Welcome to the Coleman lab blog: science goes live!
Scientists are creatures of contrast. We use 21st century, cutting-edge techniques in research, and communicate like 19th century scientists. In the lab, we push back boundaries; but at our desks, we imagine boundaries that don’t exist.
How often have you wanted to sound out an idea, get across a point of view, or have feedback on a paper from outside your own research group? Every now and then, we get these opportunities at a conference. We present our work, answer a few questions, talk over coffee, and come home buzzing with new ideas. We then retreat to our silos and stop discussing until the next meeting.
The world has moved on since the days of Golgi and Cajal! Not only do we have fantastic new ways to label neurons but unlike these two pioneers of modern neuroscience, we also have fantastic new ways to discuss results. We use the first but not the second.
The Coleman lab is reaching out and we hope you will reach back. We want more discussion of our own papers, we want to discuss major advances from others and we want open debate so everyone learns – ourselves and you, from established professors to undergrad students.
We will post summaries of our own papers, discussions of major advances from other groups, and our thoughts on everyday issues that we all face – from career insecurity to the style of lab meetings – so we can share our ideas and learn from yours.
We also plan to host a few guest articles from other labs – if you would like to write one, do get in touch with Louise at lmm85@cam.ac.uk.
Whether this succeeds in getting meaningful interaction is in your hands. If it does, we all benefit with new ideas on science and how to do it. So please leave a comment, follow us on Twitter @Lab_Coleman for announcements of new posts and share this news with your colleagues.
We’d love to hear from you. If you like the idea, or even if you don’t (yet!), or have thoughts on how to make this work, please leave a comment.
And stay tuned for the first science post!