Checking journal’s scope and target audience is crucial to avoid “rejected without peer review”

May 8, 2024

Each journal has its mission, scope, and target audience. For example, a journal in bioseparation is a specialist journal interested in communicating research findings in the area of using different separation technologies for separating and purifying biomolecules from complex fermentation broth. Hence, its scope is everything relevant to using separation techniques to separate biomolecules in … More Checking journal’s scope and target audience is crucial to avoid “rejected without peer review”

Broad-spectrum antibiotics may be more effective in treating tuberculosis than the current narrow spectrum antibiotics

May 7, 2024

Mycobacteria tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen, and thus, it is difficult to be eradicated based on current antibiotic therapy where there is insufficient dose of the drug that reach the bacterial cell hiding inside a human cell. Therefore, we can treat the active form of tuberculosis (TB) with an aggressive broad spectrum antibiotic regiment that … More Broad-spectrum antibiotics may be more effective in treating tuberculosis than the current narrow spectrum antibiotics

Modern Ph.D. thesis research is more complex and extended

May 7, 2024

When I was doing my masters’ research thesis, I had the opportunity to read through some of the classic papers in molecular biology revolving on understanding the mechanisms of transcription and translation. Comparing the complexity of the papers in the 1950s and 1960s with now, would reveal that research has become more complex, and involved … More Modern Ph.D. thesis research is more complex and extended

Professional editors could put in more effort into developing a journal in new directions

May 6, 2024

Journals is the primary platform for disseminating new research findings and communicating them to the wider public and scientific community. Similar to a newspaper or magazine, there is a chief editor for each journal in the world. The duties of the chief editor include managing new journal article submissions, running the journal operations, as well … More Professional editors could put in more effort into developing a journal in new directions

Longer DNA segment needs longer initial melting time for qPCR applications

May 6, 2024

Initial melting step in quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is essential to separate the double stranded DNA into single stranded DNA in preparation for PCR. Naturally, the longer the DNA segment, the more energy is needed to separate the strands, and thus, a longer melting time at the same melting temperature of 95 oC is … More Longer DNA segment needs longer initial melting time for qPCR applications

Space constraints in top journals has pushed the Materials and methods section to the back of the journal article

May 4, 2024

Each piece of research is dependent on a set of analytical methods that helped the researchers to make the necessary measurements to understand the phenomena under study. These methods constitute the “Materials and methods” section of the journal article. However, there is a recent trend of relegating the “Materials and methods” section to the back … More Space constraints in top journals has pushed the Materials and methods section to the back of the journal article

Trend in integrating some elements of liberal arts education into conventional specialist university education

May 3, 2024

In the modern era, university education can be broadly classified into liberal arts education and the more conventional specialist training. Recently, there is a trend towards the integration of some elements of liberal arts education into conventional specialist university training such as engineering education. Specialist training refers to a comprehensive and integrated curriculum that teaches … More Trend in integrating some elements of liberal arts education into conventional specialist university education

Protein sequencing remains a significant technological barrier in omics research

May 2, 2024

Since the advent of Sanger sequencing in the 1970s, DNA sequencing has revolutionized our understanding of the life sciences, and allowed us to glean new insights into the genetic underpinnings of many diseases and biological phenomena at the cellular level. But, there is relatively little traction in the area of protein sequencing. Currently, we still … More Protein sequencing remains a significant technological barrier in omics research

Tenure is an academic tradition that protects academic freedom in the pursuit of knowledge

April 30, 2024

University is designed for pursuit of knowledge and for bequeathing new knowledge to the next generation. In the quest to pursuit knowledge, there will always be conflicts of opinion or perspectives between different stakeholders such as the university management, local councillors, and the professor. Such conflicts of opinion need not be antagonistic, but there is … More Tenure is an academic tradition that protects academic freedom in the pursuit of knowledge

Time of flight tube allows molecular ion of different mass to be separated using different flight time in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

April 29, 2024

Mass spectrometry techniques rely on a mass analyzer to separate ions of different molecular weight in order to afford differential or specific detection of particular molecular ion of certain mass/charge ratio. One common mass analyzer is the quadrupole mass analyzer common in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) applications. In the gentle ionization technique known as … More Time of flight tube allows molecular ion of different mass to be separated using different flight time in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry