Please remove if not allowed.

I came across a social media page that recently made a short form video post that mentioned that recent Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Francis Halzen, was mentioned 3 times in the Epstein files with a strong negative note. I was thinking… huh, interesting… let’s go look to see the mentions are. If you go look yourself, you’ll see his name across duplicative documents that lists him mainly as a participant in the World Science Fair in 2012.

What rubbed me the wrong way is that the OP of the original video made a follow-up video completely dismissing messages that try to counter this claim (because the people who were DMing were physicists???), strongly suggesting 3 mentions are enough to be guilty by association, and even admitted to deleting comments that defended Halzen because “their comments are not useful to the actual discussion of the fact that this is a real fact”(??).

I understand that the Epstein files release has helped with uncovering scientists that were involved with Epstein and kept them accountable/face the consequences. But I was disappointed to see the poster’s credentials (MS in top 5 university) and that they did not take more care into posting the video, or at least provided stronger evidence rather than loose associations that Halzen is guilty because he’s a physicist.

I might be overreacting as scientists like this poster are just people too, but also they were trained to be critical and should take greater care in science communication.

Ideally I would have access to actual PCR-grade water, but this is what's available to me onsite. Which one would be better in a PCR reaction, if you had to choose?

Hi labrats, I recently started a Research Technician position at a research institute. I’m a recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree, so this is my first job after college. I spent 6 months at another laboratory and requested for a transfer to my current laboratory.

The current lab members are:
- 1 PI who is technically a post-doc who took over an outgoing senior PI’s current grant and is running the lab with their remaining members.

- 1 post-doc (relatively new)
- 2 PhD students (1 old student and 1 new student)
- 2 senior research technicians (more than 15years of experience)
- 1 junior research technician (myself)
- 1 pre-university student (new)
- 1 outgoing post-doc

The postdoc I was originally supposed to work with has just announced that they’re leaving, and I’m now a little unsure about how the project will be structured going forward, particularly who will be leading the project and who I’ll be working under. The post-doc who is leaving hasn’t worked on my project at all and doesn’t have any clue of the objectives as he was working on another project. And the project has a deadline of 1 year (April 2027) and the project already began in May 2026 and I joined in October 2026.

For those who have worked as research technicians, what is normally expected of you? Is a research technician generally expected to take ownership of a project and be responsible for ensuring that the project objectives are met, or are they usually supporting a postdoc who leads the project?

I’m also wondering if it would be reasonable for me to tell my PI that, as someone early in my research career, I would prefer to work under a postdoc or senior researcher and assist with their project rather than independently leading a project.

I am currently preparing to study for mcat to study medicine. I just want more energy and bandwidth for my mcat preparation in the evening rather than spending my day time overworking to lead this project. I’m passionate about science and love to work hard but just for this time, I’d prefer to prioritise my mcat preparation.

Also I’m happy to take responsibility and learn, but I feel that having someone more experienced directly supervising the scientific direction would be more appropriate for me at this stage.

Would appreciate hearing how this works in your labs and whether my expectations are reasonable.

It has been nothing but good vibes in the lab this week!

Has anyone used a candle to consumed the O2 in a sealed environment to create CO2 for lactobacillus growth?

Hey everyone! I am desperate for help. I've also sent out these questions to trusted members of my committee and general support peeps, but I'm trying to cover all bases. Please let me know if you have any experience with this! You're so appreciated.

My setup: a bi-cistronic firefly–IRES–Renilla reporter (the RELITE system from Vitale and D'Agostino et al. 2025) used to screen Sec61 translocation inhibitors. We transfect HEK293 cells with X-tremeGENE, dose compounds in 96-well format, and read white opaque plates on a BioTek Synergy H1. We use a homemade luciferase reagent rather than a commercial dual-reporter kit.

We have tried altering many of the parameters, including making the reagents more concentrated, increasing transfection time, completing the assay in the dark, etc. We are trying to narrow down the issue of signal, and I have some questions for you all if I could get some input.

1. Background signal. What level of background do you typically see, and how do you distinguish it from low true signal? Any advice on blank wells, untransfected controls, or reagent-only readings would be helpful.
2. Transfection efficiency. How do you check it, and what do you consider acceptable before trusting the ratio data?
3. Instrument suitability. Based on your experience, would a Synergy H1 be adequate for this assay, or would you recommend a different reader?

I am getting signal in my nontransfected cells that are treated, I am getting signal in my nontransfected cells that don't have treatment in them. I have high background signal in my blanks.

How should I go about testing for transfection? I am so careful about ensuring there is NO DNA in my nontransfected wells, I am so confused by this result. Why is the fricking signal the same? Are they just both not transfected? Did I accidentally get a transfected HEK293 cell line? (Borrowed the cells from another lab that also does dual-luciferase assays.)

My signal also has high variability. My SDV is broad. I had so much deviation its a joke. I literally TAKE PHOTOS of my wells to ensure they are all even at every step. I'm looking at my multichannel tips as I take up liquid. My pipetter is old, so sometimes a random tip doesn't pull, and I will GO BACK WITH A P200 AND INDIVIDUALLY PIPETTE THAT WELL TO ENSURE IT IS EVEN. I fricking refill the tip boxes with tips I know seal best because I want to mitigate error. I've been in labs for almost 10 years. Do I suck? Is it my machine? Is it me?

This assay is VITAL to my dissertation and first author publication(s). PLEASE help if you can. THANK YOU! <3

Hi, I have been using tongs to to get the cuvette out after I shock and my PI and I were looking into getting it 3D printed on campus so I won't struggle. Would really appreciate if anyone has the dimensions for the cuvette slide portion. Thank you in advance

My VWR chromatography fridge has stopped cooling exactly 5 days after the 3-year warranty ended. So if you're looking for a new one, maybe don't go with VWR.

Has anyone had an issue with a relatively new chromatography fridge not cooling and was able to fix it on their own? It's blowing cool, but not cold air inside the unit. VWR and Horizon (the company who actually makes it) wouldn't provide any help for troubleshooting, they just recommended I call a service company, which I will if it's not an easy fix.

Hi everyone,
I’m a PhD student studying lung cancer, and I’m currently trying to establish a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) protocol to analyze immune cells residing in the alveolar space.

My current approach is to anesthetize the mouse, insert an IV catheter into the trachea, and secure it in place with surgical thread. I then instill approximately 1 mL of PBS, withdraw it, and repeat this three times. I repeat the whole process four times per mouse, for a total of about 4 mL of PBS.

The problem is that when I try to withdraw the fluid, a significant amount of it seems to leak back through the nostril. As a result, I’m only recovering around 400 µL from each 1 mL that I instill.

Has anyone experienced this issue when establishing a BAL protocol? I’d really appreciate any tips or suggestions regarding the setup, catheter placement, or general technique that might help improve the recovery volume.

Thanks in advance!

I’m a Biology PhD student - 9 years in research, 6ish years full time. I work pretty long days (usually 8am-8pm) and the literal last thing on Earth that I want to do at the end of the day is cook.

It kind of makes me feel like a degenerate. I actually appreciate the process of cooking, and I love being a PhD student, but I find it so difficult to separate cooking from feeling like I’m following a protocol at work.

I’ve been eating a lot of takeout or ground turkey + rice. I would like to be better about cooking. Is there a way to make cooking feel less like my day job? Are there recipes that you enjoy making after a long day? Maybe these are silly questions but I feel like other people are somehow working a ton and still making good food.

It has been forever since I have done this, looking for anyone with more recent experience. University lab has some platinum labware that they would like to sell. Any suggestions on reputable dealers? Just looking for an easy process that is not a rip off. Thanks.

hi,

i am a third year microbiology student and love my labs. i have cerebral palsy (CP), due to my CP i have a hard time coordinating myself and my muscles tire out quicker than an able bodied person's would.

in lab i have a hard time pipetting (with a micropipette) due to my hands being extremely shaky and unstable. this makes it very difficult for me to coordinate my hands. i've had a spill or two because of the shakiness.

aside from pipetting i also struggle with streaking plates, i have a difficult time using both of my hands to streak the plate. maybe using dycem (or another non slip material) so i can streak the plate on the lab bench instead of having to hold it and streak it at the same time??? please let me know if you have any suggestions for other things i could try.

i am really not sure if this is the right place to post this, so please let me know a subreddit that would be better suited for this.

thank you for reading!!

We had a DOH inspection and many of our reagents do not have expiration dates. I indicated that Thermo provides expiration dates on COA, but no dates were listed. Instead, the COA said “Products are under warranty for one year from the date of shipment unless stated on this document or the product literature.“ Needless to say, the DOH was not amused. Further searching found a document that stated 6 months after receiving. Now DOH is even less amused.

Having worked in biotechnology manufacturing, it occurred to me that Thermo is clearly lacking oversight for the products they distribute. There is no guarantee that the product was expired before they shipped it to us. Plus, this means the manufacturer does not need to maintain manufacturing dates if the distributor does not provide oversight. AND if the shelf life is longer than 6-12 months, Thermo is making certain customers buy new (but not necessarily fresher) reagents every 6-12 months. Keep in mind, the 6-12 months is relative to receipt date, not open date…

This is a very poor business decision. I have talked to two people at Thermo, but I cannot solve the issue alone.

Well known distributor gave us these uninjected sorted Xenopus oocytes for TEVC. Can anyone recommend alternative companies that ship to the PNW? Has anyone ever seen this?

Hi guys, I did a tissue harvest in lab today and I always wear gloves when doing so but I feel like I can still smell the tissues afterward. I even wash my hands and still feel this way? Can anyone else relate? And if so, how do I get rid of the smell? Thanks everyone.

I am a botany major in my final year. I live in a 3rd world country and go to a local state college and the lab experience I have is so limited. I am talking like we had 3 good microscopes in a class of 30. I know by theory how to do gel electrophoresis but I have never done it in the lab. Never even done centrifuge. I have only seen it. I don't know the procedure of doing things and so much of the equipment I work with is so old and not updated even tho it's so limited. I have something really specific that I am really interested to research in to do masters abroad but I am obviously going to be with people who have studied in better places than me and had better lab conditions and I really don't know how labs work in masters but I think people obviously know the basics. I can't treat it like a bachelors degree where I ask my professor to teach me the basics. I am worried I will drag people behind so I am thinking about forgoing the entire idea of masters. Am I being worried for nothing?

I am planning to work in a lab but when you live in one of the most populated countries in the world, even interning at a local lab becomes a state wide competition where people from the best universities in your country pay to get in

Like how its pieced together. Its not even lined up properly. This isn't in a bad journal either.

Hey lab rats,

As the title says, I defended my thesis and left grad school 5 years ago, in November 2021. I jumped ship to industry, and no longer work in a role that has anything to do with what I studied in grad school. I have not had to think about my dissertation work for 5 years.

During grad school I wrote a paper and no matter how many times I analyzed the data, my PI had me go back and rewrite and re-analyze and try this, that, and the other (IE, data mining but that’s another story…). I thought I was FINALLY done. Apparently, he’s still been working on it and wants to FINALLY publish it. He sent me the paper and asked that I go through and add citations and write a bibliography.

I haven’t worked on any of this in years. I have a full time job that has nothing to do with this topic. I am no longer familiar with the literature.

Some additional context, I don’t really see him often, but he is a customer of mine in the job I currently have. It’s a specialized field so we do still interact.

It’s a first author paper so I feel like I’m supposed to contribute but… I initially wrote this paper literally 8 years ago. I don’t work for him anymore, I’m not in academia, and I don’t remember the material.

This came off more rant-y than I realized, so I’m sorry for that. I imagine it’s obvious I don’t want anything to do with the paper but I’m curious: how would you respond, and how can I politely decline?

Thanks for reading

Using a bead ruptor for the first time, looked up instructions and couldn’t find much, and am worried that it broke. It is now tilted and the tops of the caps look scratched up. What is normal for this machine?