LabXchange convenes a community that believes in making science accessible and fun. Our collaborator The Bumbling Biochemist is on a mission to explain fundamental concepts in biochemistry. We sat down with founder Brianna Bibel to learn more about her work.
Unlike most LabXchange collaborators, The Bumbling Biochemist isn’t an organization. It’s really just a biochemistry PhD student (hopefully graduating soon though!) with a hobby that kept growing!
It’s really just a grad student doing this (exhaustedly and unpaid) as a “hobby!” Oh - and I wear a lab coat cape when I embody my alter ego, the bumbling biochemist - on a mission to make biochemistry fun and accessible for all :)
![An excerpt from the infographic "All Aboard the PCR Train," which depicts template DNA as a transcontinental railroad across the United States. The text says "All aboard the PCR train! [polymerase chain reaction]. The template DNA, part of which you want copied, is like a transcontinental railroad. Our DNA copier, the DNA Polymerase (DNA Pol) 'train' can travel between any two cities and it lays down track ahead of it as it goes. But it can only travel along a half-track (single-strand). Melting solves that problem... when you heat it up, the strands wiggle apart."](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/642c503cbd04708343968443/645b4c16855ad233e09fd5b3_All-Aboard-the-PCR-Train-768x768.jpeg)
I want to help make biochemistry fun and accessible for all. I aim to bridge the gap between over-simplified and super-technical. And I try to introduce science jargon so everyone can follow along and understand it when they see it, but I also de-jargon it, putting it into more relatable terms. Because, ultimately, a lot of “knowledge gaps” are really just terminology gaps. You can’t expect someone to know a term if they’ve never seen it. But if I can help “translate” those terms, that makes me happy.In my posts, I really try to give as much detail as I can - and random details no one probably wanted to know except super curious people like me! It’s important to understand the concepts and reasoning behind how various experiments work, so that’s a big focus of mine as well.
An excerpt from the infographic "All Aboard the PCR Train." Check out the full article!
Dr. Alexandra Newton, president of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a professor at UC San Diego, has been an amazing inspiration and mentor to me. I love the passion she shows for science, and the dedication she has to mentoring and fostering the next generation of scientists.
I did an experiment for a science fair, probably around kindergarten, where I made ice cubes with various food-coloring dyes and measured melting rates.
I’m motivated by knowing that I’m helping people learn and helping them experience the amazing world of biochemistry! I feel so fortunate and privileged to have had such great educational opportunities when many do not. So, I feel it’s the least I can do to help pay it forward.
Do you want to check out The Bumbling Biochemist's biochemistry infographics? Visit Bri's collaborator page. You can also find Bri on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.Who are the LabXchange content collaborators? View our growing list of content collaborators here and read all of our collaborator spotlights to date.
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