#brai-nstem

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share some of the science databases that I’ve come to know and love, arranged by subject. This post covers textbooks, databases, genetics, virtual labs, and math. Feel free to add to this! 

Best of luck! 

open source textbooks; 

OpenStax - I really liked their Microbiology, Biology, and Chemistry books: very digestible/reader-friendly. 

Open Textbook Library - an accumulation of free textbooks from different sources!

general science databases: 

ScienceDirect - Interdisciplinary!! Has a filter for free full text thank god. Also has a huuuuge list on the journals it displays: and whether they’re open access or not :)

NCBI - Literally a compilation of PubMed, PubChem, BLAST, and some other stuff. Shows abstracts and has a filter for free full texts!

PubMed - Medical articles! whoop!

PubChem - Search assays, compounds, and substances.

PLOS - Public library of science: 100% open access, fuck yeah. 

Directory of Open Access Journals - Cool! Helps you find in-field journals that you don’t have to pay a million dollars for. 

genetics: 

Learn Genetics: Virtual Labs : PCR, Gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction, etc. Super helpful for prepping for classwork/lab work. 

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BLAST - Enter ur raw genetic sequencing data and find best matches for the genus / species (depending on how in-depth your data is). Remember, the smallest E value is the winner! 

Geneious / Snapgene - applications you can download to trim sanger sequencing data so you don’t put shitty data into BLAST: snapgene is free and geneious has a free trial! Personally I find geneious easier to use, and it also has older versions if you have an older computer that won’t run the new-and-fancy stuff.

PCR troubleshooting by yours truly: Trying to amplify the DNA of an unknown bacteria is super tricky! Here are some things you can try to change when you’re damn sure you did it right…

Virtual Labs: 

OnlineLab - Find tons of virtual labs in just about any science subject!! Link to anatomy page. 

hhmi BioInteractive - immunology, cardiology, transgenic flies…so many. 

Learn Genetics: Virtual Labs : PCR, Gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction, etc. Super helpful for prepping for classwork/lab work. 

Michigan State Bacteriology - Basics of Microbiology lab techniques. 

Virtual Labs - Food sciences and microbiology

math: 

Derek Owens Calculus 1 Video tutorials with lots of examples. Literally this man is how I survived calculus 1: and got an A on the final ;)

Desmos: Free online graph generator and scientific calculator. Fuck that tiny graphing calculator screen. 

so i’m still pretty new to the studyblr community, i’ve had this account for less than 3 weeks damn but i’ve already talked to quite a few amazing studyblr people who have been so friendly and cool. i just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you for being so nice. i’ve always been really shy and i was honestly so anxious to make this account cuz im not a huge social media fan, but i just feel so grateful to be a part of this community, and i really think that i have finally found a group that i truly feel like i belong to. i don’t think i can put into words how much i want to say thank you for making me feel this way.

anyways, i’m not usually sentimental lol  but i’m hoping to start posting a lot of my own content soon since i’m finally getting into the routine of being back at university so i hope i’ll be able to start taking some cool studyblr pics to share :)

please remember that if you ever need someone to talk to, my message box is always open! i definitely don’t have any room to judge anyone, so know that my inbox is always a safe place. (or just come say hi if you want)

(efficiently)

Hey y'all! There are a lot of situations where you might have to delve deep into scientific research–be it for a paper, grant-writing, or scientific-poster-making–and your first few times around, it’s not easy. There are literally thousands of articles out there, and narrowing it down is extremely tricky! 

 Let’s break it down. Keep reading under the cut! 

 What are you looking for?

Jot down a few terms. 

We’ll use a research poster I had to do as an example. I was researching the correlation between anthrax incidence in human/animals and global climate change. Here are some terms that came to mind: 

 weather, climate change, global climate change, weather patterns, anthrax, bacillus anthracis, global warming, permafrost, glacier melting

Okay, cool. That’s a fuck ton of words and we DO NOT want to try to do some scary hyper-advanced search for all that shit–and you definitely don’t want to have to cram all that in your materials/methods section flow chart, especially when searching in more than one database. The key is to balance getting articles you actually could use, while not eliminating things that could help build your foundations. 

Let’s narrow it down into categories. 

Weather patterns, global warming, climate change, permafrost, glacier melting, and global climate change

AND

 Anthrax, Bacillus anthracis

These terms are all roughly the same, so lets pick the most important ones out: these ones carry the most meaning, and aren’t too specific (specificity would depend on purpose, so if you were searching for articles only related to the permafrost, by all means, include it.) 

So here is what we’ve got: Weather patterns, climate change, global warming AND Bacillus anthracis, anthax. 

So how the FUCK do we type that into search bars?

Well, we can do an advance search in every single database we use, or we can write it in a way more convoluted way that is easier to copy and paste, as such:

 ((weather patterns OR climate change OR global warming) AND (Anthrax OR Bacillus anthracis))

Cool beans, where do I put this?

A few different places: it depends on your researching! Google scholar is fine (read: I don’t like it, personally), but you can end up stonewalled by expensive fees: try NCBI / PubMed / PubChem, ScienceDirect, and your friendly neighborhood library website. Sometimes your library can even get an interlibrary loan–it just might take a few weeks and you actually have to talk to your librarian. 

Add these filters depending on your needs: Free full text, free abstract, published within 5 years, 10 years, custom date ranges, peer-reviewed, article type (review, case study, etc). 

And those are the basics! Happy searching! 

hey! so after doing a bit of creeping, i’ve decided to officially join the studyblr community. here’s a brief introduction about me:

my name is Jess, i’m 20 years old, and i’m starting my third year of university this year

i’m a pre-medicine student. i’m majoring in psychology and minoring in biochemistry

i have a passion for psychology and science, especially chemistry and biology. my goal is to be a doctor, and i would love to specialize in psychiatry or neurology

i’m also interested in philosophy, forensics, law, and politics

when i’m not studying or doing schoolwork, i also enjoy reading lots of books, watching sports, and sleeping

@rayraystudies this is so beautiful holy ��

Hey brai-nstem, thank you so much for your lovely message 💚 this means a lot to me. [Someone reads my posts 🌈😍😅]

Clark demands some cracker right now and bosses me around, so I think he'll be alright in a few days.

asdfghjkl I gotta love people who are super direct because hey! I wanna be friends too! hi, I’m Rivkah, it’s nice to meet you. I’m super nerdy and I love to learn and I hope you’ll ask more questions/message me soon! thank you for the compliment!!