off. My institute originally gave me an option of 1. Be laid off or 2. Go on paid time off for 3 months to burn my PTO and keep health benefits.

Many of you suggested I should not work on PTO as it is paid time off and I agree!

Well today my coworker told me that management and HR have viewed my “I will be unavailable and unreachable while on PTO” as a “change in character” and that I “no longer show interest in my projects I manage”

So they had my coworker tell me they are planning to revoke my option to burn my PTO and lay me off instead.

Is this considered retaliation? I’ve truly never been in this situation before and feel like crap.

I also burst into tears for 40 minutes talking to my coworker because they’re now claiming I lack character and I’ve only ever gone above and beyond.

Any feedback is helpful.

Hi everyone,

I'm a PhD student, and during a recent presentation of my research, a committee member questioned part of my statistical analysis (the results were visibly inconsistent with the experimental data, and I honestly don't know how nobody noticed this earlier).

This prompted me to revisit the analysis, and I discovered that I'd accidentally mixed up some columns in a portion of the data when pooling individual datasets. The original data were correct, but the mistake affected some statistical results.

After correcting it, the overall pattern remains similar, but one of the conclusions needs to be qualified. The rest of the paper is unaffected.

What should I do? I need this publication to complete my PhD, which I was hoping to finish soon. I'm terrified the paper might get retracted, leaving me with nothing to show for my work. I'm also really worried about how my PI will react. :(

Has anyone been through something similar?

Hey yall,
Coming to you from an underfunded federal lab where someone unfortunately ordered the incorrect 1.5ml tubes.

Long story short we need to replace the untethered caps with tethered ones and I am in the unfortunate situation of doing this by hand in a sterile hood…10k times.

Anyone have any tricks or tools to stretch the little o-ring of the cap tether over the lip of the cap easier? There’s gotta be a better way than me just forcing it with my nails through my gloves!

Curious if any of you have or know someone who made a complete pivot in their career away from anything research related and achieved success

We're setting up a biomarker panel (mostly cytokines plus a few proteins) and I'm stuck choosing between serum and plasma. If plasma, is EDTA the safe default, or are heparin and citrate better fon some analytes? I'd love to hear what has worked for you, and whether mixing sample types across a cohort caused problems.

Kinda just need another opinion on this happening today. So I went out of town the week before last for a big life event and PTOd the whole week, and the following Monday. I ended up being short 2 hours for the full 8 hours on Monday, so I made up for it by working late Tuesday- Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday were like 9am-8pm, Thursday was like 9am - 7pm. I reported Tuesday and Wednesday as being 9 hour days to get me to 80. PI said today that this was a complete misrepresentation of my time, and will be reporting me to HR for time card falsification? He says the extra hours were not approved and that I needed to take the missing two hours as unpaid.

this is probably an easy one :)

For context, I have been working in my wet lab for almost 2 years since my freshman year. (2000 hrs+) I dedicated myself to mastering all relevant molecular bio techniques and worked almost full time or more during 2 summers and around 20-40 hrs during the semesters. In my second year in the lab, I was entrusted with an independent project, which I'm actively working towards getting more data. When is it a good time to ask my PI if I can present? How much data is enough to present at conferences? How do PIs feel when undergrads present at conferences? I'm nervous cuz my PI has very high expectations and strict policies for presenting (we can only present data that we got on our own and not others' data).

I’m starting to reach out to apply for postdocs, I have my references from my advisor and committee members but I was wondering if it would be beneficial to include additional references from students I’ve mentored. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the chance to mentor several students and I thought about including them since they’ve worked with me daily. I also wasn’t sure if additional references is really something a PI would actually take the time to look through.

Hi there, I hope everyone is well! :P

Does anyone know any labs in London exploring living textiles (e.g. Biohybrid Textiles from Dr Jane Scott) and how they can be used in modern design. My current Masters research is around temporary and permanent connections with land, and how we can practice reciprocity through the materials we use - both synthetic and natural; specifically tent-based structures and materials. I am keen at looking how bacteria (P. Fluorescens and/or Alcanivorax Borkumensis) can live/grow / can you grow a tent. I would be very appreciative of any leads of who to speak to, to further my research or/and any labs in London that would potentially let me explore these possibilities! :D

Put in a request for Adobe Illustrator access but my university hasn't provided any update or access. I've made all my posters on Illustrator in the past so everything is an .ai file with the final copy being a .pdf sent for printing.

Aside from Powerpoint, what other apps can read .ai files or create and edit vector images on a pdf? I'll be bugging my university again to hopefully get access.

Settle a debate for me:

I think it’s absolutely unnecessary to do 3 washes with TBST after blocking, somebody else in my lab does the 3 washes

Edit: forgot to mention this is for a WB