https://murphyslab.ca/ Recent content in MurphysLab.ca on Murphy's Lab Hugo -- gohugo.io en-ca Fri, 08 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/remembering-a-trip-to-seaford/ Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/remembering-a-trip-to-seaford/ Dear Seaford: I hope that on Remembrance Sunday that you took the time to remember those who gave their time, their health, both physical and mental, their family’s wellbeing, their potential descendants, and even their lives to preserving your freedom. If not, perhaps you will pause for two minutes on the eleventh. Since I’m in Canada, I will be participating in remembering when I wake up on Remembrance Day. I had hoped to do part of that remembering earlier this year, on March 18th, in Seaford, if the opportunity hadn’t been denied. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/next-data-point/ Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/next-data-point/ One simple experiment I have on the go has given me pause to reflect on the data — largely thanks to the time gap between finding the next point. But I’ve appreciated having an opportunity to stop and think about individual data points carefully. Not because the underlying data is that novel. Rather I’ve specifically considered how each of those data points affect my regression and the numeric estimates of the true relationship for the data. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/review-of-starter-villain/ Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/review-of-starter-villain/ What Led to Reading Starter Villain Earlier this year I’d recently had my first exposure to John Scalzi’s science fiction writing. His name is regularly echoed in various science fiction forum threads, hence when I spotted his name on the spine of a paperback, sitting on the shelf of my city library’s tiny science fiction and fantasy section, I decided to give the book a chance. My starting point was The Collapsing Empire (2018), which I read in short order followed by The Consuming Fire (2018) and The Last Emperox (2020), which together comprise his Interdependency Sequence trilogy. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/summer-camp-volunteer/ Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/summer-camp-volunteer/ This weekend I wrapped up volunteering at a summer day camp for kids ages 5 to 12. The experience was a first for me, seeing a summer day camp of that type. While I’ve gone on many outdoor camping trips, I’d never experienced, neither as a participant nor as a volunteer, a summer day camp. It wasn’t really “camp”, as I’d understood the term, but more of a blitz of activities, learning, crafts, and fun for the kids within the walls of a modest suburban church building in my neighbourhood. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/covid-experience-rapid-tests/ Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/covid-experience-rapid-tests/ Introduction Avoiding COVID… Until Now Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been doing my part to flatten the curve, in accordance with public health guidance insofar as possible. Over the course of the pandemic’s evolution, this has involved social and physical distancing, limiting gatherings, limiting travel, additional hand sanitizing, mask wearing, getting vaccinated, and getting boosters as advised. i.e. Generally following the advice of public health experts. But the concept of “flattening the curve” is not that one will never catch COVID. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/farewell-wordpress/ Fri, 08 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/farewell-wordpress/ Once Upon A WordPress Originally this blog came to life on September 10th, 2009. It was my 3rd self-hosted blog effort and I’d been experimenting for a little over 1 year, having purchased 2 years of webhosting in the summer of 2008. My first blogs were very limited in audience scope: one being focused keeping friends & relatives updated while I was travelling overseas for 3 months; another kept to share notes with friends. https://murphyslab.ca/intro/ Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/intro/ A compilation of the digital presence of MurphysLab. Here you can find: Murphy’s Lab Notes, his blog. An academic bio. And several miscellaneous items. https://murphyslab.ca/publications/ Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/publications/ A list of Jeffrey N. Murphy’s publications can be found on ORCID or on Google Scholar. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/persistent-archival-links-base-30/ Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/persistent-archival-links-base-30/ Genealogy is a pastime that I occasionally indulge in. There are some very fascinating stories to be learned about the history of one’s genetic forebearers, as the tale of ancestry interweaves with the movements of history. Discovering one’s family history requires investigative skills for combing through resources — many of which are online. Some of those (with Canadian content) are freely available: Library and Archives Canada, FamilySearch, Automated Genealogy, and others. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/alienated-from-even-objective-truth/ Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/alienated-from-even-objective-truth/ The trend toward intentionally ignoring data that does not agree with one’s biases only continues. A 2010 article from Scientific American discussing emails received by climate scientists: Trenberth* says that is the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails: Facts don’t carry more weight in the public debate. The nature of public discourse - be it climate change or health care - has changed; information that does not fit one’s worldview is now discounted or rejected. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/an-imagej-subreddit/ Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/an-imagej-subreddit/ There are some really useful subreddits hidden away on Reddit and it can be a great place to get questions answered. AskScience is my favourite example. There are also a few more technical, narrowly focused sub-forums, so I wondered if there was one for ImageJ or Image Analysis. Sadly, neither exists. So I did what Reddit is meant to enable individuals to do: I created a subreddit, r/ImageJ. So far I’m the only one posting in it, but I hope that will change. https://murphyslab.ca/code/ Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/code/ You will find most of my shared code on my GitHub profile ADAblock (ImageJ) ImageJ Macros Macros posted for r/ImageJ forum ImageJ-Macros that I use LUT Inversion Test Onasch Grain code PAL numbers (Python) See: Persistent Archival Links: A Mystery in Base-30 SVG Gradient Cleaner (Python) https://murphyslab.ca/about/ Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/about/ Twitter: MurphysLab ORCID: 0000-0001-9180-9187 Google Scholar: profile GitHub: GitHub.com/MurphysLab MSc Thesis: Electrochemical in situ investigation of thiolate DNA monolayers on gold with fluorescence imaging PhD Thesis: Analysis of Defects in Block Copolymer Thin Films https://murphyslab.ca/notes/quoth-neil-degrasse-tyson/ Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/quoth-neil-degrasse-tyson/ Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. The beat the curiosity out of the kids. They out-number kids. They vote. They wield resources. That’s why my public focus is primarily adults. [Source] Neil deGrasse Tyson, answering a question in his AMA on Reddit a few months ago: “Can we inspire more kids to pursue space-related science and research? If so, how? https://murphyslab.ca/notes/digital-revolution/ Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/digital-revolution/ Hints of Revolution Every time that I sign into Flickr, the digital revolution in science becomes apparent to me. One would expect this to be most realized through my daily accessing of science journals via the internet, however that is access to scientific papers, but not necessarily scientific information. Journals and publishers largely remain the gatekeepers of scientific knowledge, but here I see a a new trend in the digital revolution in how we find and access scientific information, which is larger than journals alone, and which could eventually lead to greater democratization of science and more widespread access to science. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/graphing-with-inkscape/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/graphing-with-inkscape/ This article explains how to create attractive, high-quality graphs in Inkscape using spreadsheet data from either Calc (OpenOffice.org) or Excel (Microsoft). Introduction Communicating information is an art. For scientists, even the most amazing discoveries can be rendered worthless if we fail to communicate them effectively. Despite being one of the most important aspects of science, it’s often the most neglected. Perhaps the best means to communicate information are visual. Visual representations of data can be quickly and easily understood, whereas data tables can require detailed examination in order to extract trends and other general data. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/oh-the-horror/ Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/oh-the-horror/ Some concepts are difficult to teach to students because it is something which you take for granted because it is so deeply ingrained. Chemistry concepts from first year university can be like that. But the most difficult experience in my teaching practice might have been this morning. It was difficult because each answer the student gave raised new questions about how much she was missing in her educational foundation. During the morning Chem Help Session where I was teaching, and a girl walked in seeking some help with her pre-lab assignment. https://murphyslab.ca/bio/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/bio/ Jeffrey N. Murphy, PhD is a scientist who holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB. His thesis focused on the analysis of nanoscale defects in block copolymer thin films, during the transition from disordered to highly ordered states. Block copolymer lithography is a technology with the potential to revolutionize the patterning of computer chips for the semiconductor industry. In order to meet extremely low tolerances on defects in order to be commercially viable. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/to-introduce-murphys-lab/ Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/to-introduce-murphys-lab/ “An Introduction is to introduce people” so rather than to introduce my “Lab” I really ought to introduce myself. Well then, here goes: Hello, I’m Murphy, and I am a Ph.D. student. I’m student of science — chemistry in particular — and of life. I like to think about Questions, big and small. Being a “Lab” means that this is really about experimenting with ideas. Thought experiments? Perhaps. Even just seeing where the questions and answers lead. https://murphyslab.ca/notes/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://murphyslab.ca/notes/