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A man wearing knee-high boots stands in ankle-deep, muddy water at night, holding a wet camera. Dense brine shrimp in the shallow water obscure the thrombolites on the lakebed.
| 2 min read
When Barry Hicks set out to photograph thrombolites, thousands of unexpected visitors photobombed his underwater images.

Epic fail

Image of Muunda Mudenda working in a biosafety hood. He holds a micropipette in his hand with a look of horror on his face as he realizes that he accidentally added the wrong reagent to his samples.

Epic Fail: From Reagent Regret to Sample Rescue

An illustration of James Trosko, now a cancer biologist at Michigan State University, with long brown hair and close beard wearing a white lab coat on the right of the image. He is holding a cell culture plate and looking at it inquiringly. On the left is a call out showing where, in the cell culture dish, pink, irregular cells are sitting close to one another. The background is an image of these same cells in a green overlay.

A Mystery Result Caused a Hypothesis Reckoning

Image of a man in a laboratory looking frustrated with his failed experiment.

A Stubborn Gene, a Failed Experiment, and a New Path

Image of a woman in a microbiology lab whose hair is caught on fire from a Bunsen burner.

Bunsen Burners and Bad Hair Days

Illustration of a scientist staring down at a broken glass flask with a powdered sample.

Shattered Glass, Salvaged Synthesis

Scientist using a Sharpie to label Petri plates.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Labels

A male researcher looks shocked as the Erlenmeyer flask in his hand breaks and the solution leaks out onto the bench top cover.

The Great Flask-tastrophe

Two male scientists working in a laboratory.

A Matter of Molecular Attraction

Two scientists look at microscopy data, and one thinks about her own images.

Right Protein, Wrong Pattern

Trending

A team of cartoon scientists studying a giant pancreas.

Prolonged GLP-1 Exposure Remodels Gene Expression in the Pancreas by Flipping a Molecular Switch

A drawing of men and women holding boxes, resigning en mass from their jobs as editors.

Editors Mass Resign from Elsevier Journal After Editor-in-Chief Let Go

Image of a Diploptera punctata cockroach.

Cockroach Milk Proteins Churn Out an Ig Nobel Win

Photo of John Calhoun crouches within his rodent utopia-turned-dystopia

Universe 25 Experiment

Multimedia

Essential Genes Are Dominantly Activated by Single Transcription Factors

Essential Genes Are Dominantly Activated by Single Transcription Factors

EpiCypher Logo
Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Alamar Biosciences logo
The Scientist Digest cover September 2026
September 2026

Multiplex Microscopy Becomes Easier with Encoded Antibodies

A new system that enables researchers to uniquely tag monoclonal antibodies for use in microscopy could help simplify complex imaging studies.

View this Issue
Essential Genes Are Dominantly Activated by Single Transcription Factors

Essential Genes Are Dominantly Activated by Single Transcription Factors

EpiCypher Logo
Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Rethinking ALS Biomarkers: From Discovery to Clinical Impact

Alamar Biosciences logo
Engineering CAR-Neutrophils In Vivo to Target Glioblastoma

Engineering CAR-Neutrophils In Vivo to Target Glioblastoma

Miltenyi
Best Practices for qPCR Assay Design and Optimization

Best Practices for qPCR Assay Design and Optimization

Bio-Rad

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The ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot for affordable workflow automation

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Single cells in suspension

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Abstract image representing cell membranes linked together.

CellBrite® Steady Membrane Stain: Cell surface staining built for real-time imaging

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Monod Bio Licenses AI-designed Protein Technologies to SignalChem Biotech for Custom Discovery Assays