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September Discount: Word Magnets for the Fume Hood
Bring the lab together this fall with a creative break from the grind. We've got 12 different STEM word magnet kits, each focused on a single field, like the Chemistry Word Magnets. Leave funny messages, rant at your PI with sarcasm, or teach some big vocabulary to younger students with the creative constraints of a 288-tile set.
Use code WORDSMITH at checkout for $2 off every set of Word Magnets in your cart.
September Resource: Find federal funding and refine your grant-writing approach
In this new world of slashed federal funding for basic research, you may need to do some more legwork before writing your next grant. There are two public databases that can help.
- NIH RePORTER is a search engine for every grant the NIH has funded, with the abstract, the PI, the institution, the dollar amount, and the publications that came out of it.
- NSF Award Search does the same thing for NSF grants going back to 1959.
The key is that you can find what's been funded over the last few years and see what a "winning" grant looks like. First you find the relevant programs (like this Solid State and Materials Chemistry solicitation), then see what types of research those programs have been funding. You can even contact the PIs to ask for tips or to start collaborations on the next grant.
Another less common use is to use it as a teaching and science outreach tool. The geographical filters can help you find interesting work happening right in your backyard.
Some ideas:
- Show a class what a scientist's job actually is. Not "biologist," but "this person 40 minutes from here is studying how bat immune systems handle viruses, and here's the $1.9M and five years it takes."
- Find a guest speaker or a lab tour host. You now have the name, the institution, and a specific thing to ask them about.
- Give students a real search task. Have them find a funded project in their own county and explain it back in three sentences.
Now when a neighbor or uncle claims that the government is wasting money on research, you can point out the people in your community receiving that funding and show the benefits it's working to provide.
Free lab printable PDF: Lab Coat Compatibility Chart
The most common misconception we hear about lab coats? Researchers assume they are chemical-resistant...
Very few lab coats provide meaningful chemical resistance. In most cases, they survive splashes of one thing but are eaten away by another. It's a game of trade-offs.
The point is that the lab coat can be quickly removed before it reaches your skin.
You choose a lab coat based on your specific risk assessment. This might mean you need 2-3 different lab coats and aprons for a typical work week.
But...How do you keep all that straight?
We built a printable PDF reference guide for your lab covering fabric compatibility across acids, bases, solvents, fire, arc flash, and biosafety levels, sourced from NFPA, ASTM, OSHA, and top University EH&S programs.
The heroes saving data the Trump Administration doesn't want you to see
On February 5, 2025, a data librarian named Lynda Kellam started a Google spreadsheet. "Inconvenient" and "alarmist" federal datasets were being pulled offline faster than anyone could track, and she wanted a place to write down what was disappearing and who was grabbing a copy.
Eighteen months later, that spreadsheet is the Data Rescue Project, and it has rescued more than 2,500 datasets from over 90 federal agencies with help from 900+ volunteers (often those fired during the purges). It's now a registered nonprofit with MacArthur Foundation funding, a full-time metadata analyst, and a searchable portal where you can find a copy of something that used to live on a .gov domain and doesn't anymore.
They aren't alone. Harvard Law School's Library Innovation Lab built a mirror of the entire data.gov catalog. DataLumos at the University of Michigan takes deposits of at-risk government data from anyone. The End of Term Web Archive, a project that's been crawling federal websites at every administration transition since 2008, did the biggest capture in its history. Public Environmental Data Partners went after EPA and NOAA climate tools specifically, including the ones communities use to check flood risk.
We used to think that robust, peer-reviewed data would always be available because more information leads to better decisions. But when the people in power see the data as a threat to their agenda, it can go "poof" on a random Tuesday.
3 things to think about in this new era:
- Audit your own dependencies. Make a list of the federal datasets your work actually relies on. Download local copies of the ones you'd be stuck without, and write down the version and access date.
- Deposit anything you're already holding. If you've got a local copy of a federal dataset that's now hard to find, DataLumos accepts deposits and gives it a permanent DOI. Your hard drive is prone to failure, lab accidents, or your PI's retirement.
- Volunteer if you have the skills. The Data Rescue Project needs people who can write metadata, verify checksums, and check whether a rescued file actually opens. Their volunteer page is a good place to start.
I'd rather live in a world where none of this was necessary. Since we don't, it's worth knowing that a few hundred librarians spent a year making sure the record survived.
Upcoming STEM Holidays/Events
September 16: International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
The Montreal Protocol is the best evidence we have that global science policy can actually work. The ozone hole is measurably healing. It's worth a 10-minute lesson or a post about what a successful international agreement looks like.
September 28: Ask a Stupid Question Day
Invented by teachers in the 1980s to get kids asking without fear of looking dumb. Try it in your group meeting: everyone has to ask one question they think they should already know the answer to. Somebody will ask the one everyone else was afraid to.
October 4-10: World Space Week
Thousands of events worldwide, running through local planetariums, clubs and universities. Easy to plug into an outreach night you're already planning.
👉 See our science and engineering holidays list to find more reasons (and seasons) to celebrate.
Behind the scenes at Genius Lab Gear
Meeting internet friends at ACS Fall 2026 in Chicago
I just returned from my 2nd American Chemical Society meeting after running a booth for 3 days. Thanks to @mellythesciencegeek and Nic R at UChicago for helping maintain order at the chaotic booth. We had over 400 people try on lab coats!
The best and most unexpected part was getting to meet all of these creators and internet friends in person. Follow them for chemistry and other science content!
Monthly Science Cartoon
Feel like all the funding is shifting from basic research to chasing AI bubbles? Here's a look at our future.
Science cartoons by Tom Gauld.
Did you miss last month? Check out our archive:
*Note: Discount codes will no longer be active and some links may be broken.
August 2026 - Google Pinpoint: search 200,000 files at once, free
July 2026 - Real Injuries, Lessons Learned + 30 Safety Tips
June 2026 - Map any paper's research universe with Connected Papers
May 2026 - Find the papers you didn't know you needed with Research Rabbit
April 2026 - Grab a Pocket card as a graduation gift!
March 2026 - Buy 2, get 2 FREE Science Stickers
February 2026 - Get the High School Edition for a young scientist!
January 2026 - Save $5 and free shipping on STEM Word Magnets
December 2025 - 10% Off Your First Lab Coat!
November 2025 - BOGO STEM Word Magnets!
October 2025 - Free Einstein Political Quote Sticker
September 2025 - STEM Word Magnets for your Office Fridge or Fume Hood
August 2025 - 10% off All Mugs
July 2025 - Periodic Table of Tools Poster
June 2025 - New Stunning Posters by Theo Gray
May 2025 - Easy Graduation Gifting
April 2025 - Buy 2 get 3 free science stickers (Extended)
March 2025 - Buy 2 get 3 free science stickers
February 2025 - 20% Off Pocket Protectors
January 2025 - A guide to our January Deal
December 2024 - A free BioRender alternative from NIH
November 2024 - Beat the Lab Coat Price Increase!
October 2024 - Free Einstein Political Quote Sticker
September 2024 - Grab a pocket card for your classmate or colleague
August 2024 - Get the High School Edition for a young scientist!
July 2024 - Buy 3 Word Magnet sets, get 1 free!
May 2024 - Prompting in Google Docs
April 2024 - Google Drive hacks
March 2024 - Mastering Lab Meetings
February 2024 - Mastering Schlenk Lines
January 2024 - Time-saving Excel shortcuts you didn't know
December 2023 - Virtual coworking with scientists
November 2023 - Data plots for colorblind scientists
October 2023 - Crowdfunding your experiments and The Lab Coat Project finale
September 2023 - How to quickly find info on chemicals and molecules
August 2023 - An intro to quarterly planning for research
July 2023 - Using AI to search research papers
June 2023 - The easy button on literature reviews
May 2023 - Negotiating vacation and Pocket Paleontologist launch
April 2023 - Job interviews and lab coat updates!
March 2023 - Lab coats affect your mental health?
February 2023 - STEM books that won't put you to sleep
January 2023 - AI Chat and SciArt
December 2022 - SciComm video editing tools
October 2022 - Career skills workshops
September 2022 - Conservation in the laboratory
August 2022 - Join a study to help scientists
July 2022 - Lab Coat Materials Ultimate Guide
June 2022 - Neuroscience Podcasts and Lab Coat Update
May 2022 - Science Learning Centers near you
April 2022 - The Pocket Physicist Launch and Best Math Blogs
February 2022 - Fantastic Physics Blogs
January 2022 - Pleasure reading for engineers
December 2021 - Easy lab process diagrams
November 2021 - Free STEM icons for your presentations
October 2021 - WebPlotDigitzer and Lab Coats
September 2021 - Engineering Podcasts
August 2021 - STEM Holiday Calendar
June 2021 - Productivity resources
May 2021 - SciComm on Social Media
April 2021 - Sustainability in the lab
March 2021 - Gifts for Engineers
February 2021 - Focus on reading papers
January 2021 - Focus on interviewing
December 2020 - Inspirational reading for graduate students
November 2020 - Graduate application resources
October 2020 - Voting for Science
September 2020 - New Lab Art Photography
August 2020 - The Pocket Chemist Exam Edition launch!
July 2020 - Word Magnet Launch!
June 2020 - Constant giveaways and learning to code
May 2020 - Time to get writing?
April 2020 - Quarantine life and a new retro sticker!
March 2020 - Focus on Best Chemistry Blogs
February 2020 - Focus on Digital tools for chemistry
January 2020 - Focus on Outreach
December 2019 - Focus on Social Media Accounts for Scientists
November 2019 - Focus on Helpful Reading for Grad Students
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