Whether it's handling mice to measure their tears or building a computer model of neuron cells, an intrepid group of 31 sophomores is going to take the rest of us along for the experience this summer.
The students, all lab assistants in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellows program, are keeping Internet diaries of their experiences. Click here to read them.
Duke science editor Karl Leif Bates is watching the blogs and highlighting some great posts on the main page, but viewers are encouraged to scroll through the list of bloggers on the right side of the page and enjoy the quality and diversity of their posts.
The students are sharing descriptions and photos of their first encounters with real scientists in their natural habitat, getting the hang of difficult lab procedures, learning to handle mice and worms, and picking up a lot of science that they would never get in a classroom.
Jackie Sink summed up her first days in the lab:
" -- I was overwhelmed in my first few days in research! With no significant research experience under my belt, the complexity of lab life came as quite a surprise. I realized just how much I didn't know about the basic techniques of science - how complicated dilutions, electrophoresis, and even growing yeast plates could be if you have never been forced to perform it yourself before."
Samantha Pearlman is observing to see if scientists are as unusual as the movies always make them out to be:
"There are a lot of misconceptions about science and about people who devote their lives to science. While I've always loved the crazy mad scientist character with the ubiquitous white lab coat, I'm not so sure which stereotypes are actually true and which are fictional (Do researchers have social lives or are they confined to lab-intramural softball leagues? Does anyone actually use that dingy shower in the women's restroom on the third floor of BioSci?), but I'm planning to find out this summer. And, hopefully, this blog will be a way for the outside world to see what really happens in a lab."
Indeed it will. The student blogs are an experiment that the Office of News and Communications is hoping to grow to include faculty, staff and students involved in all sorts of research. "Our goal is simply to put a human face on science and scientists by showing the process and the personalities at work, not just the dead-dry results," Bates said.
For more information on starting a science blog, e-mail karl.bates@duke.edu