And The #1 Most Important Technique in Scientific Research is......

Labeling!!!!!!

Seriously, if you are considering doing your own scientific research for the first time, get in the habit of labeling everything! Label things clearly with as much detail as possible. Even if you are simply putting 20-mL of distilled water into a 50-mL tube, you should still label it because you may forget what you put in there when you come back from eating a bologna sandwich. Also someone else might need to know what it is and to whom it belongs. You want to make sure that your results are as accurate as possible by minimizing procedural errors. The easiest way to do this is to become an expert "labeler."

Another simple, but equally important tool for effective scientific research is reading! Read as much as you can about the work you are doing or are planning to do. Reading scientific papers is challenging, but the more papers you read and the more times you read each paper the easier it gets. Sometimes it can be rather difficult to make yourself read at night after a long day at work (something that I have experienced). However, what background reading can do for you is grant you an understanding of what you are researching. That way it means something to you when you find out that CD8+ T cell expansion occurred after lymphocytes from a particular transgenic mouse were injected into a nude mouse. Otherwise, you are just a robot. Otherwise, you are just following a protocol. Reading allows the research experience to be not just educational, but also meaningful and more enjoyable.

Stay tuned for a future post describing the art that is perfusion...