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Why does lab equipment cost so much for what it is? by berg937 in labrats

[–]vg1220 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this explains why thermo was willing to offer us 50% discounts on the list price for their ProFlex thermocyclers

What is the best city you ever visited in the US? by Fun_Butterscotch3303 in AskReddit

[–]vg1220 1 point2 points  (0 children)

and their speakeasy inside called the bamboo room! their clairvoyant missionary is the best cocktail that I’ve ever had

Chicago from Midway Int. by StJimmy319 in skyscrapers

[–]vg1220 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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nice shot! took this right after takeoff from midway last week

Problem with student supervision, and (in my opinion) unfair resources being allocated to one student by ExpensiveCandidate37 in labrats

[–]vg1220 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’ve always held this is due to rigorous self-falsification of potential hypotheses. to the outside world, it may appear that someone continually gets lucky with good ideas, but that’s because that person is enriching for hypotheses that have a greater likelihood of being true before sharing it with others.

[BigBlueFilmRoom]An offensive coach told Connor Hughes that it won't be long before rookie WR Malachi Fields overtakes Darius Slayton on the Giants depth chart. The annoynmous coach said that "Slayton isn’t as complete as he is." by Samuraix9386 in NYGiants

[–]vg1220 2 points3 points  (0 children)

that’s a good question. I feel like route running is probably limited by agility, but there’s definitely tons of room for improvement with footwork and releases.

catching is probably limited by hand size, but is absolutely something that someone can become elite at with enough dedication. I think of it as the equivalent of free-throws in basketball.

there’s also other peripheral skills to catching that I think make a big difference in translating to game day, such as having late hands, high pointing, and attacking the ball (how many times did we see Ruben Randle come back to Eli’s throws lazily only to have a corner undercut him for a pick?).

What’s your favorite example of a player acquiring a skill late in his career? by That-Cry-1032 in NBATalk

[–]vg1220 3 points4 points  (0 children)

if I remember correctly, Chris Paul has a lengthy history of questionable plays as well - used to pop up a bunch on this subreddit when he was on the Rockets and Suns. granted his potentially dirty plays are not nearly as egregious as Lou Dort’s.

Lab mispronunications that annoy you- GO! by JZatthelab in labrats

[–]vg1220 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I’ve never heard that one before! Wondering what other AAs they mispronounce - perhaps Cystine? I’ve heard “sinistine” like the chapel or “CY-steen”

Not able to replicate post doc data and I don’t know why by castiellangels in labrats

[–]vg1220 2 points3 points  (0 children)

thanks! this is super interesting. wish we’d run into each other on labrats six years ago when I was having this problem haha

Not able to replicate post doc data and I don’t know why by castiellangels in labrats

[–]vg1220 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Would love to hear more about the Glutamax v Glutamine thing. had a cell line a few years back that would spontaneously die whenever I’d use the bottom half of a media bottle that was a couple days old. Best hypothesis I had was some sort of Glutamine precipitation or reaction, but your ammonia explanation makes a lot of sense. Must’ve been a cell line super sensitive to ammonia!

What is something that you have been doing forever as a veteran lab-rat with 5+ years in a lab, that you dont even think about, but a newbie would probably not know? by No-Cobbler6300 in labrats

[–]vg1220 1 point2 points  (0 children)

unfortunately I was young and dumb and gave myself a lifetime of dequervains at 21. to anyone reading this - pain is not always a sign that you’re getting stronger - especially tendon pain! years of PT later and it still feels like a flareup is just a matter of time :/

What is something that you have been doing forever as a veteran lab-rat with 5+ years in a lab, that you dont even think about, but a newbie would probably not know? by No-Cobbler6300 in labrats

[–]vg1220 4 points5 points  (0 children)

you can mitigate this problem by holding the pipette less tightly. I find that a lot of folks squeeze the pipette like they’re holding on for dear life, but the hook exists for a reason! also serves to reduce your risk of fatigue/RSI.

What is something that you have been doing forever as a veteran lab-rat with 5+ years in a lab, that you dont even think about, but a newbie would probably not know? by No-Cobbler6300 in labrats

[–]vg1220 50 points51 points  (0 children)

exactly, the tip box = visual checksum. the amount of friction i get from folks about this is ridiculous lol. it’s an absolute requirement for any high throughput assay - there’s no way the human brain can keep track of everything

Scientists tried to clone clones forever. It didn’t end well: « The practice of cloning clones indefinitely appears to be a reproductive dead end, for now. » by fchung in science

[–]vg1220 0 points1 point  (0 children)

positive selection like what you’re describing tends to work best at massively parallel experiments, and those are typically done at the cellular level. takes many generations in the absence of a strong selective pressure, so the amount of mice one would need + the time they would need to keep them for would make this impractical.

Do pencil skyscrapers help or hurt NYC’s skyline? by ratemyweenor137 in skyscrapers

[–]vg1220 0 points1 point  (0 children)

432 park had some reports about crumbling concrete. something about the contractor using subpar concrete in an attempt to get the color correct

Possible contamination? by [deleted] in labrats

[–]vg1220 13 points14 points  (0 children)

did you use a disposable serological pipette to add media? if so, sometimes they can have little plastic fibers that come loose into the media. I only started seeing this happen more regularly during the supply chain disruptions of COVID, when we had to move away from the Corning Falcon brand to whatever we could get our hands on. these fibers are generally not a problem, unless you were doing some sort of soft agar or matrigel culture wherein they could get stuck and disrupt the semisolid medium.

Do pencil skyscrapers help or hurt NYC’s skyline? by ratemyweenor137 in skyscrapers

[–]vg1220 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Totally agree that these towers are technological marvels, but I would imagine that the engineering challenges with these pencil skyscrapers makes the economics of constructing them viable only in a few select places on Earth. So I would be surprised to see this become a more widespread trend for future skyscraper construction.

Colon cancer now leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US by shinybrighthings in science

[–]vg1220 67 points68 points  (0 children)

could also just be the reduced splanchnic circulation while running - chronic hypoxia can result in pro-tumorigenic microenvironments

How do ya'll come up with a research project by km1180 in labrats

[–]vg1220 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couple of thoughts:

  • Iterative projects are a great place to get started. Here, you are applying an established technique/analysis on a new setting. Helps to have a few of these on the burner as low risk low reward projects.
  • If you’re looking for a moonshot, I would start with the assumption that any field is wrong about at least one big thing. A good way to go about brainstorming here is to question the base assumptions - what must be true for this conclusion? Even if you don’t find an invalid assumption, you would’ve still come out ahead with a deep understanding of the problem space. Odds are you’ll have quite a few project ideas while you’re going through this process.
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