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Startup Uses Sensor Networks To Debug Science Experiments (xconomy.com)
gthuang88 writes: Environmental factors like temperature, humidity, or lighting often derail life science experiments. Now Elemental Machines, a startup from the founders of Misfit Wearables, is trying to help scientists debug experiments using distributed sensors and machine-learning software to detect anomalies. The product is in beta testing with academic labs and biotech companies. The goal is to help speed up things like biology research and drug development. Wiring up experiments is part of a broader effort to create "smart labs" that automate some of the scientific process.
I'm in the physical sciences, and even there am met with continuing reluctance of graduate students to take thorough lab notes in a lab book.
It is not that hard to write, "It's humid today," or whatever. No matter how mundane the variable is, and no matter how fucking smart you think you are –with your imagined ability of total recall even a few months after the lab-time, everything is worth writing down.
That way, when an anomalous result appears, they can search their notes for possible causes. Instead, they spend their time on FaceBook while the expensive instruments spit out Results – Results which all-too-often have inexplicable scatter in measurements of the variable-of-interest.
BTW, I teach at a Global top-10 Sci-Eng University. The grad students' 'arrogance issues' seem to increase the further up the chain of Universities one goes. These kids resist direction like mad, and as a result, will never become world-class engineers or scientists.