Mandatory Mentoring

The 2007 America COMPETES Act, requires NSF-funded investigators to describe in their research grant applications how they would mentor postdocs funded on their grants, and it mandates that this information be evaluated under NSF’s broader impacts merit review criteria. Investigators are also required to describe their mentoring activities in their annual and final grant reports. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences may adopt a similar policy: according to its 2008 strategic plan, the institute will consider “implementing a ‘broader aims’ component of research project grant applications that explicitly evaluates an investigator’s training, mentoring, and diversity activities.”

What are your thoughts on this initiative and the implications for advisors and postdocs?

Creationists, Award Winners, and DNA Researchers: the August Issue of ASBMB Today

If you're an ASBMB member, the latest issue of ASBMB Today should be landing in your mailbox any day now. If you're not a member, or you would like a sneak-peek at what's in store in the print edition, you can check out the digital version of the magazine.

The August issue of ASBMB Today is packed with interesting and exciting content, including:

• A lively column by ASBMB President Gregory Petsko about the creationist movement's latest "assault on science," and a companion piece by ASBMB science policy fellow Angela Hvited on Governor Bobby Jindal's "Louisiana Science Education Act."
• The names and bios of the 2009 ASBMB award winners.
• The latest article in the series on publishing research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry: this month Cadmus Communications explains how best to prepare and include tables in your research paper.
• Four articles that look at what’s in store for 2009 ASBMB Annual Meeting attendees who are interested in DNA and nuclear research.
• A look at how a research assistant at biotechnology firm decided to become a marketing communications writer.
• Highlights from the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Lipid Research, and Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.
• A profile of ASBMB member Karen Vasquez whose research involves unwinding the mysteries of unusual DNA structural variants that contribute to genome instability, recombination, and gene expression.
  

I am also pleased to announce that ASBMB Today recently received a 2008 APEX Award for Publication Excellence in the category of Most Improved Magazines and Journals. We couldn’t have done this without our excellent writers, staff, and designer, and of course, suggestions from our readers. So keep sending those thoughts and comments to asbmbtoday@asbmb.org.

An Introduction

Over the next several months you’ll see posts from a variety of people on Chiral Comments. Some posts will be from invited writers who will do a single article on a specific subject, while other posts will come from ASBMB staff members who will contribute regularly to the site.

I’m one of those regular posters who you will become familiar with over the coming months. My main role at ASBMB is as the editor of the society’s monthly news magazine, ASBMB Today. I also write the introductions to the JBC Classic articles and I’m one of the editors of the upcoming ASBMB history book. When I’m not busy with those tasks I help out with whatever else needs to be written at ASBMB.

In my Chiral Comment posts I’ll keep you up to date on what’s in the latest issue of the magazine as well as solicit ideas for future magazine articles. I’ll also talk about what’s going on at ASBMB, from reports on what our committees are doing to giving you a sneak peek into the ASBMB history book. And finally I’ll be posting about the ASBMB annual meeting --telling you about what you can expect in New Orleans from science to social events and, of course, I’ll keep you abreast of the latest meeting deadlines.

First Green Labs Post

This post is the first in a series (hopefully) of green-themed ideas. The video below really struck me since I've often thought about how to make labs (where throwing away gloves, metal, glass and gallons of chemicals is a daily habit) more eco-friendly. One can forget that the lab isn't a sealed environment. Below I've spelled out the 10 recommendations presented in the video.

If you've got more suggestions please post them in the comments!




Lab Waste from Eva Amsen on Vimeo.



10 Easy Tips from the Video

1. Recycle paper products that haven't come into contact with biologicals like paper wrappers, office paper, cardboard inserts etc.

2. Wash and reuse materials that don't need to be sterile such as pipettes and plastic containers.

3. Use washable glassware whenever possible.

4. Avoid unnecessary disposables like dispo. inoculating loops.

5. Avoid excessive packaging materials. Buy lab supplies in bulk, avoid individually wrapped pipettes and styrofoam stands when possible.

6. Use the smallest amount of materials for your needs.

7. Reuse and recycle cardboard from shipping.

8. Reuse and recycle styrofoam from shipping.

9. Buy second hand lab equipment if possible.

10. Design experiments to limit the waste of time and materials.

First Post Ever

Welcome to Chiral Comments, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's new blog. We want to increase community participation here at the Society and this will be another channel of communication with members and the public.

I'm still working on my title here at ASBMB but it's something along the lines of platform-agnostic science communicator--but I'm pretty sure it will end up being way less nerdy in the end. Currently, I write the journal podcasts, news for the Society's web pages and press releases. I'm a web design person too, so you'll see my hand in new journal home pages, widgets, icons etc. Next month's (September's) issue of ASBMB Today will host my new column, Sci.comm, that will focus on communication technology and science, so this blog will be a testing ground for new ideas in science communication and hopefully a place to harvest a few new ones.

Aside from talking about communication, I'll also be looking into the environmental impact of scientific research and what some institutions are doing to address it.

I'll use this first post to solicit ideas on blogging. Is there anything out there that isn't getting covered? Who should be blogging about science, technology, politics and environment?

We already have contributors signed up who will bring a variety of other content to the table, from politics to the latest science news. Comments are always open, so please contribute to the conversation!