Flyceum: Your Science. Your Career.

The Problem:

There will be many times in our careers when we will find ourselves in a new job environment.  Whether we’re starting as a tech, grad student, postdoc or faculty, the transition period can be tough.  And let’s face it, scientists aren’t exactly known for their social graces.  The combination of stress and awkwardness can be explosive and leave people on both sides of the fence with a bad taste in their mouths

The Solution:

Luckily, there are a few very simple steps we can take to keep our new colleagues on our side.

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The Problem:

The IntenseDebate account is awesome (see Don’t be afraid…be anonymous), but you’re not really sure how to set it up or whether you want to take the time to figure it out.

The Solution:

Follow these easy steps and you’ll be all set in under a minute.  Once you’re signed up, you’ll never have to do it again!

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The Problem:

I want to upload a video, but I’m not sure how to do it on BenchFly.

The Solution:

It’s easy.  We’ll walk you through the process.

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The Problem:

New sites can be like building IKEA furniture: exciting, but a little overwhelming.  How do the blog channels work and what can I do?

The Solution:

We’re going to provide you with clear instructions you can actually read…and that don’t require an Allen wrench.

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Today is launch day and like the day you synthesized your first compound, cloned your first construct, or gave your first talk without feeling like you were going to wet yourself – we’re proud and excited….and dry.

As a chemist, the idea that I’d ever be able to put together a website never dawned on me.  Thinking about it now, it shouldn’t have.  I can’t put one together… BenchFly is a result of the hard work of many people.  I don’t want to turn this into an Oscar ceremony, but it’s important to get the acknowledgements in up front.  To prevent violating anyone’s privacy (or employment contracts), we’ll keep it to first names.  Thank you so much to Larry, Kirem, Nancy, Leslie, Meikam, Bob, Geoff, Eric, Jason, Dan, Walter, Mike, Rachel, Ronen, Jo, Steve, Jim, Irwin, Anne, Michael, Alan, Leona, Matt, Peter, Dimitry, Waneta, Katie, Richard, Alex and Dave.  And special thanks to the stars of some of the currently posted videos, Sven, Steve, Brenda, Aaron, Tom and Bill.

They are the original BenchFly Catalysts, donating their time and energy to help us achieve Our Mission.

Follow these two steps to get the experiment underway:

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There was just a minor hitch in my plan to get BenchFly going… I had never actually shot a video.  Luckily, a good friend of mine named Dan Lyons (a filmmaker who shoots regularly for Scientific American, Discover and National Geographic) distilled the most important elements of shooting a scientific protocol down to three basic principles.

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