Going ‘Behind the Bench’ (a new blog)

First of all I’m announcing to the world a new Thermo Fisher Scientific / Life Technologies blog entitled ‘Behind the Bench’. I mentioned in the last post that this blog will launch May 27th, but due to some factors beyond my control we’ve gone ‘live’ with it today. (It may seem self-referential to blog post about another blog, but I’ll save that for another day!)

As it is a corporate blog there are many people involved in its production, several of whom are very behind the scenes. The production is relatively straightforward, however there are many eyes that review each piece that goes up ‘live’ (someone who is familiar with all Life Technologies’ print wording, someone else who protects the company’s interest as a lawyer, and still another person who looks out for regulatory concerns). I have added a ton of work to these already hard-working folks, and appreciate their efforts (although at times their comments do make more work for me, and I’m climbing up the learning curve in a number of dimensions).

Also with a constant stream of new ideas for posts (for example a recent ctenophore ‘comb jelly / alien of the seas’ paper that came out last week in Nature, or an interesting talk also caught last week at the ASM meeting about mapping simultaneously metabolomics and metagenomics across the human skin surface) everything seems to overlap all at once and it can become something of a spinning plates act. You’ve got to keep an eye on a lot of plates, and rev up the spinning when things start to wobble.

And of course things wobble – the feedback can take what you’ve done and change it in a lot of ways (I’ve learned to proofread everything and not be afraid to make editorial changes), everyone has their own idea of writing style and perspective (naturally different perspectives are welcomed, but it takes time for different voices to agree on what kind of tone to take); there has to be some kind of cohesive vision and purpose as that will be tested (take a look at the first blog post here, for the ‘why’ of Behind the Bench). So take a look around and let me know what you think below (or better yet let me know what you think on the Behind the Bench blog itself).

Do bookmark it, subscribe via RSS, or subscribe via email. One nice series of videos we’re introducing is called #LabChat, and it features a short 5 minute interview with researchers as it intersects with Life Technologies genetic analysis products (everything from LCM to qPCR to Sanger sequencing to Ion Torrent or SOLiD NGS). Take a look at the post here that describes the format, and if you’d like to participate in it feel free to send a note to Life Technologies (several methods in the post) or contact me directly. I’m having a lot of fun being introduced to many diverse kinds of work going on, across many different fields.

One item that I’m still noodling on is how this Next Generation Technologist blog will continue, but frankly it may be a place where I can talk about competitive / alternative genetic technologies or other NGS-related news that may be more suited to a personal blog rather than a corporate one. It being a self-published thing, I’m committed to the format and don’t plan to sign off anytime soon. Thank you to all who sent their best wishes and continue to read my material, on whichever platform!