written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-04-07
The paper can be found here (preprint, freely available; accepted at PNAS and in press).
In no order of importance, here are the things I would tell myself to do from the... (read more)
(765 words, approximately 4 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-04-07 | tags: science graduate school influenza peer review
For the reader of a newly-published article, all that we see is precisely that - the article itself. We rarely get to hear about the back-story of that paper, or the choices that were made, the struggles involved, and the emotional ride taken. I... (read more)
(2576 words, approximately 13 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-29 | tags: reflections science one academia
Some reflections on my journey since finishing the Science One first-year program at UBC. It's been a winding journey to where I am now.
Read on... (1010 words, approximately 6 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-22
Today, I gave a webinar to the IRD and ViPR technical and advisory board meeting. There were a number of challenges to giving a webinar that I want to reflect on here, as a note to my future self and others who may read this entry. In contrast to... (read more)
(538 words, approximately 3 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-21
We've submitted back our reassortment paper post-review. I've refrained from writing about this for about a week, mainly so that I can give myself... (read more)
(391 words, approximately 2 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-18
I recently built a front-end GUI for one of my projects, which is a primer calculator for doing Gibson assembly with influenza... (read more)
(398 words, approximately 2 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-17 | tags: philosophy science
Random thought came to my mind today.
The process of science is the careful observation, measurement, and falsification of hypotheses of the world. It is immensely useful. IMO, a worldview that gives rise to genuine curiosity,... (read more)
(208 words, approximately 2 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-15
In the software development world, I learned about the importance of writing tests for one’s software. Since then, I have incorporated this habit in my own work, where as part of my more recent work, I write tests for the software I write to... (read more)
(378 words, approximately 2 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-03-13 | tags: python data science statistics R
I’ve heard this refrain many times. However, the distinction never really made sense to me.
R and Python are merely programming languages. You don’t have to do stats in R and data processing in Python. You can do data processing in R, and... (read more)
(552 words, approximately 3 minutes reading time)written by Eric J. Ma on 2016-02-13 | tags: chalk talk public speaking research presentation influenza research broad institute seminar series audience interaction talk preparation slide decks whiteboard talk presentation skills feedback science communication infectious disease evolution
Yesterday, I shook things up at the Broad Institute's Infectious Disease Program seminar series by doing a chalk talk instead of a slide deck presentation. It was less stressful to prepare for, the audience was engaged, and I got some valuable feedback. 🎤🔬👥
I've learned a lot from this experience and I think chalk talks should become the norm again for research presentations. 📝💡
Read on... (424 words, approximately 3 minutes reading time)