P2P No. 21 — Tool Recommendations and Show and Tell Podcast Interview
Tips and tricks from yours truly
Self-reflection and inquiries of sometimes philosophical nature have occupied my newsletter since its inception. And although I firmly believe that they are an essential part of becoming a scientist, the tricks of the trade should also play their role.
I am happy to announce that after some preparations, I will also focus on hands-on advice I wish I had known when I started. This will materialize in recommending tools and practices I use. I learned most of them from my peers, for whom I am immensely grateful.
I had the opportunity to showcase four of my special tools in the Show and Tell series of the Cool Tools podcast—I enjoyed the interview with Kevin Kelly and am thankful for all the tools I learned from his podcast; hopefully, I could pay it back to some extent with my recommendations. You can check out the website for the episode here or the YouTube video below.
ResearchRabbit
ResearchRabbit is a free browser app to visualize the network of scientific papers. It syncs with my go-to literature management software, Zotero (also free). With a few clicks, all my papers are visualized in ResearchRabbit, and I can explore papers connected via citations. As a bonus, ResearchRabbit recommends similar papers, simplifying the literature review. By sharing the collection of papers, you can also help other researchers save time.
MathPix
When scientists write equations, they almost exclusively use LaTeX (a language similar to markdown, i.e., you can define commands for formulas and formatting, which makes the notation, typesetting, etc., simpler and more consistent). However, it can be burdensome to copy equations from other papers. MathPix solves this problem via a clever character recognition tool (in the browser and on your computer) that converts equations into LaTex from screenshots (with a handy snipping tool) or from whole documents. Furthermore, it has a free tier and a special offer when registering with your academic email address.
6 Minute Networking Course by Jordan Harbinger
If you are an introvert like me, this free course is for you. Despite the title screaming "networking," it has no negative connotations associated with that word. It makes you aware and provides simple practices to hone your relationships. People with whom you can discuss research ideas, collaborate, or exchange niceties at a conference are simply invaluable.
Wuben H1 Headlamp
This one will not advance my Ph.D. explicitly; nonetheless, it is my trusted companion whenever I run on the trails after sunset or cycle home in the dark. It is lightweight and has a moonlight mode (i.e., very low light intensity to avoid irritating your eyes). It can also emit red light in want to minimize light's effect of light on your circadian rhythm at night or if you are playing the card game Werewolf and want some theme-appropriate illumination.