December 17, 2012

Monday Music Video: Biotech Support in Song

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

During the time I taught laboratory courses here at the University of Illinois in cell and molecular biology (After nearly 20 years of that, I've moved to online teaching to give myself more flexibility for science outreach), I would often tell the students, particularly the ones who were considering going into research, that the best sources of information on lab techniques, supplies, and equipment would be the technical materials literature and tech support from product suppliers. I've rarely been disappointed in dealings with the companies I've worked with in the past.

Life Technologies Technical Support Team created a video of some of the more interesting questions they've received. According to them:

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"Just before Thanksgiving, our Technical Support Team launched a video to customers, thanking them for contacting us this year and letting them know that “we’ll have an answer” … no matter what your question… easy, silly, highly technical, routine, etc.

The lyrics are based on actual customer email and phone queries received by our Technical Support teams (Joanne's note: some of these questions do not surprise me having trained many undergraduates and new graduate students in lab techniques). The music video features a captivating mix of vocal harmonies and kinetic text animation."

Granted, some of these lyrics are quite specialized for cell and molecular biology (It might be useful for the less technical audience if answers were included to these questions in their video description) but the tune is catchy and the animation is engaging.

Trust me, biotech support is your friend when you work in a lab. Don't hesitate to call!

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