The Pocket Card Monthly QR Exclusive
Thank you for ordering one of our popular STEM Pocket Tools and scanning the QR code to reach this page! This page is exclusively for holders of these cards and will have new content, freebies, resources and discounts every calendar month.
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August Discount: $10 off a pair of Genius Games
We brought our favorite science-themed games into our catalog last month and the quiet weeks of August are the perfect time to play them! For subscribers only (that means you), you can get $10 off when you buy any 2 Genius Games using code 10OFFGAMES at checkout. There are 10 to choose from!
August Resource: Google Pinpoint: search 200,000 files at once, free
How many PDFs are sitting in your "papers to read" folder right now? By my 5th year of my PhD, mine was embarrassing. And forget about the scanned lab notebooks, the conference notes I “meant” to review, and the whiteboard photos I take and then never look at again.
Google just released a new tool called Pinpoint to everyone. It's free, it runs on a normal Google account, and it makes an huge pile of files searchable (up to 200,000).
Here's what's most useful to our science-y audience:
- Your handwriting becomes searchable. Scan your old lab notebooks, upload them, then search "annealing 400C" across four years of paper notes.
- Audio and video get transcribed in more than 100 languages, up to 2 hours per file, with timestamps. Useful for group meeting recordings or your own quick verbal notes.
- Extract data into a spreadsheet. Pull a field from up to 100 documents at once and get a sheet back with a link to the source text for every data point.
Google says nothing you upload is public unless you publish it, and that your files aren't used to train their models. It's still Google's servers, though. I'd use it for literature and my own notes, not for anything under NDA or unpublished IP. Free accounts get 1GB, and academics can request "Pinpoint for Professionals" for 100GB. Here's a good guide to get you started.
Your fall reading list, picked by the Royal Society
I always want a book queued up for flights and vacations, and the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize shortlist always gives excellent recommendations. Six titles were announced in June, and the winner gets revealed September 29, which gives you two months to read a few and argue with your lab mates about who should win.
This year's final six:
- The Age of Alchemy by Kit Chapman (how early innovators shaped modern chemistry)
- Bad Influence by Deborah Cohen (how the internet hijacked our health)
- Despite it All by Fred Pearce (a handbook for climate hopefuls)
- Every Last Fish by Rose George
- Hidden Guests by Lise Barnéoud (microchimerism and migrating cells)
- How To Change a Memory by Steve Ramirez (a neuroscientist on altering the past)
Can your reviewer paste your manuscript into ChatGPT?
Back in May I wrote about what AI is doing to the papers getting submitted to journals. We all know that reviewing papers is unpaid, thankless, but necessary work. It’s understandable that busy scientists may lean on shortcuts to get through them. But is that OK?
A 2026 analysis in Learned Publishing reviewed 439 high-impact and 363 middle-impact journals and found 83% of high-impact journals now have written AI guidelines, versus 75% of middle-impact ones, with STM journals stricter than humanities and social sciences. But "has a policy" and "has the same policy" are very different things:
- Elsevier prohibits uploading unpublished manuscripts to public AI platforms outright, and limits AI to supportive tasks like language polishing, with disclosure and human oversight.
- Springer Nature splits it: AI-assisted copy editing needs no disclosure, generative AI does.
- NIH bars peer reviewers from uploading grant applications to AI tools entirely, on confidentiality grounds. NSF likewise bars reviewers from using unapproved AI systems.
Three things to keep in mind:
- If you’re a reviewer, don't paste the manuscript anywhere. Not the abstract, not the figures, not "just the methods." If you want AI help, use it on your own words after the review is written.
- If you're submitting, read the journal's AI policy before you submit, not after. Publishers differ on where in the manuscript you declare AI use, and a mismatch is an easy desk rejection.
- If you run a group, tell them directly. Most students have no idea that uploading a manuscript under review is a confidentiality breach.
Reviewers are the scarcest resource in science, and AI is the most tempting shortcut ever handed to an overworked volunteer. Proceed with caution (and let’s get the publishers to actually pay for these reviews while we’re at it).
Upcoming STEM Holidays/Events
August 12: Total Solar Eclipse
I was lucky to be in the line of totality for the 2024 Great American Eclipse, but now it’s Europe’s turn! It’s the first total solar eclipse over mainland Europe since 1999. Totality crosses eastern Greenland, western Iceland, and northern Spain, maxing out at 2 minutes 18 seconds. In Spain it lands in the golden hour just before sunset, so expect spectacular photos. A partial eclipse will be visible across much of Europe, most of Canada, and parts of the northern US. NASA has the maps and timings.
August 19: National Aviation Day
I drove past the Wright Brothers stomping grounds in Dayton yesterday on my way to the airport. Coincidentally, August 19th is Orville Wright's birthday, made an annual observance by FDR in 1939. Good excuse for paper airplane lift-and-drag experiments, or a look at why the Wright brothers' wind tunnel data mattered more than their engine.
August 24th: National Pluto Demoted Day
On August 24th, Pluto Demoted Day commemorates the sad day in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reduced Pluto's status from a full-size planet to a dwarf planet. For the first 76 years, it was considered the ninth planet from the Sun. Celebrate National Pluto Demoted Day by exploring this interactive NASA site about the (now) dwarf planet or visiting a planetarium near you.
👉 See our science and engineering holidays list to find more reasons (and seasons) to celebrate.
Behind the scenes at Genius Lab Gear
See you at ACS Fall 2026 in Chicago!
Want to win a free lab coat or periodic table poster? Melly the Science Geek will be joining me to take over Chicago on August 23-27 for the American Chemical Society Fall conference. Stop by Booth 121 (by the poster session) to try lab coats on in person and enter our giveaway! It's also the fastest way to nail your size before you buy, and the fastest way to convince your PI they're worth the upgrade. (Drag them over and I’ll talk them into it!)
Monthly Science Cartoon
A cautious science-based look at the recently released UFO files.
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.
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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