When do you need a pulse compressor for multiphoton imaging?

There are different types of pulse compressors, this is clever single prism design.

Here’s a quick question I received via email that might be worth sharing: Does using a pulse compressor make a noticeable…



Reducing bureaucratic burden for academics

Many are aware of the burden of bureaucratic administrative tasks on professors. A colleague of mine called it “Death by 1000 paper cuts.” It takes time away from research and other scholarly activities, and oftentimes the time commitment is substantial, taking 20-40% of a professor’s time, depending on who you ask and what items are…



Robot arm with a 2p scope attached

Coming soon to your neuroscience lab.

Thorlabs has worked with the great Jacob Reimer to create a streamlined 2p system that is compact enough to mount on a…



Simple time management advice for academics

Academics don’t typically receive much advice in time management during their training. Then they get a tenure-track position and are expected to figure it out. Most do indeed figure it out, but there can be pain involved. Here are some simple bits of advice, take what you find useful, ignore the rest.

The best system…



Blackout shades for imaging rigs

Your amazing imaging rig should be operated with the room lights on. There’s no reason you need to do your work in the dark. My rigs are built lightproof. Very lightproof….



Writing advice for NIH R01 grants

For those who might find it useful, I am sharing some grant-writing advice. It is specifically for writing NIH R01 grants, but many of the principles are more broadly applicable.

Advice-for-writing-your-first-R01s-SLS-1Download



A sense of scale, public vs. private universities

Private universities have many fewer undergraduate students compared to public universities. From Wikipedia, mostly 2021 numbers.

People generally understand the difference in governance between public and private schools, but they…



2 tips for making big lab purchases easier

Making good use of those indirect cost returns

Spending a lot of money on a big purchase can be time consuming. Whether it’s a high-power laser, an imaging system, or something else,…



Write it down. Analyze it now.

This piece from Eve Marder resonantes with me. Just a couple of notes to elaborate on it.

Pages from Oliver Smithies’ lab notebook

Write it down. I tell people in…



Vertical histograms FTW

I might be alone in this, and I’m willing to die on this hill, but here it is:

Vertical histograms are better than all of these: violin plots, box plots, kernel density plots, beeswarm plots. (if you don’t know those terms, simply do a web search for them for examples)

Just show me the naked distribution….



The Art of the Cold Email in Science

If you’re looking for a lab/prof to sponsor your grad work or post doc, it can be difficult to find a match. Responding to advertisements is one way. Cold emails are another way.

Like a lab, but no ad? Apply anyways. Almost everyone I know is almost always looking to hire good…



Specifications for new lab space

The Diesel2p.

Setting up some new lab space? Need some plans and specifications for renovations? Here are some notes that are relevant for setting up rooms for 2-photon microscopes and/or electrophysiology to be used with animals. If your target is something different from that, then maybe there are at…



Sourcing scan mirrors in early 2022

ScannerMax Saturn 5

There are some companies that have no real competition. Maybe a product here-and-there in their catalog is subject to market forces, but most of their items have no competing options from…



Notes on indirect rates

It can be confusing navigating accounting in academic research, and thankfully there are admin pros that do most of that work for us, but it’s good to know some basics….



Guidance for designing an objective from scratch

Several people have reached out for guidance on designing and building an objective from scratch, when they have little-to-no background in custom optics. Here are some notes on the topic, in broad strokes, focused on the practicalities.