Articles by Sean
Learn Statistics: One Sample t-Tests
One thing that regularly stumps scientists is the handling of data. We seem to be very good at generating obscene amounts of it, but representing it meaningfully can be a little off-putting, unless you happen to be a bioinformatician. Let’s wet our toes with a simple One Sample t-test to see how we can easily incorporate statistical analysis into our work. […]
91? 95? E20?? A Guide to Petrol Ratings
You drive into a gas (petrol) station and fill your car’s tank with 91-rated fuel—unleaded, of course. There’s no way you’re touching that E10 or E20, they’re dodgy and will mess with your engine! Do you know what makes up the gasoline that powers your ride? Are you curious to know if ethanol will actually work with your engine? Well, stop wondering as we break down the different petrol ratings, and how their chemistry affects the performance of your car! […]
The Chemistry of Coffee and Caffeine
Coffee and chemistry go hand-in-hand! We can discuss many aspects of coffee chemistry, from the roasting process to extraction and the burning question we ask ourselves as we pour ourselves yet another cup: ‘how much caffeine will kill you?’ We’ll touch on some of these in this article on the chemistry of coffee and caffeine. […]
What Happened To Our Penis Bone?
Technically speaking, a human penis can’t actually be ‘broken’. That’s because we don’t have a penis bone; our male reproductive organ is instead made of soft, spongy tissue. But it turns out that our close and not-so-close relatives in the animal kingdom all possess boney penises. Why is that, and what is the function of a penis bone? The answer may not be that simple. […]
How to Plot a Wonderful Scatter Graph
What do high school laboratory reports and scientific journal publications have in common? At all levels of science, we often need to showcase data in a nice presentable form. There are many different graphs that allow us to do so, but the most commonly used is the humble scatter graph. Independent vs dependent variables? Discrete vs continuous data? Line of best fit? Read on to discover how you too can plot wonderful scatter graphs! […]
Sean is a consultant for clients in the pharmaceutical industry and is a lecturer at a local university, where unfortunate undergrads are subject to his ramblings on chemistry and pharmacology.
