Foundational Skills in Life Sciences
Students and scholars in life sciences need to use many skills to survive and excel during scientific training, which involves listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
But I have seen many of them struggle in understanding and learning those skills.
I am a professor in the U.S., a tenured faculty member with MD, PhD degrees.
I will guide you through the skills, so that you will learn and improve successfully in your professional life.
Please visit my website for more information (https://synaptologica.com/), and send me emails with questions, comments or ideas (ideas@synaptologica.com).
Episodes
43 episodes
43. An evolving reader: my phases through reading textbooks (Q&A-5: textbooks, part 1)
How are you reading life-science textbooks? My approach to reading textbooks has evolved significantly throughout my academic career, from student to researcher to instructor to course director. Today’s episode is part 1. We ...
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Episode 43
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22:13
42. Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays to you, and I wish you the very best in 2025!
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Episode 42
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1:01
41. Exclude or include seemingly irrelevant experiences in your academic CV? (Q&A-4: CV)
“Should I exclude irrelevant experiences from my academic CV?” This is a question that students often ask. In this episode, I would like to give you my thoughts about this question. In general, there is a...
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22:01
40. Short or long CV for applying for a research position? (Q&A-3: CV)
“Should my CV be short or long, when I apply for a research assistant position in a college/university lab?” This is a question that students often ask. In this episode, I would like to give you my thoughts about this questi...
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Episode 40
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16:23
39. Eight key components define the Abstract structure (mini-series: reading-25)
How do top-tier scientific journals, like Nature, make sure their abstracts are clear and impactful? In today’s episode, we will identify the eight key components that make those abstracts effective, by naming the components...
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Episode 39
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18:57
38. The journal, Nature, dissects the Abstract structure (mini-series: reading-24)
What is the best way to learn how to read the Abstract of a scientific paper? In my view, the best way is to learn how the Abstract is structured in any paper. Today, we will learn it, by reading a very s...
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Episode 38
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13:26
37. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024, relevant to life scientists!
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! Two days ago, it was in Physiology or Medicine. Yesterday, it was in Physics. Today, it was in Chemistry. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dr. David Baker “for computational pro...
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Episode 37
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9:23
36. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024, relevant to life scientists!
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! Yesterday, it was in Physiology or Medicine. Today it was in Physics. It was awarded to Dr. John Hopfield, and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable...
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Episode 36
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8:25
35. Announcement of The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024
The 2024 Nobel Prize was announced! This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Dr. Victor Ambros, and Dr. Gary Ruvkun, “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.” <...
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Episode 35
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3:19
34. Lessons learned from Nobel Laureates' work, about positive and negative controls (mini-series: reading-23)
We will complete the analysis of positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates of 2023. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negative controls in life-science experiments. Thi...
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Episode 34
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31:10
33. How to do a good oral presentation? Hidden, but important tip (Q&A-2: presentation)
Question of today: What is a practical tip for effective oral presentations? There are many important things to do, for delivering oral presentations successfully. But I will be happy to give you my number one tip and the reasons why. And this ...
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Episode 33
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17:44
32. Is it important to include positive and negative controls in each experiment? Lesson from Nobel Laureates' work (mini-series: reading-22)
We will examine the positive and negative controls in the milestone article of the Nobel Laureates. The article shows us one of the best examples of how to use positive and negative controls in life-science experiments. We will compare a total ...
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Episode 32
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21:32
31. Is it OK to say, “I don’t know” in response to technical questions? (Q&A-1: interview)
The first Q&A session! Question of today: Is it OK to say, “I don’t know” in response to technical questions in an interview when you apply for a life-science research position in a laboratory? I will give you my answer and the reaso...
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Episode 31
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12:02
30. Positive controls in another experiment by Nobel Laureates (mini-series: reading-21)
We will keep analyzing the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will examine the four positive controls in the third figure of this paper, and in other figures as ...
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Episode 30
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32:41
29. Positive controls in experiments by Nobel Laureates (mini-series: reading-20)
Let’s analyze the specific positive controls that the Nobel Laureates used in their milestone article 1 that led to the Nobel Prize. We will look at the first two figures and four positive controls therein. As always, we are impressed by the me...
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Episode 29
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25:31
28. Defining positive controls in life-science experiments (mini-series: reading-19)
In this episode, we shift our focus from negative controls to their counterparts: positive controls. We will begin by defining what we mean by positive controls. Then we will refine that definition to encourage practical and cautious thinking.&...
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Episode 28
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13:11
27. One-year anniversary: I started podcasting to help you (podcast update 5)
One-year anniversary of this podcast channel! Thank you for listening. Why did I start podcasting? The motivation or the trigger was the students’ feedback to my teaching and training: they loved it. My goal is to help you learn and polish your...
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Episode 27
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21:02
26. Lessons learned from a failed experiment. Part 2 (mini-series: reading-18)
This episode continues from the last one. This will mark the end of our story about the life-science experiment that did not work at first, but worked well after extensive troubleshooting. We will talk about the remaining three lessons we can l...
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Episode 26
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34:47
25. Lessons learned from a failed experiment. Part 1 (mini-series: reading-17)
In the last episode, we finished discussing details of the life-science experiments in our story. We observed that negative controls can be powerful tools for troubleshooting and ensuring data quality. The story gave us invaluable learning expe...
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Episode 25
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31:30
24. Negative controls put the pieces together in troubleshooting experiments (mini-series: reading-16)
We will see how the experimenters implemented a good, troubleshooting idea into a protocol that appeared to be challenging at first. We are continuing to discuss the troubleshooting of a real, life-science experiment in our story. Sophisticated...
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Episode 24
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46:41
23. Refining a troubleshooting idea: the power of identifying unknowns (mini-series: reading-15)
We will discuss the fourth and final idea, for troubleshooting a real, life-science experiment in our story. This idea was based on the previous three ideas. Then the experimenters took an impressive step. They identified key unknowns about the...
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Episode 23
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25:11
22. Negative controls unveil a hidden culprit in a problematic experiment (mini-series: reading-14)
We continue our deep exploration into negative controls and their importance in troubleshooting life-science experiments. We follow a real-life story of an experiment that yielded unexpected results. Through the third troubleshooting experiment...
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Episode 22
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14:39
21. An exciting new way to stay connected (email newsletter; podcast update 4)
We will be happy to announce the launch of a new way to stay connected with the show - a FREE email newsletter! Sign up to get updates on upcoming episodes, behind-the-scenes insights, and more. Please join the community by sending an email to:...
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Episode 21
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1:34
20. Detective work of troubleshooting a puzzling experiment: negative control as a guide (mini-series: reading-13)
We will experience the fascinating world of scientific troubleshooting. In this episode, we will revisit a life-science experiment where researchers aimed to see if a specific chemical compound could enhance a particular function in cultured ce...
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Episode 20
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23:20
19. Negative controls are important: a story (mini-series: reading-12)
There are many reasons why life-science experiments do not work well. Today, I will tell you a real story about an experiment. It is an experiment that did not go well. We will explore the problem that researchers encountered. In the following ...
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Episode 19
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12:07