Bit

Malcolm in the Middle

I’m a sucker for teacher and student story arcs in movies and TV shows, especially when an on-the-nose analogy for learning is involved. I’m talking like Karate Kid where Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel Larusso a blocking move through the “wax on, wax off” motion to buff a car. Or, even more absurdly, like in Dodgeball, where coach Patches O’Houlihan says, “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.”

I want to share a little less know example from Malcolm in the Middle, where Hal, Malcolm’s father (played by Bryan Cranston before he became Walter White in Breaking Bad), teaches Malcolm how to skate.

Hal starts first by teaching Malcolm him how to “glide while walking.”

If you watch the video, you’ll see that after telling Malcolm that his “skates are in here” (pointing to his head), Hal tapes paper wheels onto the sides of Malcolm’s shoes.

I guess skating is like baseball. Ninety percent is mental and the other half is physical.

Academic Musing

Zillow for Researchers

You probably know what Zillow is. It’s that tool that allows you to look at pictures of houses and how much they cost. Houses that if only you had had the ability to travel back in time, you would try to buy 20 years earlier.

I think if “Back to the Future” were remade today, it would be a Millennial going back in time to do exactly that.

NIH Reporter is like Zillow for researchers, which may be equally demoralizing depending on the season of your academic career.

However, it’s actually a really useful tool you should know about. You can browse NIH funding awarded to researchers and read their project abstracts and public health relevance statements.

It’s a great way to get an idea of what research has been or is currently funded and how related or novel your future research ideas might be.

NIH Reporter even has a “Matchmaker” tool where you can input your proposed project’s abstract to be given a list of similar projects and relevant program officials, institutes/centers, and study sections.

Happy NIH Reporter’ing.

Thank you for reading and have a fulfilling weekend!

If you have any suggestions for future features as a Bit, Base Pair, or Academic Musing, please respond to this email with your recommendations!

Views my own.