The last couple of weeks have been full of exciting stuff - lab work! We'll take you through what we're doing in the lab step-by-step very soon, but today Mustard just wanted to share a photo of him taking notes in our lab book.
Scientists need to keep very careful notes about what they do in the lab. This is firstly just for themselves - it's hard to remember exactly what protocol or procedure you did last week, let along three years down the track. Secondly, when you publish your results in a scientific journal, you need to write in the methods - which means you need to keep a good record of what you did! Thirdly, if another scientist tries to replicate your results and fails, having detailed notes about all the different successes and failures you had in the lab along the way can help sort out what's going on.
Scientists need to keep very careful notes about what they do in the lab. This is firstly just for themselves - it's hard to remember exactly what protocol or procedure you did last week, let along three years down the track. Secondly, when you publish your results in a scientific journal, you need to write in the methods - which means you need to keep a good record of what you did! Thirdly, if another scientist tries to replicate your results and fails, having detailed notes about all the different successes and failures you had in the lab along the way can help sort out what's going on.