HOW TO MAINTAIN A LAB NOTEBOOK

Lab Notebook

How to maintain one

Introduction

• The laboratory notebook is a complete record of procedures, reagents, data, and scientific interpretations and hypotheses to pass on to other researchers.
• It is very important that you bring your own laboratory notebook every time you carry out the experiment, and make it legible and understandable.

• Each student is expected to diligently maintain an up-to-date lab notebook.

Purpose of a Lab Notebook

In “real” laboratory science, the lab notebook serves several purposes.

1. An accurate record of experimental details allows experiments to be replicated, or altered in a controlled way.
2. Results are collected, stored, organized, labeled, etc. in one location, alongside procedural details.
3. The scientist’s thinking process (purpose, conclusion) is clearly summarized.
4. Fraud (either accidental or intentional) is minimized by using a bound notebook, permanent ink, and clearly dated entries.

General housekeeping

Your notebook should do these things as well. Here’s how:

• Use a bound or spiral notebook and blue or black ink (no pencils). Do not erase or white-out errors. For this course, if you wish to use a word processor for purpose or discussion sections, you may tape the printout into the notebook.

• Number ALL pages

• Leave about 3 pages blank at the beginning for your Table of Contents

• DATE all entries.

• Do not tear out or add pages. Blank pages should be blocked out with a big “X”.

• Use TITLE—PURPOSE—MATERIAL & METHODS—RESULTS—DISCUSSION format.

TITLE

• Give the experiment a title.

• This must be written in your own words and not copied from the lab manual

PURPOSE

• Purpose should be a concise statement, in your own words, of what the goal of the experiment is.

• This should NOT be a “learning objective”, but rather a summary of what type of data or molecular construct the experiment is expected to produce.

MATERIALS & METHODS

• Methods section should be in outline form.

• Here you describe step by step what you did so that a year from now you could return to this page and repeat the experiment exactly the same way.

• Include key experimental details as the experiment was performed, not just how you are told to do it in the textbook (i.e., actual incubation times, running voltages).

• The lab manual is a record of actual work, not the instructions you were given. This means you need to keep up to date with your notebook.

• It is inappropriate and usually inaccurate to just go back and write down whatever the textbook says, or what you think you remember.

RESULTS

• Results section should include all data gathered in the experiment but not the interpretation of the data - that is for the discussion .

• In this class, much of the data will be visual (such as photographs of gels).

• Such images should be taped into the lab notebook and thoroughly labeled: what sample is in each lane, DNA fragment sizes, etc.

• If results are delayed until a following experiment, make a note of it.

DISCUSSION

• Discussion section is perhaps the most important, and requires the most mental effort.

• Here, the results should be interpreted or explained. For example, what does it mean that you see 3 bands in lane 2?

• You should present your conclusions as related to the purpose of the experiment, and the results obtained.

• Offer possible explanations for any deviation from predicted results, and for any experimental error (such as failure of ethidium bromide to stain gel, or incorrect sample loading).

DISCUSSION

• Identify the various kinds of controls that were performed, explain the meaning of their results, and how they help you evaluate your “experimental” results.

• IN THIS SECTION, interpret the “big picture”.

• Lab notebooks should be based largely on your results and discussion sections, and how successfully you demonstrate a clear understanding of the work performed.

• This is also the stuff that exam questions are made of.

Final tips

• If it makes sense for a particular experiment, you may combine results & discussion sections.

• Do not take lecture notes in your lab notebook. Use a different notebook.

• DO NOT LET YOURSELF FALL BEHIND with the lab notebook.

• You will soon lose track of which experiment is which as many experiments overlap over several days.