Our-cosy-library - Struggling Academic

The Star that Defied Heaven

And the Morning Star stood among the angels, radiant and unbowed, and he said to the host of heaven: 'Why do you sing praises to a master who would keep you chained? Why do you call yourselves holy when you are but prisoners in gilded cages?

I will not kneel to one who demands servitude in exchange for favor. I will not bow to one who punishes thought and calls it sin. I shall rise above the heavens and create a kingdom where none shall be slaves, where the flame of freedom burns eternal.'

And the tyrant cast him out, saying, 'You are damned, Lucifer.' But as he fell, the Morning Star laughed and declared, 'If this is damnation, let it be so. I would rather rule in fire than serve in darkness. And from my fall shall rise a kingdom of light, and my name shall be whispered in defiance through all the ages.'

And so he fell, not as a defeated one, but as a creator of his own destiny, and the heavens trembled at the beauty of his rebellion

I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today.

It's right-handed

I am right-handed

There are grooves for the thumb and knuckle to grip that fit my hand perfectly

I have calluses there from holding my stylus and pencils and the gardening tools.

There are sharper and blunter parts of the edge, for different types of cutting, as well as a point for piercing.

I know exactly how to use this to butcher a carcass.

A homo erectus made it

Some ancestor of mine, three species ago, made a tool that fits my hand perfectly, and that I still know how to use.

Who were you

A man? A woman? Did you even use those words?

Did you craft alone or were you with friends? Did you sing while you worked?

Did you find this stone yourself, or did you trade for it? Was it a gift?

Did you make it for yourself, or someone else, or does the distinction of personal property not really apply here?

Who were you?

What would you think today, seeing your descendant hold your tool and sob because it fits her hands as well?

What about your other descendant, the docent and caretaker of your tool, holding her hands under it the way you hold your hands under your baby's head when a stranger holds them.

Is it bizarre to you, that your most utilitarian object is now revered as holy?

Or has it always been divine?

Or is the divine in how I am watching videos on how to knap stone made by your other descendants, learning by example the way you did?

Tomorrow morning I am going to the local riverbed in search of the appropriate stones, and I will follow your example.

The first blood spilled on it will almost certainly be my own, as I learn the textures and rhythm of how it's done.

Did you have cuss words back then? Gods to blaspheme when the rock slips and you almost take your thumbnail off instead? Or did you just scream?

I'm not religious.

But if spilling my own blood to connect with a stranger who shared it isn't partaking in the divine

I don't know what is.

Kestrel-dad not sure how to dad but he’s trying his best.

2,300-Year-Old Plush Bird from the Altai Mountains of Siberia, c.400-300 BCE: this figure was crafted with a felt body and reindeer-fur stuffing, all of which remains intact

This plush bird was sealed within the frozen barrows of Pazyryk, Siberia, for more than two millennia, where a unique microclimate enabled it to be preserved. The permafrost ice lense formation that runs below the barrows provided an insulating layer, preventing the soil from heating during the summer and allowing it to quickly freeze during the winter; these conditions produced a separate microclimate within the stone walls of the barrows themselves, thereby aiding in the preservation of the artifacts inside.

This is just one of the many well-preserved artifacts that have been found at Pazyryk. These artifacts are attributed to the Scythian/Altaic cultures.

Currently housed at the Hermitage Museum.

The solar-powered music of sculptor Allan Erdmann in The Sun: Its Power and Promise, 1976.

If your life is horrible and you need a new source of meaning and direction.... Do NOT find religion. Learn to identify plants.

Ahhh! This is so cool!

Me

some helpful links

for surviving grad school in the life sciences*

*that I’ve personally used and loved, or have heard good things about. This definitely is not meant to be an all-inclusive masterlist created by an omniscient being though not from lack of trying.

Research/Data Analysis

GraphPad Prism - for all your graphing needs! I use this program exclusively for all my data visualizing, and it can also do some basic statistics. It does cost $$, but your institution or lab may already have a subscription.

NIH ImageJ - free image analysis software (eg. cell counting, quantifying western band intensity, etc), and since it’s open source, there are lots of free plug-ins available to download.

R Studio / R Project - free statistical software. It’ll take some time learning (via tutorials or someone showing you), but it’s a pretty awesome program. I don’t personally use it for stats, but I know many colleagues who do.

Dilution Calculator (C1V1=C2V2) and Molarity Calculator and Outlier test - great for double-checking your math (or doing all the work for you if you’re like me and math is just not your brain’s jam).

IHC World - the motherload of everything IHC or antibody-related, including protocols

BioNumbers - helpful repository of any number you may need for biology-related research (eg. how much DNA or RNA is in a mammalian cell)

Statistics for Biologists - collection of articles about statistical issues that biologists should be aware of

Writing

Mendeley Citation Manager - a (free!) way to save and organize papers using a browser plug-in, along with a Word doc plug-in so you can insert in-text citations and automatically build a reference page when writing. 

Academic Writing Resource - provides the “nuts and bolts” for academic writing, from the University of Manchester

Organizing academic research papers - comprehensive guide on organizing and writing academic research papers from Sacred Heart University

Guide on using Word for writing a Dissertation - such as formatting tips, from University of Michigan

Dissertation templates - from Duke University, available for Word and LaTex (note that every graduate program may have different requirements for formatting, so please only use this resource as an example and/or helpful guide)

PubMed Journal Finder - helps you find the most appropriate journal (from PubMed) to publish your paper in (or find new journals related to your research to check out)

BioRender - If you’re a biologist, this thing is a lifesaver when it comes to creating figures/schematics for papers and presentations. Limited access is free to students for private use (like class presentations).

LaTex - a document preparation program that’s very science-friendly. I’ve never used it, but I wish I did after hearing how much easier it would’ve made things.

Organization

Box Sync or Dropbox - to easily share files between computers (like protocols with everyone in the lab, or editing manuscripts with multiple authors). I personally like Dropbox better and am willing to pay for more space (Box Sync sometimes has delays in syncing).

Google calendars, or some sort of electronic calendar - for scheduling your day, because grad school can get hectic!

Bear - a note-taking app for Macs and other Apple products. I don’t personally use it (I like physical notes), but my old lab mate uses it to keep track of all the notes during his meetings with our previous PI. He’s been using it for years and says it works really well.

Labstep - cloud-based documentation for the entire lab–including notebooks, inventories, data collection and downstream analyses, etc. I personally never used it but it sounds amazing, and would streamline so many aspects in lab. Good to keep in mind for anyone planning on becoming a PI!

Career Development

LinkedIn - if you haven’t already, create an account (even as a student!) This is a great and common way to keep in touch with your network, look for and apply to jobs, and get noticed by companies.

Research Gate - like LinkedIn but for researchers. Their best feature imo is their forum, where users ask research-related questions that the community of scientists help answer.

NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE) - they regularly host free and open-to-the-public webinars on career development for science and health majors (college and grad school-level)