6. Histology slide scanner
I’ve always found it a waste that researchers only showcase a representative field of view of an immunostained sample. After going through the hassle of making a piece of biological tissue fluoresce, you’d think those microscopic bright lights deserved a little more attention. This is where a histology slide scanner comes in handy. With a motorized stage allowing multiple images to be taken in a grid format, coupled with automatic stitching of the images into a single whole—like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—a slide scanner could save you hours of labor and give you a more objective analysis of your tissue sample.
7. Self-refilling liquid nitrogen tank
Every biology lab has a liquid nitrogen tank for cryopreserving important primary cells or cell lines. The trouble with these tanks is that they need to be refilled almost every fortnight to ensure that everything inside them remains frosty. Forget to top them up over a long weekend or a holiday season and you might be in for a rude shock when thawing cells out for experiments. A liquid nitrogen tank that automatically refills itself, or alerts users whenever liquid nitrogen levels are low, would be a great asset to the lab.
8. Conference spending
One of the perks of research is that you occasionally get to travel the world and tell people about your work. But if your PhD scholarship doesn’t cover travel costs, you’d best try to put it in the budget of your supervisor’s next grant. Some of the best conferences could be happening half the world away, and it would be a shame to miss them simply because you couldn’t afford the air ticket. With some planning and a bit of luck, your next overseas trip could be paid for by a funding agency rather than from your own pocket.
9. Postdoc pay
If you’re approaching the end of your PhD candidature and you love your lab so much that you can’t bear to leave it, think about asking your supervisor to include a postdoc pay package in the next grant budget. This could be a win-win situation for both of you—your supervisor gets to keep a skilled worker, while you get to decide your own paycheck! Of course, all this is subject to the success of the grant application, so it might be wise to keep your other options open.
10. Cloning machine
Just imagine the amount of work you could get done if there were two of you. This item alone would probably bust the budget, so the scientist who invents this is going to be very, very, very rich.
This article is from a monthly column called Hacking a PhD. Click here to see the other articles in this series.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
