Medical Devices

Andrea
Habura

Where do you fit?

“Cursed is the man who has found some other man's work and cannot lose it.” – Mark Twain What is your work, anyway? Not your research project, but your work. The sort of job you’re really suited for. If you got a traditional biologist’s education, you may not be sure. Academia is a r...


Andrea
Habura

The Packing List

Several years ago, I was doing field research in a remote and extremely cold site, and I had to take a multi-day survival training course before they would let me out on the ice unsupervised. On our first day of “Happy Camper School,” my classmates and I were given a list: “Bring: Ex...


Andrea
Habura

Superstition

Admit it: you have a “lucky” PCR machine, don’t you? As any experimental biologist can tell you, working at the bench has a strong element of tradition and muscle knowledge. If I’m running a Western blot or pouring a gel, I’ll probably do it a certain way, because that’s the way I w...


Andrea
Habura

The Bones Beneath the Skin

One of the best things about a science education is that it teaches you to see the bones beneath the skin. In some cases, literally (hello there, anatomy people!), but mostly in the sense that we learn to see the hidden processes that drive the physical world. Being a scientist means you’ll n...


Andrea
Habura

Learning to Be a Beginner

Nature recently published an opinion piece about the things budding 21st century scientists need in their training (https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7560-371a). Of the seven people who contributed to the article, four emphasized the need for scientists to learn non-sci...


Andrea
Habura

Revisited

“What is it that confers the noblest delight? What is that which swells a man's breast with pride above that which any other experience can bring to him? Discovery! To know that you are walking where none others have walked; that you are beholding what human eye has not seen before; that you ...


Andrea
Habura

Life Among the Machines

When I meet people at cocktail parties, I tell them I build robots for a living. Which is the truth, but not the whole truth. As you know, if you’ve been reading my blog posts, I'm a microbiologist who moved into the scientific instrument industry after about 20 years in academic and government...


Andrea
Habura

Conference Ecology for Job-Hunters

“At scientific conferences, there are three classes of attendees: Eminents, Lowlies, and Everyone Else. Grad students, of course, fall into the Lowlies group. An ecotone, or edge effect, where all three classes come into contact can yield higher biodiversity and productivity than in any one group ...


Andrea
Habura

Literature Review

If you’re trying to make your products better, it’s nice when your customers almost have to fill out a user feedback form. “Publish or perish” is nothing but upside if you want to figure out what scientists are doing in the lab. One of the things we do here at my scientific-instruments co...


Andrea
Habura

Playful

You’ve probably seen it; millions of people have. One of the first videos done by the animation company Animusic, Pipe Dream is a fun computer animation of a mechanical percussion orchestra, with little balls caroming off of drums and xylophone keys and cowbells before tucking themselves neatly ba...