I successfully setup a restriction digest and ran a gel. Would help if I had any DNA. Please still clap. #PIinthelab

A glass chamber with violet Argon Plasma inside

"Plasma am Morgen vertreibt Kummer und Sorgen"... Coating new ceramic samples with Au for impedance spectroscopy measurements. #PIInTheLab 🔋🪫👩‍🔬

Harvard’s research is shrinking amid the Trump administration’s freeze Even if grants at Harvard are suddenly restored, there is deep-rooted uncertainty about the damage already done and the future of basic science research in the U.S.

shocking to read over and over the stories of close colleagues who can't run their lab anymore. I know Karen well and it's heartbreaking. Also #PIinthelab! www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

What's the #techStartup term for #PIintheLab? Great visit to see @timcraggs.bsky.social and @ei-science.bsky.social shiny new home this morning! @sheffielduni.bsky.social

Grey agate pestle with some chipped-off pieces

Preparing a set of samples for neutron diffraction and it turns out that my spinel materials are really hard. Managed to get blisters on my hand and chipped off some bits from the pestle (luckily I found all the pieces in the sample). But now everything is ready to ship 😁
#ChemSky #PIInTheLab 🧪🧑‍🔬

Three alumina crucibles with a brown substance in them

An agate mortar with a pestle next to a black weighing boat with brown, powdery substance

Yesterday's black goo has been calcinated and now is a brown powder. We can use the powder directly as active material for 🔋 electrodes. For detailed structural characterization (neutron diffraction) we need to press and sinter ceramic pellets from the powder to enhance crystallinity.
#PIInTheLab 🧑‍🔬

Three crucibles in a muffle furnace

Achievements today: produced two batches of very sticky, black goo which smells of burnt caramel aka sol-gel synthesis ready for calcination 😁

#PIInTheLab 🧪🧑‍🔬🔬

The good thing is: we will get very nice neutron diffraction data of our new spinel compounds in April. The bad thing is: I have to redo 6 syntheses and press and sinter about 90 ceramic pellets in order to have enough material for measurements 🫠
#PIInTheLab 🧪🧑‍🔬🔬

Drop of liquid with tiny crystals

Drop of liquid with tiny crystals

It’s a rare privilege these days to spend the day in the lab but had fun this week purifying & crystallising a new protein. #PIinthelab Still my happy place, peering through the microscope and excited when seeing some promise of #crystals. #structuralbiology

Fruit fly abdomen with blue gut. This fly does not have a leaky gut, as all the blue food it ate stayed in the intestines where it belongs and didn't leak out into the rest of the fly.

I did a science today! Being in the lab always sparks joy! Being a PI means much more time at the computer and less at the bench. I always schedule myself a summer project, but it's nice to find small things I can play with in the academic year too! #newPI #PIinTheLab #Drosophila

I want to know what my students do and don't want to loose the sense of how long lab work takes. Today, me and my master student both learned to build our very first own battery cells. 😁🔋 #PIinthelab #ChemSky

Spent the last 2 weeks in the lab, supervising and teaching the new #PhD student. It's so rewarding to pass on knowledge and see them learn and grow in confidence. And to look at the new data! #microsky #PIinthelab #rewardsinacademia

I texted him this morning that I didn’t blow anything up or set anything on fire while I was in the lab! #PIinthelab

Active lab scene

Proving I'm not a #PIintheLab and that I still know what I'm doing!

a man in a leather jacket says i still got it in a dark room ALT: a man in a leather jacket says i still got it in a dark room

Long overdue update: crystals diffracted to 1.6-1.8A and no ice rings! #PIinthelab #stillgotit

I was flash cooling* crystals w/ AmSO4 today.
It was so cool to:
1. Do something I love again
2. Know I still got it! 😆

Can’t wait to see if cryo worked and they diffract! #proteincrystallography #PIinthelab

*not frozen. Speak to Elspeth Garman if you don’t know the difference

Got a nice new instrument to play around with. The violet light you can see in the image is the plasma during the sputter coating process 🤩.
#PIinthelab 🧪👩‍🔬

Have been quiet as I spent last week in the lab. It's fun to be doing experiments again but processing RNA from 30 samples is not an easy task! #PIinthelab #Academia

if you'd like some tips on how to cut your hand while washing a fly cage with only rounded edges, i'm your man. #PIinthelab

When a PI wears a labcoat again, most students flee, but in this case they flocked around Peter from @DedeckerLab to be immersed in the world of science. #PIinthelab #ScienceEducation #ScienceIsForEveryone

run, little guy, run! #PIinthelab

Everybody cool this is a #PIinthelab hazard. No left-handed friendly bench anymore in the lab sadly