Experimental Error

Before you pick up that next thriller novel, remember that scientists are not exactly as they are often portrayed.

Why do we require scientists to write badly?

The Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine is only the beginning.

Lab work left you feeling dissatisfied? Our Experimental Error columnist feels your pain.

Looking for something really different? Consider a career in alchemy, Lysenkoism, diluvial geology -- or invent your own!

When you carve the turkey, don't forget to thank science

If you like grant writing, writing grants, and obtaining grants via writing, you may enjoy life as an academic scientist.

It's time to reclaim the Nobel Prize for the common scientist, for those who have long considered the award beyond their grasp.

As we are training to become fully fledged scientists, we ourselves are the test subjects.

Walk through the corridors of many scientific institutions and you'll see the results of decisions made by the hiring committee of 1962.

Our labs are science-based mini-societies -- so why do we run them in the same arbitrary and bureaucratic way as the rest of the world?

His daughter still in the embryonic stage, our columnist wonders whether it's too early to steer her toward a career in science.

Scientific hoaxes can be fun (when they're harmless) while also serving a serious function: exposing failures of scientists' most important tool, their skepticism.

How can we ensure that future students will read our names when, many years from now, they open their science textbooks on their iPad 15s?

No talented child ever says, "I want to pipette repetitively when I grow up."

For all the naive and gullible graduate students out there, here is a handy guide to what those speakers are really saying.