Life Science Tools of the Trade

Another vendor show and yes, two slices of pizza. For some incomprehensible reason, I went back to the lab and spent a fair amount of time looking over some promotional material I picked up. I saw a product I thought I could use in my research. I finished up a few odds and ends in the lab and went back to ask about the specific product. The scared look in the sales rep’s eyes told me she  had no idea what I was asking and couldn’t give me any information about the product. I knew more about it than she did after reading the two page blurb in the flyer. I know you have to start someplace but why do companies send someone completely green out to sell products without a trained mentor? Why don’t the sacrificial sales reps at least read the promotional material they are handing out?   “I don’t know but you can go to our website” isn’t really helpful advice.

Did I go to the website.  No. 

I want to purchase this article

I don’t know how it happened but lately, my mailbox has been full with scientific junk mail.   It’d be okay if it was sent to the lab address but it’s not.  Everyday I get home, check my mailbox (not my email) and there it is.  Fliers upon fliers from different companies all with my HOME address on it.  Most of the products I’m not interested in.  Most of the companies I’ve never heard of.
What I am interested in figuring out is: how did my personal address end up being sold to these companies?  I wish I knew.  Until I figure that out though, my garbage can is full and the mailman hates me.

I ripped open the official looking letter, hands shaking, were the test results back? Had I been exposed? Nope. Just another zany marketing ploy! Those crazy kids and their MBAs! What a catchy new way to solicit money-medical scare tactics! The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology apparently bought my name from some charity and is now sending me letters, asking for donations, asking if I’m “at risk”.  Asking for money and they didn’t even send me any guilt-inducing return address labels.

Verdict: trash can.

Donation: None.

Am I at risk?  “No (unless you work with poultry in Indonesia or other countries with avian flu outbreaks).

Confession: I’ve never sat an watched a webinar. I know companies are pushing them as a way to educate (sell their products to) scientists (customers). I find the whole idea of webinars totally unappealing. I rarely attend company sponsored seminars because the data is rarely peer-reviewed (anyone remember Stratagene’s CytoTrap aka CytoCrap?) and in reality it is not a seminar it is a salespitch. At a seminar there is the possibility of a free cheap pen, cold coffee and stale doughnut!

How many times have I attended at company sponsored seminar and thought “That was a good use of an hour”?

Gotta run-there is a (another) seminar on a new and improved algorithm for designing siRNAs that I really need to attend! I have a feeling this is going to be a good one.

Wake me when it is over.

Why do two people have the same idea or spark of creativity, independently and at the same time? Complicated scientific discoveries build on previous knowledge. It really isn’t so surprising when two people/labs/groups get to the same point at the same time. That isn’t really very interesting. What about observations that make you slap your head and wonder “Why didn’t I think of that?” The simultaneous independent discovery of the Mobius Strip by Mobius and Listing is one example.  Take a strip of paper. It has two sides. Twist one end 180 degrees and tape it to the other end. You’ve created a unique  endless piece of paper with one side-not two. Why didn’t someone think of it sooner? Galileo, da Vinci, Archimedes. Simple. Hell, I might of thought of that if it hadn’t already been done. I’m not saying I would have but I could have. Why was this simple yet profound observation/discovery never made until the 19th century when it was made twice?