During my gap year between college and graduate school, I found myself working as a lab technician at New York University. On our floor, there was a small room that housed the glassware washers and autoclaves. It was here that I met a kind-hearted but timid man who operated the machines. Whenever I entered the... Continue Reading →
Before going to graduate school, I spent a year working at New York University as a lab technician. As a farewell gift, I received a popular book called “At The Bench”. It was supposed to act as my springboard into “real”research. In addition to helpful descriptions of common lab techniques, it also contained some practical... Continue Reading →
Illusion of control Today I want to talk about control. You might find it laughable after the last 2+ years we have been through, but all of us seek it nevertheless. While I am not the most organized person, I have always been big on scheduling. When it comes to my own schedule, I plan... Continue Reading →
Science is hard. 98.5% of the time it doesn't cooperate. And that can really hurt your ego. Even knowing that it's normal to expect only a tiny percentage of your experiments to work often doesn't help. And while years of experience can help slightly stack the odds in your favor, science always catches you off... Continue Reading →
In spring 2017, I got laid off from my first job and spent the summer looking for a new one. While I knew what I wanted to do, I also realized that I had to be open minded in case my "perfect" job didn't exist in New York City yet. Neuroscience companies were hard to... Continue Reading →
Now that we are 2 years into working remotely (for the most part anyway), we have become experts in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack, you name it... At the same time we got sick of demonstrating our (occasionally messy) apartments. In fact, I recently attended a webinar (on Zoom!) talking about remote meeting etiquette. Putting... Continue Reading →
In one of my recent posts, I wrote about how I felt at my previous job and why I created "Wilting Mind". Many people say that art often comes from pain. The greater the pain, the greater the art presumably. And that you should actually draw on that pain for inspiration. Over the past four... Continue Reading →
Last week our kids had their winter school break and we went for a week-long ski trip in Mont Tremblant, Canada. Mont Tremblant has a great mountain and, perhaps more importantly, a really picturesque village at its base. My parents and I have come here several times when I was a teenager, but not in... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, I got myself into a bit of a pickle at work. I am a secret self-improvement book/webinar/lecture junkie. I live by books like "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, "168 Hours: You have more time than you think" by Laura Vanderkam, and Austin Kleon's series of books for artists. It is... Continue Reading →
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”-William Arthur Ward This quote was put up on a screen at our Chief Scientific Officer's retirement party back in 2017. While the party was very nice and well-intentioned on the surface, in reality it was a forced retirement.... Continue Reading →
SciArt that’ll make you feel Smart 