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Discendo Vox posted:Laboratory Chat - Never again. Not even once.
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May 28, 2015 23:49
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Dik Hz posted:I heard the piece on This American Life, and thought it sounded like bullshit. Good to know I was right. It turns out the dude just took the national average and added a perfect bell curve to it, shifting it a bit. FFS. Half of the frustration in our office wasn't with the fact that he was falsifying data (we're a good enough department that such a practice is outside our scope of consideration), but rather how incompetently the data was faked. Jeez, dude, toss some secondary systemic error terms on there or something. The other half are still trying to figure out who his faculty supervisor was (onsite), or how it would be possible in any universe for him not to have one. All of us are enjoying further publicity of how worthless the Big Two are. None of us are enjoying the negative publicity for social sciences generally.
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May 29, 2015 13:25
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Discendo Vox posted:Half of the frustration in our office wasn't with the fact that he was falsifying data (we're a good enough department that such a practice is outside our scope of consideration), but rather how incompetently the data was faked. Jeez, dude, toss some secondary systemic error terms on there or something. The other half are still trying to figure out who his faculty supervisor was (onsite), or how it would be possible in any universe for him not to have one. It really bothers me that this poo poo goes on. With how competitive grants have become, you're competing against cheaters to get every scrap of money you can from the government. And the incentive is to produce novel research, so nobody ever goes back and checks other labs' work, so cheaters rarely get caught. It's one of the main reasons I have no desire to ever go back to academia. Also, what you mean by "The Big Two"? Also, what's your office?
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May 29, 2015 23:06
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Dik Hz posted:What is amazing to me is that nobody checked his data. Extraordinary claims require heightened scrutiny. He was so hamfisted in faking his data that it is obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of statistics. Nature and Science, the most prestigious garbage dumps in all of academia, and my field is communication science. vvvv I said prestigious. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 15:29 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 06:47
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Discendo Vox posted:Nature and Science, the most prestigious garbage dumps in all of academia, and my field is communication science.
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May 30, 2015 11:49
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At a workshop on a particular method, the top workshop on this method in the country. At a mini-session, the speaker is a brand-new hire for the department running the workshop: he has few publications, but they're in major journals, and he's received a lot of major lay press publication coverage. In his methods talk, he discusses abusing a blanket method approval for the Turk to use forced response materials so that the IRB doesn't know about it. He tells this to an audience of about 35. At a methods workshop. At a place that's just hired him. 
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Jun 3, 2015 01:55
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I got to attend a focus group to help a "Change Management" team figure out the best way to roll out a new IT initiative to add yet another layer of technology to submit samples to our analytical labs. Because what we really need is another software solution tacked on top of the other broken systems that we currently use. This will surely help our problems.
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Jun 5, 2015 11:20
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gninjagnome posted:Because what we really need is another software solution tacked on top of the other broken systems that we currently use. This will surely help our problems. Sounds like when our label printer's server crashed and burned(which was running on Windows 95...) so what did we do? Certainly not upgrade the whole system and get a new server-computer, oh no. We just went back to one version before it and kept on keepin' on. On the same Windows 95 computer. 
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Jun 5, 2015 14:05
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Speaking of journal articles, do any of you know anything about freelance editing for scientific publications? In my daily job application blast yesterday I found a couple listings for doing article revisions and proof-reading for materials science publications, I imagine to help authors who are non-native English speakers come across the way they intend to. It sounds like a fun part-time gig until I get a full-time job (or even while I have one), plus my fiancee is a non-native English speaker and I probably edited 90% of what she wrote for her biochem PhD so I have a lot of experience doing that.
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 20:35
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C-Euro posted:Speaking of journal articles, do any of you know anything about freelance editing for scientific publications? In my daily job application blast yesterday I found a couple listings for doing article revisions and proof-reading for materials science publications, I imagine to help authors who are non-native English speakers come across the way they intend to. It sounds like a fun part-time gig until I get a full-time job (or even while I have one), plus my fiancee is a non-native English speaker and I probably edited 90% of what she wrote for the biochem PhD so I have a lot of experience doing that. I have been looking into this too but haven't had any luck. Seems a lot of freelance jobs expect some sort of experience. Let me know if you find something though.
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Jun 7, 2015 23:24
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C-Euro posted:Speaking of journal articles, do any of you know anything about freelance editing for scientific publications? In my daily job application blast yesterday I found a couple listings for doing article revisions and proof-reading for materials science publications, I imagine to help authors who are non-native English speakers come across the way they intend to. It sounds like a fun part-time gig until I get a full-time job (or even while I have one), plus my fiancee is a non-native English speaker and I probably edited 90% of what she wrote for her biochem PhD so I have a lot of experience doing that. Do job searches for 'scientific writing' and medical writing' and see what you turn up. My experience with it has been that people won't touch you without previous experience though.
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Jun 9, 2015 10:50
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So a labmate has been trying to repeat a reaction that was published from our lab for the last six months with no success. The procedure was published by student Y as part of an incomplete total synthesis project. No one currently in the lab has ever meet student Y so the guy only had old lab notebooks to refer to but they were poorly documented (are they ever?). Well, our PI mentioned in passing to him that student X (not included in the publication) had helped Y on the synthesis. My friend searches through X's notebook and only finds one mention of the experiment with no details EXCEPT one little asterix. *Reaction will not work unless KOH is ground under nitrogen  Unfortunately, the PI blamed him for wasting 6 months and not magically knowing about this other student. Simply unreal...
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Jun 12, 2015 04:36
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Lt_Tofu posted:So a labmate has been trying to repeat a reaction that was published from our lab for the last six months with no success. The procedure was published by student Y as part of an incomplete total synthesis project. No one currently in the lab has ever meet student Y so the guy only had old lab notebooks to refer to but they were poorly documented (are they ever?). Well, our PI mentioned in passing to him that student X (not included in the publication) had helped Y on the synthesis. My friend searches through X's notebook and only finds one mention of the experiment with no details EXCEPT one little asterix. It was poo poo like this that made me run away screaming from synthetic chemistry, well that and the observation that every synthetic chemist is a self centered jackass.
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Jun 12, 2015 12:43
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On different topics, I was recently reading about the reproducibility problem as regards antibodies: * Lab change antibody providers - experimental effects go away * Factory changes production methods - experimental effects go away * Apart from the non-specificity of some antibodies, some aren't even what they claim to be. Now I read that lab mice suffer a similar problem. A good fraction of them may be mislabelled: http://buff.ly/1KrY8YA
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Jun 12, 2015 14:04
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outlier posted:Now I read that lab mice suffer a similar problem. A good fraction of them may be mislabelled: http://buff.ly/1KrY8YA Yup. There also seem to be similar systemic undocumented strain pollution problems in plant science- Retraction Watch ran a bit about it awhile ago.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:26
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Hi everyone. I've been lurking this thread off and on for over a year now. It's an interesting read, for sure. I'm in QA for a food company, myself, looking to get into food science or process technology. I have a BS in Nutrition (non-dietetics option) so I didn't get much food science education and don't know how to get into it without dropping more money for more schooling. I wanted a food science degree but my local University didn't offer it so nutrition was the closest I could get. I guess I'm too afraid to try to apply to some position I can't demonstrably do well. I really should ask the process tech at my company how she got into it. Sometimes she's not very approachable. Does anyone know of people who ended up in process technology or food technology after being in QA? Heh, all the stories about training people who don't know basic science and such seem to be most common in QA. Technically, anybody can push the buttons to the machines all day and even learn the basic calculations. Companies keep saying they want people with degrees in these positions (understanding the process is a plus, for sure), but end up hiring temps without any experience or higher education, out of desperation. At least, I've witnessed my company do it once or twice. I'll add to the growing list of stories, why not? : The lady I'm training right now doesn't really know the concept of mean calculations very well. Yep, basic averaging. She seems to be doing it ok, but in the beginning I found it a bit of a challenge to try to explain why averaging numbers that are all around 2000 and getting a mean of 200 doesn't make sense and is definitely wrong. But, to be fair, English isn't her first language. Oh, and she can't write in English, so any notes that need to be written down, she refuses to do. Don't know what she'll do when she's on her own. Okay, so this story isn't totally about the merits of the company's hiring ability because this chick actually got grandfathered in. She's a production operator who hurt her arm at work and got a lawyer to make sure she does more than help the janitor while she's on light duty. I was just recently warned that she's known to throw people under the bus to make her rear end look better. At least she's nice, though.
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Jun 13, 2015 00:22
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MissKeewi posted:Hi everyone. I've been lurking this thread off and on for over a year now. It's an interesting read, for sure. I'm in QA for a food company, myself, looking to get into food science or process technology. I have a BS in Nutrition (non-dietetics option) so I didn't get much food science education and don't know how to get into it without dropping more money for more schooling. I wanted a food science degree but my local University didn't offer it so nutrition was the closest I could get. I guess I'm too afraid to try to apply to some position I can't demonstrably do well. I really should ask the process tech at my company how she got into it. Sometimes she's not very approachable. Does anyone know of people who ended up in process technology or food technology after being in QA? 'Sup comrade, I actually just left a job in food science QA. I don't know about process technology (something I'm actually really interested in, especially process analytics), but if you want to move forward in a food career without going back to school might I suggest becoming a flavorist? The company I left was a flavor company specifically so I learned a little bit about how to become a flavorist; the main perk for your case is that it's an apprenticeship program, so you're doing almost all your "education" on the job under a more senior flavorist. They also make mad bank because there are only ~500 in the whole country, and it's also less reliant on the degree(s) you have (we had one flavorist with a PhD and another who hadn't even gone to college). MissKeewi posted:Heh, all the stories about training people who don't know basic science and such seem to be most common in QA. Technically, anybody can push the buttons to the machines all day and even learn the basic calculations. Companies keep saying they want people with degrees in these positions (understanding the process is a plus, for sure), but end up hiring temps without any experience or higher education, out of desperation. At least, I've witnessed my company do it once or twice. Honestly, some of the best employees I worked with at my last job were the two guys we brought into QA from production. They actually had a consistent work ethic, and because they were just coming in with GEDs they were really receptive to training and some bonus chemistry knowledge from me. But you're right, you really don't need a college degree for this sort of job. I have an MS in chemistry but the only parts of that degree that saw any use were having a consistent work ethic and some marginal critical thinking skills. Ultimately I left because I was bored out of my mind (and was being paid way under my qualifications)
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Jun 13, 2015 02:39
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C-Euro posted:'Sup comrade, I actually just left a job in food science QA. I don't know about process technology (something I'm actually really interested in, especially process analytics), but if you want to move forward in a food career without going back to school might I suggest becoming a flavorist? The company I left was a flavor company specifically so I learned a little bit about how to become a flavorist; the main perk for your case is that it's an apprenticeship program, so you're doing almost all your "education" on the job under a more senior flavorist. They also make mad bank because there are only ~500 in the whole country, and it's also less reliant on the degree(s) you have (we had one flavorist with a PhD and another who hadn't even gone to college). That sounds amazing, actually! My olfactory sense is a smidge lacking but I would love to dip my toes into something like that. drat... and I missed an opening in my city that may have offered that. It was a spice company, and it did mention something about doing taste tests on top of other QA functions. And as far as people from production getting into QA, this is the first time someone from production got into QA at my job, and I think it's great. Especially if they're operators. They know what to look for, at least in packaging.
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Jun 13, 2015 17:39
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MissKeewi posted:That sounds amazing, actually! My olfactory sense is a smidge lacking but I would love to dip my toes into something like that. drat... and I missed an opening in my city that may have offered that. It was a spice company, and it did mention something about doing taste tests on top of other QA functions. Well I don't think it's as straightforward as just tasting stuff (for example one of the critical tests in my QA department was tasting everything we made before sending it out), it's more about understanding what flavor profiles are associated with which chemicals and being able to mix them well. I was told there's as much artistry in being a flavor chemist and there is actually chemistry, though there are chemical considerations in certain kinds of flavors, often tied to the shelf-life of what's in the flavor and how flavor components will react over time though there's some up-front chemistry when dealing with processed flavors like meats. The group is called the Society of Flavor Chemists if you want to do some reading on your own, and if you really want I still have contact info for a couple flavorists from my last company and could point you towards them if you really wanted.
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Jun 13, 2015 18:45
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C-Euro posted:Well I don't think it's as straightforward as just tasting stuff (for example one of the critical tests in my QA department was tasting everything we made before sending it out), it's more about understanding what flavor profiles are associated with which chemicals and being able to mix them well. I was told there's as much artistry in being a flavor chemist and there is actually chemistry, though there are chemical considerations in certain kinds of flavors, often tied to the shelf-life of what's in the flavor and how flavor components will react over time though there's some up-front chemistry when dealing with processed flavors like meats. The group is called the Society of Flavor Chemists if you want to do some reading on your own, and if you really want I still have contact info for a couple flavorists from my last company and could point you towards them if you really wanted. Ah ok. That makes sense. I looked up basic info on what a flavorist does and now I see it's a bit about chemistry. I'll check out the Society of Flavor Chemists for sure. I really should take you up on the offer for contact info, despite being terrible at approaching strangers for networking reasons heh. Also, I don't have messaging activated on SA.
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Jun 13, 2015 21:22
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Had a couple of promising phone interviews during the week, so things are looking up. Mind you, I had something that happen that happened to me in these jobs before: INTERVIEWER: There's no management in this job, no possibility of you leading other people, no way of placing you in the hierarchy or on a path to management ... (5 minutes later) So tell me about your leadership philosophy. Do you have management experience? Give me some examples of when ...
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Jun 16, 2015 13:28
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C-euro, would you mind sending contact info for a flavorist to this e-mail, please? vivi222 at yah00 dot com Thanks! MissKeewi fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jun 18, 2015 |
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Jun 18, 2015 02:11
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MissKeewi posted:C-euro, would you mind sending contact info for a flavorist to this e-mail, please? vivi222 at yah00 dot com E-mail sent. E: Getting a delivery failure message, got another e-mail I can use? C-Euro fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Jun 18, 2015 |
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Jun 18, 2015 03:16
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C-Euro posted:E-mail sent. Oops, missed some numbers in that e-mail. vivi22264 at yahoo dot com There, hopefully that works.
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Jun 18, 2015 03:42
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C-Euro posted:'Sup comrade, I actually just left a job in food science QA. I don't know about process technology (something I'm actually really interested in, especially process analytics), but if you want to move forward in a food career without going back to school might I suggest becoming a flavorist? The company I left was a flavor company specifically so I learned a little bit about how to become a flavorist; the main perk for your case is that it's an apprenticeship program, so you're doing almost all your "education" on the job under a more senior flavorist. They also make mad bank because there are only ~500 in the whole country, and it's also less reliant on the degree(s) you have (we had one flavorist with a PhD and another who hadn't even gone to college). I work for a flavour house as a lab tech, and by my understanding, it's quite hard to get the training as an external candidate, so you might want to try and transition into a NPD role in a flavour company if you want to be a flavourist.
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Jun 26, 2015 12:00
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Dirigibleful posted:I work for a flavour house as a lab tech, and by my understanding, it's quite hard to get the training as an external candidate, so you might want to try and transition into a NPD role in a flavour company if you want to be a flavourist. Ah, good to know. I would think it might be hard to even get into NPD.
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Jun 26, 2015 12:44
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Dirigibleful posted:I work for a flavour house as a lab tech, and by my understanding, it's quite hard to get the training as an external candidate, so you might want to try and transition into a NPD role in a flavour company if you want to be a flavourist. Yeah I honestly wouldn't know how to initiate training, I just have a general idea of what they do and the broad scope of how you become one. Where I worked, every flavorist or flavorist-in-training that we had was already locked in when I started, I never saw anyone who was just starting out.
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Jun 26, 2015 14:58
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As much as I love working with brains and all things pathology related... I think 'flavourist' is the coolest job title, and I want it. 
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Jun 26, 2015 15:41
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C-Euro posted:Yeah I honestly wouldn't know how to initiate training, I just have a general idea of what they do and the broad scope of how you become one. Where I worked, every flavorist or flavorist-in-training that we had was already locked in when I started, I never saw anyone who was just starting out. I work in NPD and it's pretty fun, hopefully one day I'll be able to do flavourist training, but in our place you have to do it at HQ which is in Germany so not an easy option. As well as competing for a place against other internal candidates of course
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Jun 26, 2015 17:07
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I just watched my chemistry manager hold an FTIR spectra upside down while dramatically proclaiming it to ve identical to the reference spectra 
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Jun 30, 2015 15:20
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Miss Ginger posted:I just watched my chemistry manager hold an FTIR spectra upside down while dramatically proclaiming it to ve identical to the reference spectra I mean, if it's just a difference of Absorbance versus Transmittance on the Y-axis, then he's more correct than you're giving him credit for  I did all of my undergrad IR work in T then all of my grad & professional work in A, it happens.
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Jun 30, 2015 18:12
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Johnny Truant posted:As much as I love working with brains and all things pathology related... I think 'flavourist' is the coolest job title, and I want it.
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Jun 30, 2015 19:10
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C-Euro posted:I mean, if it's just a difference of Absorbance versus Transmittance on the Y-axis, then he's more correct than you're giving him credit for Both were % transmittance.
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Jun 30, 2015 21:14
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Quick question, how come these companies are always hiring couriers yet never seem to call me back? I have a totally clean MVR and three years courier experience, and yet every time LabCorp or AEL put an ad in the paper I apply and get nowhere. Is there like special HAZMAT qualifications these companies require to transport piss and blood because it's a biohazard or something?
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Jun 30, 2015 21:46
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Miss Ginger posted:Both were % transmittance. Oh. Well then, he's probably just dumb.
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Jun 30, 2015 23:33
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So apparently in my part of the world (NZ) Sigma has finally begun its take over of Roche and all Roche products are getting jacked up in price by 30 - 40 % and the shipping costs are going up because reasons. Now I have to produce a cost comparison of a selection of different Taq polymerases without having access to the venders actual pricing as the lab manager is on leave I wish there was a price aggregator comparison website for reagents and consumables. I'm sick of this preferred supplier bullshit.
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Jul 1, 2015 05:21
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What are people using taq for these days anyway?
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Jul 1, 2015 05:34
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Quick and dirty bacteria species screening in my case. My PI has short arms deep pockets and doesn't want to spring for QPCR reagents despite the cost saving in labour-hours and the obvious plus of more quantifiable data.
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Jul 1, 2015 05:55
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Appachai posted:What are people using taq for these days anyway? I'm not joking. Oh this is just for one species, there are 4 others.
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Jul 1, 2015 07:20
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Everything that isn't cloning and doesn't rely on hyper-accuracy? I mean it's Taq polymerase and it is dirt cheap, why would I use something that costs way more when all I want to do is amplify a piece of DNA and see if I get a band. I can get 1000u of it from Genscript for $60 without any volume discount, roughly 5-7% of the cost of something like Phusion, Q5, or Kapa HiFi. On a different topic, I know next to nothing about different brands of HPLC. If I am wanting to buy either a cheap new or decent used HPLC system for basic small-molecule detection and oligonucleotide purification, what are my best options for things that won't be finicky as poo poo and break all the time.
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Jul 1, 2015 17:36
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