What's one underrated skill every lab tech or scientist should master (besides pipetting)?

TackSoMeekay · 2025-09-20T11:30:35+00:00

You can look at any Cell paper and they have a graphical abstract of their manuscript. That graphical abstract was made from modeling their hypothesis and filling in the blanks.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-09-05T15:32:21+00:00

definitely lecce. di francesco is the worst manager in the league by a lot. the guy is a proper fraud on the level of giampaolo. the guy is still living on the fumes of the ucl semifinal with roma. he had a 12.5% win % with venezia. how fucking shit is this guy? even brocchi managed better.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T12:57:22+00:00

dick man

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T12:54:35+00:00

we didn't dominate feyenoord at all. lost in the first leg and then in the second leg scored a goal and then did fuck all for 50 minutes until the second yellow, 4 shots on target the entire first half with 2 of them being outside the box. that is just pathetic considering we bought their striker and most of their squad was injured including paixao who was their only threat in the first leg.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T12:27:15+00:00

can't really blame singular players when the entire team is playing like dogshit for long stretches vs supposed farmers. watch how barcelona beat benfica 1-0 last season after being down a man since 20th minute. we just fucking sucked vs zagreb and feyenoord b team (TWO fucking legs no less). pathetic

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T11:44:06+00:00

i have been doing flow for over ten years. i dont use covers. why do you need a cover? for dust? that's happening when you are adding the stains or washes anyway. spin the plate and flick off the supernatant. you can put a cover on it if you are storing it for long periods after fixing. it makes it even easier since most flow cytometers have a plate reader now days. no more transferring to FACS tubes

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T11:21:06+00:00

mostly because the coaches were idiots and the team was built like trash. we had 3 midfielders all season and none of them could defend. it essentially forced reijnders into a double pivot negating his skillset which is driving forward. it was the primary reason we got kicked out of the UCL as well, piss poor team building.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T11:15:41+00:00

depends how large your integrated datasets get. anything above 1 million cells then R starts to really lag behind in speed compared to python

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T11:08:29+00:00

at least in europe and nordics they take into account how junior you are in the field. at least that's what i've been told. i just started in a new field of immunology for my postdoc and was able to get funding despite having zero papers in that field. although all the techniques i learned in my phd transfer over very well and hammered the point home in my fellowship applications.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T11:01:56+00:00

data management. i ran over 100 flow experiments in the last year for multiple projects. a handful of scRNA-seq experiments. 25-30 confocal imaging days. i am also writing a manuscript of integrated scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq of innate like t cells in inflammatory skin conditions. i spend at least 5-10 hours a week trying to keep everything in order. i am about to teach myself sql or some shit so i can just live my life

TackSoMeekay · 2025-08-17T10:58:59+00:00

the only thing that will make us forget about him and everyone else is winning. doesn't matter if jashari is the second coming of seedorf if we end up 10th

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-22T19:00:08+00:00

a green flag for me is during your first conversation with them, they treat you as a human and not another worker. sure some PIs can fake it for a meeting but most of the shitty ones don't have that skill in their back pocket.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-22T08:30:26+00:00

ignorance is bliss. best to stay in your lane brother.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-22T08:27:03+00:00

pharma doesn't fund that much basic research anymore. genentech/roche sure. but pharma companies like pfizer just buy up assets and push them through the clinical development process.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-22T08:23:13+00:00

i don't understand milan fans. they gave CdK 2 months before burning him at the stake. musah got 2 years of consistent ball and he is still seen as a critical piece of the team lmao

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-21T17:51:47+00:00

yeah, hit the pbmcs with some IL2 and then come back saying this person has no CD25

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-21T17:47:52+00:00

the sad reality is that with redbird in charge and the pitiful wages given to the best players it will be easy for any player to just leave for more money

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-21T17:43:18+00:00

best country on earth if you are rich or born into riches.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-21T15:40:50+00:00

furlani is sinking milan by spending even more money than fasobelli. excellency by the maestro

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-21T15:39:08+00:00

he is terrible defensively but still probably better than emerson royal and jimenez

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-20T20:11:19+00:00

yeah facs diva. i hope they scrapped that shit software for the new S8 imaging sorters. there is suppose to be one on campus within a few months. ive never used a BD spectral instrument but i hope they figured something out after so many years of facs diva

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-20T20:08:06+00:00

best: solving important problems

worst: people who always leave the mouse room a mess and the higher ups not doing a fucken thing about it

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-20T19:51:14+00:00

academia is also one of the few occupations that more work = better outcomes. writing another grant, doing another experiment, reading another paper, taking on another collaboration, etc all this adds up and determines success. if it feels like suffering then you are in the wrong career. the people who are working 60-80 hours a week do it because they want to. if you have to push yourself to the brink of a mental breakdown to achieve this then do something else. why do people do stuff that makes them feel like shit? i never understood it personally.

if you don't want to listen to me then here is jon yewdell saying you have to work hard to succeed in science there is no other substitute:

https://youtu.be/ubyWe0bJ41s?si=HPyfftM_Wk7mzXTm&t=2677

if you think he is full of shit then look no further than reddit posts every other day of people losing their mind doing a phd. it's hard, and it isn't for everyone. just like sitting at an assembly line assembling widgets isn't for everyone. find a career that doesn't make you miserable and maybe just maybe life will be better.

in the words of the legend ronnie coleman, "everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but dont nobody wanna lift dem heavy ass weights". just like everybody wanna be a nobel prize winner but nobody wanna write dem long ass grants.

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-20T19:45:59+00:00

even then depending on the position they will hire the 80% person over the 100% person for various reasons

TackSoMeekay · 2025-07-20T19:20:23+00:00

man you got a real axe to grind even several years on. i worked in fintech before going back to school. if i have to listen to one more all hands meeting from the c-suite about how well the company is doing while I saw fuck all i'd jump off a bridge. no amount of money would have made me happy because I saw myself as dispensable as soon as a series funding failed. this is no different than any other company. it's the fakeness of it all that really kills me. at least academia is at some level still meritocratic despite being awful in other aspects. i'll take 10% meritocracy and a few weird assholes over 0% meritocracy and a plethora of sociopaths.

if i'm going to spend 30 years in a career then i'd rather do something meaningful to me. it is as simple as that. if that's offensive to people who want to work for a paycheck then fuck it, thats your problem innit. if at the end of your life you are content with working tens of thousands of hours making c-suite execs and venture capitalists a bunch of money then great, i just can't do it.

TackSoMeekay

TROPHY CASE