All Episodes
Displaying 61 - 90 of 113 in total
PPE for Eye and Face Protection—Better Safe than Sorry!
#53 — Anywhere but the face! On the list of places you wouldn't want to spill a chemical, I bet your face ranks pretty high.Wise scientists know their face protection....
How to Handle Strong Acids in the Lab
#52 — Acids are ubiquitous in the lab. We use them for many tasks, such as pH-ing solutions, cleaning glassware, calibrating instruments, and dissolving analytes.But t...
How to Use a pH Meter Correctly in 4 Simple Steps
#51 — A neglected pH meter means less reliable experiments, poor reproducibility, and time wasted. Yet, despite being critical to all our experiments, they are frequen...
The Dangers of UV Light in the Lab: Keep You and Your Experiments Safe
#50 — While we all know the dangers of too much UV light from the sun and the need to wear sunscreen, how much thought do we give to the dangers of UV light in the lab...
Problems Amplifying GC-rich regions? 5 Easy Solutions
#49 — It's not easy being rich. If your DNA is GC-rich and you're struggling to amplify it, you aren't alone. Listen to this Mentors At Your Benchside episode to disco...
8 Steps to More Successful Experiments
#48 — One of the critical skills required for any scientist is the ability to consistently design and carry out successful experiments. It’s also vital that any experi...
How Buffers Work—A Guide For Biologists
#47 — Buffers are everywhere in a lab. But do you know why we use them? Listen to this episode of Mentors At Your Benchside as we explain what buffers are, how they wo...
What Is a Ct Value?
#46 — If you are performing quantitative PCR (qPCR), you must understand what a Ct value is. In this episode of Mentors at Your Benchside, we'll take you through its c...
Different DNA Polymerases Explained
#45 — Taq polymerase is a fantastic all-rounder for standard PCRs, but what do you do if you need something a bit more specialist? In this episode of Mentors At Your B...
10 Good and Evil Ways to Use Your Dr Title
#44 — So you might be wondering why you bothered with all those years of failed experiments, committees, overbearing supervisors, thesis writing, and thesis defending....
How DNA Extraction Kits Work in the Lab
#43 — DNA extraction kits. A magic black (or red or blue) box that helps you isolate DNA without you even thinking. That's great—until things go wrong. Then you have t...
Funny Fruit Fly Gene Names
#42 — There are a lot of humorless scientists out there. But thankfully, some do their bit to make science a bit more fun by adding a splash of imagination to the name...
How to clean and calibrate your lab balance
#41 — Keeping your lab balance clean and calibrated will make your bench work a lot easier. In this episode we give you useful tips to maintain your balance, literally...
How to Write a Thoughtful Discussion for Your Scientific Paper
#40 — Are you struggling to write the discussion section of your paper? It can be daunting to put your results in context and to thoughtfully consider limitations and ...
How Using Oil Immersion Microscopy Can Increase Your Resolution
#39 — Oil immersion microscopy can help increase your resolution in light microscopy. Which, in turn, can lead to better images; and who doesn’t want nicer microscopy ...
Artificial Intelligence in Biology
#38 — Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is changing the way we analyze images and data in biology. But what exactly is AI?Listen to this episode for a brief pr...
Does Your h-index Measure Up?
#37 — How do you measure how good you are as a scientist? How would you compare the impact of two scientists in a field? What if you had to decide which one would get ...
How to Check the Accuracy of Your Pipette in 7 Easy Steps
#36 — Don't let an inaccurate pipette ruin your experiments. In this episode of Mentors At Your Benchside we’re talking about how to check the accuracy of your pipette...
How to Make the Perfect Agar Plate Every Time
#35 — A smooth, perfect agar plate will make your microbial experiments a lot easier. Whether you're using LB, M9 or blood agar, tune in to this episode to learn how t...
Top 5 Protein Quantification Assays
#34 — Whether you like it or not, you need to know the concentration of your protein samples accurately. Binding constants, enzyme kinetics, and activity assays all ne...
Top 10 Worst Lab Smells
#33 — Your lab. It probably doesn't look very nice, and often enough, it probably doesn't smell very nice either. Lumps of E. coli, fishy amines, eggy reducing agents....
Is Your Bacterial Culture Still Growing? A Primer on OD600 Measurements
#32 — How do you know if your bacteria culture is ready for your experiment? In this episode of Mentors At Your Benchside we take a close look at the popular method of...
How CRISPR-Cas13 Can Revolutionize Your RNA Research
#31 — CRISPR can do more than edit DNA. Cas13, a CRISPR-associated protein that can bind and cut RNA, provides the power of CRISPR for studying RNA. Listen to the epis...
Keep Calm and Spin On: The Whats and Whys of Centrifugation
#30 — We have all heard about centrifugation, or more specifically, the horror stories associated with centrifugation going wrong.But don't let centrifugation scare yo...
Protease Inhibitors 101: How They Work and How to Use Them
#29 — Ever wondered why you have to add protease inhibitors to your lysis buffer? In this episode of Mentors At Your Benchside we’ll tell you all about protease inhibi...
Constant Current or Voltage in SDS-PAGE: The Great Debate
#28 — SDS-PAGE gels can be run at constant current, constant voltage or constant power. But which is best? Listen to this episode of Mentors at Your Benchside to disco...
DNA Ligation: How it Works & 6 Top Tips
#27 — Optimal conditions for DNA ligation reactions are a delicate balance between DNA molecules interacting and the enzymatic ligation reaction.In this episode, you'l...
What Is Cryo-Electron Microscopy? A Brief Introduction
#26 — Cryo-EM is a revolutionary imaging method that lets us see complex biostructures at higher and higher resolutions. But do you understand the mind-blowing science...
The Basics: How Phenol Extraction of DNA Works
#25 — Phenol extraction of DNA is a commonly used method for removing proteins from nucleic acids, for example, to remove proteins from cell lysate during genomic DNA ...
Postdoc Interview Preparation: Sample Questions and Answers
#24 — How can you best prepare for a postdoc interview? Here we cover 10 questions that are often encountered during the job-hunting process. Preparing answers to the...
