Foundational Skills in Life Sciences
Students and scholars in life sciences need to use many skills to survive and excel during scientific training, which involves listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
But I have seen many of them struggle in understanding and learning those skills.
I am a professor in the U.S., a tenured faculty member with MD, PhD degrees.
I will assist you through the skills, so that you will learn and improve successfully in your professional life.
Please visit my website for more information (https://synaptologica.com/), and send me emails with questions, comments or ideas ([email protected]).
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 18 minutes
- Episodes
- 61
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
41. Exclude or include seemingly irrelevant experiences in your academic CV? (Q&A-4: CV)
“Should I exclude irrelevant experiences from my academic CV?”
This is a question that students often ask. In this episode, I would like to give you my thoughts about this question.
In general, t…
40. Short or long CV for applying for a research position? (Q&A-3: CV)
“Should my CV be short or long, when I apply for a research assistant position in a college/university lab?”
This is a question that students often ask. In this episode, I would like to give you my…
39. Eight key components define the Abstract structure (mini-series: reading-25)
How do top-tier scientific journals, like Nature, make sure their abstracts are clear and impactful?
In today’s episode, we will identify the eight key components that make those abstracts effectiv…
38. The journal, Nature, dissects the Abstract structure (mini-series: reading-24)
What is the best way to learn how to read the Abstract of a scientific paper?
In my view, the best way is to learn how the Abstract is structured in any paper.
Today, we will learn it, by reading…
37. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024, relevant to life scientists!
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! Two days ago, it was in Physiology or Medicine. Yesterday, it was in Physics. Today, it was in Chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dr. David B…
36. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024, relevant to life scientists!
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! Yesterday, it was in Physiology or Medicine. Today it was in Physics.
It was awarded to Dr. John Hopfield, and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, “for foundational discoveries…
35. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Dr. Victor Ambros, and Dr. Gary Ruvkun, “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transc…
34. Lessons learned from Nobel Laureates' work, about positive and negative controls (mini-series: reading-23)
We will complete the analysis of positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates of 2023. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negat…
33. How to do a good oral presentation? Hidden, but important tip (Q&A-2: presentation)
Question of today: What is a practical tip for effective oral presentations? There are many important things to do, for delivering oral presentations successfully. But I will be happy to give you my …
32. Is it important to include positive and negative controls in each experiment? Lesson from Nobel Laureates' work (mini-series: reading-22)
We will examine the positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negative controls in life-…
31. Is it OK to say, “I don’t know” in response to technical questions? (Q&A-1: interview)
The first Q&A session! Question of today: Is it OK to say, “I don’t know” in response to technical questions in an interview when you apply for a life-science research position in a laboratory? I w…
30. Positive controls in another experiment by Nobel Laureates (mini-series: reading-21)
We will keep analyzing the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will examine the four positive controls in the third f…
29. Positive controls in experiments by Nobel Laureates (mini-series: reading-20)
Let’s analyze the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will look at the first two figures and four positive controls t…
28. Defining positive controls in life-science experiments (mini-series: reading-19)
In this episode, we shift our focus from negative controls to their counterparts: positive controls. We will begin by defining what we mean by positive controls. Then we will refine that definition t…
27. One-year anniversary: I started podcasting to help you (podcast update 5)
One-year anniversary of this podcast channel! Thank you for listening. Why did I start podcasting? The motivation or the trigger was the students’ feedback to my teaching and training: they loved it.…
26. Lessons learned from a failed experiment. Part 2 (mini-series: reading-18)
This episode continues from the last one. This will mark the end of our story about the life-science experiment that did not work at first, but worked well after extensive troubleshooting. We will ta…
25. Lessons learned from a failed experiment. Part 1 (mini-series: reading-17)
In the last episode, we finished discussing details of the life-science experiments in our story. We observed that negative controls can be powerful tools for troubleshooting and ensuring data qualit…
24. Negative controls put the pieces together in troubleshooting experiments (mini-series: reading-16)
We will see how the experimenters implemented a good, troubleshooting idea into a protocol that appeared to be challenging at first. We are continuing to discuss the troubleshooting of a real, life-s…
23. Refining a troubleshooting idea: the power of identifying unknowns (mini-series: reading-15)
We will discuss the fourth and final idea, for troubleshooting a real, life-science experiment in our story. This idea was based on the previous three ideas. Then the experimenters took an impressive…
22. Negative controls unveil a hidden culprit in a problematic experiment (mini-series: reading-14)
We continue our deep exploration into negative controls and their importance in troubleshooting life-science experiments. We follow a real-life story of an experiment that yielded unexpected results.…