2012 Survival Guide

2012 Core Survival Guide

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As a scientist, you must constantly question yourself, your experiments and your data to find out what you might have overlooked, why the experiment did not work or why the results contradict your initial assumptions. This lengthy and inescapably frustrating process is the very heart of scientific discovery and it cannot be avoided without coming up hard against the damaging repercussions of research misconduct.

Moreover, it could get you dismissed. When performing scientific research, one is inevitably confronted with unknown terrain […]. The right thing to do is to embrace not knowing. In most cases we perform an experiment to answer a specific question and we therefore look at the data from a relatively narrow perspective: However, the most exciting results are usually the unexpected ones.

Serendipity is important in science and to be able to see and understand the unexpected requires knowledge, time and an open mind. It is therefore essential to take the time to analyse your results carefully, paying close attention to every single detail and checking how your results compare with those in the literature. More importantly, you should develop a habit of going back to your results from time to time to take a fresh look.

Exciting new insights might be waiting to be unveiled in the light of new knowledge and perspectives. Publishing is an integral part of science. All new scientific insights are, by definition, unproven until they have been validated and elaborated or refuted by the scientific community. This process is most effectively achieved by publishing your work in a peer-reviewed journal.

However, to achieve this, you will have to master the particular scientific style in which papers are written. You might find that, owing to time pressures, your PI or postdoc will write the papers that cover your work. You should accept their help, but it is an essential part of your education that you write your own papers and master scientific writing.

It is a skill that requires a lot of practice and the fortitude to face failure and respond positively. Although a scientific article is a technical document written for a particular expert audience, the most compelling papers are those that lead the reader through the story of the research and make the data and discussion accessible to those outside your immediate field.

Like any good tale, your manuscript requires careful construction: You will have to shape your work into a concise, convincing and readable document and adequately cite the literature, all within the particular constraints of the journal to which you plan to submit. This implies that you will have to re-evaluate your initial hypothesis and often list your experiments in a different order than that in which they were actually performed to present a convincing argument for the reviewers.

Most research labs are under significant and mounting pressure from universities, research institutes or grant organizations to demonstrate progress. As a consequence, there is an insatiable hunger for publications and a preoccupation with journals with high impact factors IFs that too often turns the intrinsically enjoyable process of scientific publishing into a nightmare of terror, frustration, disappointment and reprimands.

The impact of your own work can either be higher or lower than the rank of the journal in which you publish, and either way, your findings will remain valid, no matter the IF of the journal. Note also that selection panels are increasingly aware of the limitations of judging a scientist by the IFs of the journals in which they have published, and now often use alternative metrics in combination with the IF to assess a candidate's impact.

Anecdotally, there are several articles that were published in small journals but eventually turned out to be landmark discoveries. An interesting example in our own field is the finding of a segmental duplication containing the PMP22 gene on chromosome 17, which causes the most common form of inherited peripheral neuropathy [ 2 ]. It was the first gene duplication to be shown to cause disease in humans.

This highly cited article was published in the first issue of Neuromuscular Disorders , a journal that is still considered modest in terms of its IF. Some of the authors—who were PhD students at the time of publication—later became leading scientists in the field of inherited peripheral neuropathies. Good communication is essential in any career, but it is particularly vital to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts in a lab.

You do not have to be friends with everyone you work with, but a bad atmosphere can make your PhD miserable. Things as simple as who cleans the glassware, or issues as complex as the level of independence your PI expects from you can all be addressed and resolved through good communication.

Furthermore, each lab or department will have its own policies and rules governing the way things work, both officially and informally.

Spending some time talking to people at different levels can help you to grasp the modus operandi of your department and research group. The final factor in the equation is what you want from your PhD project and what your plans are for the future. Aligning your expectations with those of your supervisor and your lab will make everyone's life much easier.

Tackling misinformation in an open society

The only constant in science—and in life—is change. As I develop this survival guide I am going to make some assumptions: If you have remote access to the box you would use a GUI to manager it Tasks should be easy to type in or copy - 1 line commands I plan to use PowerShell whenever possible This is because it is the way of the future You do not have to be a programmer You do not have to know PowerShell Each task should be easy to change for your environment For example if I use IP address Please share your ideas in the comments This guide is not intended to teach you PowerShell. Although you might learn some of it.

The intent is to develop easy to follow examples I am only testing these command on Windows Server Level 1 ops teams should be able to use the guide with little instruction So far this is my list of tasks for the Core Survival Guide. Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. December 19, at 1: Log in to Reply. March 3, at 3: April 4, at 1: September 12, at November 1, at 1: September 1, at 6: September 27, at 7: November 26, at 8: May 19, at 8: September 24, at 7: This game should offer something extra… like a pulse.

Pace Yourselves Everyone chomps at the bit when the tournament kicks off. They drink their beers, fiddle with their nuts nervously on the couch and pretend that the low-scoring draw between Poland and Greece was a fine advertisement for Euro It scared the nurses. Think about how England usually fares at a tournament — kicks off full of hope before bombing out in the knockout stages — and do the exact opposite.

Apocalypse Now? A 2012 Survival Guide

Beware The Irish On June 11 at 2. The Irish will appear from every nook and cranny on the island. Like a scene from Dawn of the Dead, they will stagger from dark corners and head for the nearest expat pub playing Irish diddly-dee music and selling Guinness in buckets. Everyone will suddenly be Irish when the Republic of Ireland take on Croatia. So, rest well, because the Irish are an exhausting experience.

We need facts more than ever.

Fortunately, their first two games are midnight kick-offs. The third will be against Ireland at 2. Watch that one at an Irish pub and write off the rest of the week. Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and gang are not getting any younger, so Euro might provide a sublime swansong.

There are other pastimes to consider:

• Ford and Relationships
• The Mother Daughter Connection: Building a Lifelong Bond with Your Daughter
• Nutbusters (Renovating Love Book 2)
• Mein geschenktes Leben (German Edition)
• Patchouli for Christmas