Your body is in lockdown, but your brain can roam free.

Anny Gano
April 29, 2020
Scientist on COVID-19 lockdown looking out window. Image by Anny Gano.
A scientist in lockdown looking out a window. Image by Anny Gano.

If you are a research scientist like me, there is a good chance that you may also be working partially or fully from home because of COVID-19 and dealing with a whole slew of new challenges, both personal and professional. I know that I struggle daily with balancing work and family, which are now butting up against each other like never before. As a scientist who likes to be productive and engaged in my research, I am also trying to balance professional development and productivity with mental health in a way that I have never had to attempt previously. To me, balancing personal and professional needs means finding healthy and stimulating ways to stay busy, which is not an easy task!

“This is a unique moment in human history – not because a pandemic is sweeping the world, as humans have endured and survived these types of events before – but because, while we are at our most isolated physically, we have the ability to connect on an unprecedented level.”

-- Anny Gano, Ph.D., 
Postdoctoral Fellow

This is a unique moment in human history – not because a pandemic is sweeping the world, as humans have endured and survived these types of events before – but because, while we are at our most isolated physically, we have the ability to connect on an unprecedented level. The internet is a pretty great thing, and the people on it can be a wonderfully inventive bunch. So, if you are like me and find that occupying your mind with learning can help with anxiety and feeling antsy during this time, please enjoy some of the following creative ideas and resources:

Learn new ways to process and present your data. As a scientist and, let us be frank, a bona fide nerd, I am really interested in finding visually appealing and compelling ways to show my data. Usually, I create my graphs using Graphpad Prism, which is a graphing and statistical analysis program that helps create sleek-looking images out of my numbers in the lab. However, about 90% of what I make for work are bar and line graphs, which get the point across but are not super exciting. So, during my time at home, I am learning new ways to add visuals to my work and finding resources to help me make cool graphs. 

Humorous image about social distancing created using Biorender. Image by Anny Gano. 

So far, I am most excited to recommend BioRender for making professional illustrations of things like receptor activity and neurotransmitter signaling between cells. In this program, you can choose from a variety of well-drawn templates for your images (e.g., organs, different cell types, receptors, signaling molecules, animal model images) and then position/resize them and tweak options like opacity and color. They even have speech bubbles, which inspired me to make a quick illustration for this post (left). I was pleasantly surprised that making the graphic only took me a few minutes, including the helpful steps that guided me in choosing sizes and resolutions appropriate for my intended format of publication. I was able to make this illustration for free, but for higher versatility and publication-level figures, you would want to consider the paid version.

Additionally, I am currently learning how to do novel graph types for fun and experience. Sometimes, these graphs are not specifically related to my current work but are about something I find interesting. For example, I recently decided to learn how to make something called an alluvial flow diagram (a.k.a., a Sankey diagram), a type of chart that is typically used to show data flow across categories. A Sankey diagram can be used for an elegant display of budget information for your lab’s grants, or your personal budget for the year. I used the free website Sankeymatic to chart out the proportions of ingredients I’ve been buying at the grocery store lately, how I used them, and how the members of my household chose to consume the results.

Sankey food diagram of shopping trends. Image by Anny Gano. 
Image by Anny Gano.

Using the free Sankeymatic website is cool, but if you truly want to develop your marketable science skills and data-handling expertise while making beautiful graphs, an even better way to do so would be to learn a little about programming. Scientists might find useful the online courses that are offered either for free or at a discount due to the crisis. I intend to look into courses on using the programming language Python and the programming language/software environment R for data visualization and analysis. If these resources pique your interest, also consider looking up the programming languages Julia and MATLAB to learn more.

Deepen or broaden your knowledge. At this time, many institutions and companies are offering discounts on lecture series and online workshops. I have not tried all these out myself, but so far I have seen recommendations for the following resources: Jackson Labs is providing free courses on mouse genetics; Harvard University is offering a diverse set of free online classes, including some really good ones on statistics; Thermo Fisher is displaying some free video instructions and courses that cover bio concepts and the tech that is involved in running wet lab assays; and, of course, TED talks can deliver an entertaining and enriching experience. If you would like additional resources for activities, check out some suggestions from the National Institutes of Health

This is also a good time to fill in knowledge gaps you might have on other topics. For example, I have a Ph. D. in Behavioral Neuroscience, but my undergraduate background was in classical Psychology, culminating in a B. A. degree. I sometimes wish I had spare time to learn biochemistry more systematically. Plenty of places offer free textbooks online, where one can, for example, get a better footing in cell biology or immunology from a trusted .edu source. If you are in the mood for something a little less formal, check out Bitesize Bio, a great site to peruse if you have a few spare minutes and want a quick morsel of scientific learning.

Look for the low-hanging fruit. Being able to spend time on intellectually stimulating projects is a privilege in these difficult times, when everyone is functioning under a lot of stress. With school closings, some people have to pull double duty as professionals and stay-at-home parents. Fear not: there are some easy things you can do from home that can benefit your science that require less mental energy than other tasks. You could update your professional online presence (LinkedInResearchGateTwitter), digitize and index your lab notebook and meeting notes, organize your inbox (I’m looking at you, people who have 1,023 unread messages). And of course, please remember that distancing should only be physical – this may be a great time to reach out to collaborators and catch up with mentors and friends at your former institutions. 

Do some fun science at home! And finally, it is vital to keep the passion alive – do some fun at-home experiments for the soul! I don’t know if you guys noticed, but there is currently an uptick in people practicing do-it-yourself applied science in their daily lives. “Victory gardens” are making a comeback as people learn to grow food in their backyards. The hobby of yeast cultivation is having a major moment right now, as people learn how either to make their own sourdough starters or, in some cases, use ancient Egyptian yeast to create unique and delicious bread. If you’re in a less PG mood and have some extra supplies, you can also play with a different kind of yeast and learn how to make your own beer. 

Stay safe and good luck!