Happy Sunday Everyone! Old posts with erroneous or incomplete information will be updated and every Sunday we will try to make note of what updates we made. We’re calling this Reddress Sunday, and we hope you get the pun. Send us suggestions and corrections for Reddress Sunday at LabOnTheCheap@gmail.com . -The price of a BioRad […]
The Cost of Experimentalists
As a special April Fools post, today we are going to try to discuss the cost of scientists. Specifically, this will be about the cost of scientists in an academic setting. Let’s start with a Post-Doc. In many fields at most universities a Post-Doc is paid based off the NIH/NRSA guidelines. This scales with the […]
Viewing IR Light with Your Phone (Or Laptop)
Traditionally I use this $2000 handled infrared viewer when aligning our Ti:S beam. But recently I’ve been finding that my phone (a Samsung S8) is sensitive to IR light, and that it’s way easier to use than an infrared viewer when aligning the laser. Besides being more flexible with viewing angles (since your face doesn’t […]
Cheap Solutions to Thermocyclers for PCR
You’re going to spend how much on a thermocycler? That’s crazy! Why not get miniPCR, a beautiful PCR kit with some awesome software for just $650 or OpenPCR, a thermocycler kit for just $500. Not cheap enough? Go the full DIY and you can build on for less than $100. Do you just refuse to […]
3D Printable Motorized Correction Collar
I hate correction collars, and tend to avoid using them. But maybe I would make use of them more if I could control the collar setting with Micro-Manager. Check it out. *Post-edit: Just a week after writing this I came upon an experiment where using a collar was the difference between pristine data and no […]