While entering a clinic room one day, I closely followed the attending physician as she greeted the patient and made introductions. That morning I was participating in a form of learning that is all too common in medical school: passive observation. “Now let me just pull up the note,” the doctor said to the patient,(...)
Data
Open Access: Making Scientific Findings Available to All
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Perspectives in ResearchMost would agree that a principal goal of scientific research is to enhance society’s understanding of the world around us. In biomedical research, we are particularly interested in discovering the workings of the body to find better treatments for disease and enact better guidelines and policies for healthy living. A crucial element of this endeavor(...)
Drowning in Data: New Challenges in Modern Biology
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchBiology is a vast and rapidly evolving field. The science of life ranges from studying the physical and chemical interactions of molecules to mapping a network of billions of brain cells. How can we make sense of an entity as complicated as an organism? A prevailing attitude in biomedical research has been that if we(...)
Lessons Learned in Graduate School: Be Good to Your Data
Posted by | Events and HappeningsPart 3 in a series of posts called “Lessons Learned in Graduate School.” Read Part 1 | Part 2. If you find yourself unenthused at the thought of topics like data management and correspondence security, you’re not alone. I usually keep these ideas filed away in the category of “probably important but too much trouble(...)
Cracking the Code: How to Create Intuitive Tools for Visualizing Data
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchThese days, science is ripe with “big data” challenges. From next-generation sequencing to complex structural analysis, experiments that were once considered niche are becoming more commonplace in many laboratory environments. A single sequencing run alone can produce up to terabytes of data, and with this massive increase in information comes an inherent need to also(...)