Editor's Choice, October 2016

By Tyler Ford

Editor's Choice Banner October 2016

Read All of Our Editor's Choice Blog Posts

Last month there was plenty of excitement at Addgene. Our new viral service has begun to pick up steam (we already have over 70 orders!), we sent Outreach Scientists to Colorado, Berlin, Atlanta, Ottawa, Norwich, and Hannover, we raised money for the Superhero 5k and, of course, we had our yearly Halloween party (see all of our wonderful costumes in the pictures below, yours truly is dressed as Unikitty from The Lego Movie). October was no less busy for the Addgene blog which once again had record readership with over 75,000 views.

Addgene Halloween 2016

Most Viewed Post BadgeChanging Labor Laws Bring Increased Postdoc Wages

Our most popular blog post this month shares incredibly important information for anyone considering a postdoc. In “Changing Labor Laws Bring Increased Postdoc Wages,” Future of Research executive director, Gary McDowell, gives a thorough yet concise rundown of how recently enacted labor laws will likely increase postdoc earnings in the U.S. This increase, while overdue in my opinion, will have a variety of downstream effects including possibly decreasing the number of postdocs various academic institutions can afford to hire. It will be difficult for some of these institutions to manage these changes quickly and harmlessly. Learn much more about the laws and their possible repercussions in Gary’s post.

Editor's Choice Badge October 2016Grad School Advice Part 2: Building Community 

My editor’s choice pick for this month is “Grad School Advice Part 2: Building Community.” This post leads readers to our latest podcast all about graduate student life and how establishing a thriving graduate student community can make the ups and downs of graduate school much easier to manage. This episode takes the form of a discussion between myself and two of my previous graduate school classmates, Ben Vincent and Niroshi Senaratne. When we recorded, Ben and Niroshi, were finishing up their time in the PhD Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard University. Ben and Niroshi have tons of great advice for those of you just starting or pushing through your PhDs.

Of course there were many fantastic posts in October. Click on the links below to catch up on ways to use CRISPR in plants, to learn techniques for detecting genome edits, to discover why you might want to use Reddit to discuss your science and more!

All Posts from October 2016:


I hope you all have a great November!

Tyler J. Ford

Sharing science just got easier... Subscribe to the blog

Topics: Addgene News

Leave a Comment

Sharing science just got easier... Subscribe to our blog