The humble lab notebook: the most basic tool of science

Science
#1

If your interested in experimenting in the science, mathematics, or engineering fields, your lab notebook(s) are the first and most fundamental tool you must master. If you have commercial asperations for your work, then this tool is vital to prove that the ideas/work is yours if you ever want to pursue patents. But even without that desire, this tool will allow you to discover patterns that might lead to new discoveries, reveal processes, etc.

They don’t have to be a lot of work. Here are some of the suggested criteria for a good lab notebook

  • Bound, not with spiral binding, preferably with gridded pages
  • Use book with prenumbered pages, and NEVER tear a page out
  • Don’t erase, make corrections by doing a single line strike-through
  • Date and sign each page
  • Provide as much detail as you can for your setups, experiments, ideas, builds, etc.
  • Provide links to electronic files; data, graphs, photos, etc
  • Be legible, but you don’t get extra points for neatness or ‘artistic quality’
  • If considering patent at some point, have a witness sign and date pages after you have explained content to them.

Here are some good providers of quality lab notebooks

Paper notebooks have considerable advantage as legal records of your work, and help create a disciplined process; however, many types of records are best managed in an electronic notebook.

Most major research institutions provide electronic notebooks, which have the advantage of centralizing their intellectual property, but also provide better infrastructure for housing those electronic files that seem to accumulate. Personally, I believe both approaches are needed/warranted.

So I suggest that the Science Committee start looking at hosting one of these notebook packages at DMS. There are several likely open source packages for this function:

As well as many commercial packages that individual members could purchase licenses for use. These are typically cloud storage based applications

https://www.labsexplorer.com/c/2017-review-of-best-electronic-laboratory-notebooks_6

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#2

I have seen proper lab notebooks used as patent defense, to validate that one inventor’s work was prior to another’s.

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#3

The thing I love about this is the actual use of pen and paper. I love to write. I use a 5x7 web notebook for work, and field notes in my personal life. The act of writing and drawing helps my memory and I just love the feel of writing. Even being in an IT field I just can’t leave pen and paper for the world of electronic note taking.

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#4

Yep. Pen Pad for Pencils. No batteries/recharging required. Hard copy, old school still has its place.
Get that idea out of your head and onto paper. More permanent than your memory.
Frees up mental space for mods and future projects.
Your current project is in the process of creating the knowledge base needed for that future project.
Document - will become your own personal set of references.

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#5

And not just for science…I’ve kept a bound notebook for years for my jewelry. ANYTHING jewelry/business related goes in it. Some pages are activity logs that day, some are reference to info I only need seasonally, change-control notes, time-tracking, planning, calculations, sketches, everything. No more lost info or reinventing the wheel. I date all the entries and anything I might remotely need again goes in an index page. Its been a lifesaver having that book. And yeah, loves me good pencils, especially the kind that need sharpening.

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#6

Pencils are great tools, though I prefer fountain pens; however for engineering, or lab notebooks they are verboten. There are several concerns with pencil. The first is that pencil will fade from the paper. Some of my earliest notebooks are no longer readable because of this. The second and perhaps the most relevant is that they can be erased and hence not as good for proof the work is yours and was done when you claim.

Not all pens are good either, since they can be erased and/or fade as well. In my opinion the classic ultra fine point sharpie or one of these are your best choice

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FO43O3C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

#7

It would be really fun to have a journal meetup where everyone shares the different “bullet” journals they keep. We can also geek out about stationary and pens/pencils :smiley:

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#8

In for this. Love my fountain pen collection. You know it’s bad when you buy imported paper from Japan because it shows the color in the ink better…

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#9

OMG okay so like i’ve been trying to stray away from like college ruled journals and have been looking at other types of journals and i’m kind of at a loss. THERE IS SO MUCH TT.TT

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