Many scientists, including me, struggle to ask interesting questions. In part, I think it’s because we are not taught an explicit framework for asking good questions. For example, a simple web search of the “scientific method” turns up dozens of various techniques, all of which are aimed squarely at elementary school students or laypeople. How does one go from “making […]
Category: Research
How to swap the bearings in a Leybold Turbovac 150 turbo pump
The bearings went out on our reactor turbo pump. It started making a loud whine. A rebuilt Leybold 150 costs like $4000, so swapping them out myself seemed like the only real option. Here’s how it went: Step 1: Remove the heatsink and housing. Use a metric allen wrench to remove the housing. It’s got a rubber o-ring holding it […]
How to use Zotero (and keep your papers on Dropbox).
Zotero is a simple, open-source solution for organizing your papers, books, websites, and other sources. It works great with Sci-Hub and even has a Firefox/Chrome add-ons so that you can quickly add papers straight from your browser. Additionally, it works flawlessly with Word to quickly add in-text citations and produce a bibliography of your cited sources. What you’ll need: Zotero […]