The young investigators' science blog
June 2019 – wasn’t it a great one? We enjoyed the sun, the heat, the ice-cream that we urgently needed to survive, and the vacation days we had. Where did you go and which mode of travel did you choose? This hot summer and California flair made me think of a mode of travel which all in all has become unpopular in Germany: tramping.
When I started my PhD I was a “newbie”. I was THE DEFINITION of newbie: inexperienced beginner, making the first steps in the wild and scary PhD world! I was driven by curiosity, passion and motivation and I was hungry to know more, to learn more, to develop my own ideas and find my own way to push forward the project I was assigned to. … Continue reading Keep Calm and Janeway!
About the author: US President Donald Trump’s travel ban is aimed to suspend the issuance of immigrant and non-immigrant visas of over 135 million people, from seven countries. This article is written by one of those 135 million people. A talented junior researcher from Germany, who was awarded by the Immunosensation travel grant in order to present her work in the Conference of American Society … Continue reading The Travel Ban: Are We All Affected?
Do you know these days when you are incredibly stressed out of your PhD? You feel that you are completely out of balance? You try to hold on and suddenly, just when you cannot afford it, you get sick. As if your body gives you the signal to slow down. Nowadays, it’s always about performance. Many even feel bad when they are less productive than … Continue reading How meditation strengthens the immune system – healthier by not doing anything
… it’s lab fail-time again! No, I’m not talking about the epic lab fail that just happened to you before you sat down and started reading this article. No worries. After all, I don’t possess clairvoyant abilities. I’m talking about all the lab fails that happen on a daily basis in laboratories all over the world. Thus, there’s plenty of material for us to read … Continue reading Lab Fails – your pain is our gain! (part 3)
A quick guide on becoming physically and mentally active for your Phd. You’re in the final year of your PhD and feel like you are just a few steps away from a total burnout? Your PI wants you to do more experiments to finally generate significant results after two or three – more or less – chaotic years of PhD? You want to start writing … Continue reading If you can’t work it out, do a workout!
Quizzes are becoming more and more popular. Conferences often have an immunology quiz on their agenda and at Christmas parties we like to torture our PIs with some difficult lab questions. 😉 So – we thought now it’s YOUR turn!!! Solve our ImmunoSensation Quiz! This quiz will reveal whether you’re an expert in immunology, show how familiar you are with our lab instruments, and might … Continue reading It’s Quiz Time – the first ImmunoSensation Quiz
A heartfelt laugh helps us to learn and remember things – that’s scientifically proven! Thus, I recently started our new series on lab fails. We’ve all been there and we’ve all done that – life in general but especially as a lab beginner is tough. Luckily, failure and – even better and probably way more amusing – studying other people’s misfortunes is a precious educational … Continue reading Lab Fails – your pain is our gain! (part 2)
Success is everywhere. At least this is what everybody likes to tell me. Grants are permitted, experiments work, history is made. Still, it’s 2018 and even three years after the predicted launch of hover boards I find myself walking to my work place by foot – how frustrating is that? The reason for this delay in scientific progress is very simple: Success is always also … Continue reading Lab Fails – your pain is our gain!
Jonas Möcking is a PhD student participating in the Bo&MeRanG project, a joint programme of the Universities Bonn and Melbourne. After two years of research in Prof Matthias Geyer’s Lab in Bonn working on the molecular basis of the inflammasome complex, he continues his studies in Melbourne with Prof Seth Masters. We accompany Jonas on his journey, which began on Wednesday, 28th February, and his … Continue reading Blogging live: Jonas goes Down Under – part 2