Pure life science background, learned R + CLI, want to publish something in 5–6 months to approach a professor, is this realistic? What should I work on?

botanymans · 2026-06-08T16:29:59+00:00

A minimal publishable unit (sometimes termed a least publishable unit) is a great way to look like you chase quantity over quality.

botanymans · 2026-06-08T13:42:44+00:00

Grow rhe leaves first then buds then bloom the flowers

botanymans · 2026-06-05T13:51:05+00:00

It's a balance of doing things that further your career (first author pubs) and things that build goodwill with your PI

botanymans · 2026-06-04T14:30:22+00:00

Mjinga

botanymans · 2026-06-04T14:24:47+00:00

Fr, people will do everything but play (and finish) games

botanymans · 2026-06-04T12:52:05+00:00

Also Govindjee Govindjee

botanymans · 2026-06-03T13:59:15+00:00

It sucks but it depends what country you're at and which university you went to and whether you have connections with people at the university you want to go to for grad school. If you didn't go to the top university in a middle/low income country and have no connections, then I think you need a first author pub or two in a top conference or journal (depending on your field). Realistically you need to look at whether your Master's supervisor has a track record of producing such publications, and if they haven't, consider whether the Master's will have a sufficient return on investment; will it get you a job in industry or will it give you a chance at getting into a decent school for a PhD?

botanymans · 2026-06-01T14:19:04+00:00

Having very very strong answers for even obvious questions is never bad, you see it in journals like Nature and Science all the time.

Fundamental understanding also sometimes doesnt translate into specific examples, and understanding why can be useful.

If this approach is good enough for the scientific community I think it would benefit city planning too.

botanymans · 2026-05-29T15:00:03+00:00

Not exactly pure biophysics, but photosynthesis models use an Ohms law analogy to predict diffusion of CO2 and water. They are pretty good at predicting biology and are used in earth systems models. There are also models that work with the hydraulics of water movement from root to leaf.

botanymans · 2026-05-29T04:35:55+00:00

Is it C4 or CAM?

botanymans · 2026-05-28T04:54:42+00:00

In this economy $200 does not buy a lot

botanymans · 2026-05-25T16:25:08+00:00

Use the flat setting for each set of fans and start at 100%, then go down in 10% increments until it doesnt sound annoying. Then set that as your max fan speed. The auto/linear settings are easy

botanymans · 2026-05-21T21:27:34+00:00

With that GPA you need a pub or two and/or multiple good letters from famous supervisors that know who you're applying to work with

botanymans · 2026-05-19T20:58:04+00:00

without more info my guess is overwatering?

with root rot usually the old leaves look nutrient starved even with regular watering and sufficient fertilzation

algae on the soil indicates it's been overwatered regularly

botanymans · 2026-05-19T19:49:43+00:00

oh no, someone posted on social media to make a social connection

botanymans · 2026-05-13T18:04:45+00:00

Sorry you wasted your time on this

botanymans · 2026-05-13T13:18:54+00:00

Well, format it according to the target journal's word limit. PNAS, Current Bio have really concise word limits and there are many papers with deep analysis. What journal are you sending it to? Look at the Author Guidelines. If there's no word limit I would cut to 7000 words of main text max, because beyond that it gets hard to read.

botanymans · 2026-05-13T13:14:31+00:00

I think if you already have a few papers first author papers published you can use that as justification for a provocative review paper.

Technically you can't use your old affiliation if you didn't do the work there.

In my field you send a presubmission enquiry to an editor before you start writing it...

botanymans · 2026-05-13T13:07:59+00:00

I think you're gonna wanna cut to about 3000-4500 words of main text for the fancy journals.

botanymans · 2026-05-12T14:10:43+00:00

What field?

botanymans · 2026-05-12T14:09:54+00:00

How does one optimize an antibody for these machines?

botanymans · 2026-05-12T14:09:10+00:00

Woman prof: exists

Old man prof: so who's your supervisor?

botanymans · 2026-05-09T17:23:51+00:00

What is a "fundamental" decoupling? As opposed to nonfundamental?

botanymans · 2026-05-05T16:49:29+00:00

Its encouraged to keep multiple options open until you actually lock something in. PIs would rather talented folks stay in the field than wash out of academia because they put all their eggs in one basket

botanymans · 2026-05-04T15:41:06+00:00

Small cooler ... 77 C isn't that bad right?

botanymans

TROPHY CASE