um no more! Getting smart with autocorrect, for scientists

Had enough of searching for μ, °, β, ζ, etc in the symbols or special characters dialogue boxes of word or open office write? There is an easier way!

This already exists elsewhere on the internet, I'm basically paraphrasing from a combo of the office website and an open office blog. I thought it might be useful for other scientists to see these pages distilled down to a science specific version so here you go!

MS word (this should work equally well in old word and Word 2007)
1. go to the insert tab, click symbol. The symbol dialogue box/window should appear. click on the symbols or special characters tab in Word 2007.
2. find the μ (mu) symbol (under greek alphabet) or whatever symbol you are pining for. click on it, then click the autocorrect button. The autocorrect window will appear.
3. Your μ should appear under "with". Click plain text next to "with" and edit the with box to your desired result (e.g. μM).
4. To the left of the "with" box is the "replace" box, type whatever you want to replace with μM in this box. e.g. um.
5. click add, and ok to exit the window. Test it!

Note there is a potential for confusion in the um department (μm vs μM). You can only set one up to autocorrect, however once it is autocorrected you can manually replace the m with M or vice versa if need be. Or you can set up to replace \mu and with the symbol alone. Up to you!

Open Office write: (NOTE: this *should* work, but it didn't work for me. I'll see if I can find more on this, might be that my version of writer has a bug)
1. Under the insert tab, click special characters. In the dialogue box that appears, select and insert the special character of your choice into the document, press ok to exit the box. Note μ is under the subset basic greek, and ° and serveral other useful symbols are under subset Latin-1.
2. Select the symbol.
3. Go to the tools tab, then click autocorrect options. In the dialogue box that opens up, your symbol will be in the "with" box. If it isn't, go back to step 2 and try again.
4. Type the string of text you want to replace in the "replace" box, and edit the with box if necessary. Click new to add the new autocorrection, and then ok.
5. test it.

AGU session on microbe-mineral interactions!

The AGU fall meeting abstract deadline is rapidly approaching(Aug 4) - check out our session! I'm organizing this session with Clara Chan (U Delaware) and Kim Handley (UC-Berkeley). Any questions? Don't hesitate to contact me!

AGU 2011 session B51: Microbe-Mineral Interactions in Modern and Ancient Environments

To understand biogeochemical processes, we must link microbial metabolism to elemental transformations. We still have much to learn about the identity of key microbes, biosignatures, effects of microbial community interactions, and biochemical mechanisms driving element cycling. In this session, we aim to bring together researchers that study biomineral formation and dissolution in modern environments, with applications to topics such as bioremediation and modeling of ancient biogeochemistry. We welcome submissions on cutting-edge, multidisciplinary approaches to study metal and sulfur biogeochemistry, controls on elemental transformations, and the ecology and evolution of relevant organisms and functional genes.

Our featured presenters are:

John Bargar (SSRL)
David Emerson (Bigelow Lab for Ocean Sciences)
Robin Gerlach (Montana State)
Alexis Templeton (CU-Boulder)

The abstract deadline is 4 August 2011. Further information on abstract content and formatting, and an on-line submissions link can be found on the AGU website at http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/scientific-program/submit-policies/.
More information about the conference is also available online at http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/.

Journal Coffee - a new take on an old challenge

Organizing a regular journal club is a real challenge - despite there being a generally positive attitude about it around these parts, momentum often flags in a major way. At our lab it is difficult to get a crowd together. People are often traveling, on research cruises, at meetings, overwhelmingly busy with their own work in the lab or up against the deadlines writing proposals and papers - meeting up every two weeks as a group is very difficult to coordinate!

This year, in an effort to try to inject some fresh dynamic energy into journal club, I’m introducing something new - journal coffee (or beverage of your choice).

The idea with journal coffee is to:
a. get people together for coffee, something we don’t do too often anyway (everyone is too busy working hard!)
b. expose ourselves to current literature, in a casual and low pressure setting.
c. Not spend too much time on it - attendees should not have to worry that they’ll get lured into a long, drawn-out discussion they can’t escape. 20-30 min max.
c. identify papers where the group interest is high enough to warrant a more in depth journal club meeting.

I’m not sure it people would turn out to this but I think it is worth a try - in the worst case scenario, I drink a cup of coffee by myself, which I’m going to do anyway so what have I got to lose.

2011 - geomicro relevant conferences and workshops on the horizon

Pondering my options... and wishing I could go to the rest! This is a work in progress, feel free to suggest additions.

Conferences:

Gordon Conference: Geobiology. January 30 - February 4, 2011.
http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2011&program=geobiology

Goldschmidt 2011, Prague, Czech Republic, 14-19 Aug 2011, Abstracts due before 15 April
http://goldschmidt2011.org/

ISEB 20: Frontiers in Biogeochemistry, Istanbul, Turkey, 27-30 Sept 2011. Abstracts due before 30 April.
http://www.isebiogeochemistry.com/ISEB_20.htm

Keystone Symposium: Microbial Communities as Drivers of Ecosystem Complexity, 25 - 30 March 2011, Breckenridge, Colorado. Registration deadline: 25 March 2011.
http://www.keystonesymposia.org/meetings/viewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=1059 
other Keystone symposia: http://www.keystonesymposia.org/default.cfm 

ASLO meetings: http://aslo.org/meetings/aslomeetings.html

NACE: Corrosion conferences etc http://www.nace.org/content.cfm?parentid=1006¤tID=1006

Workshops/Shortcourses:

MSU Microbial Metagenomics Course, East Lansing, Michigan. 12-25 June 2011.
http://www.mmg.msu.edu/

Short Course: Tools in Environmental Biogeochemistry - Opportunities and Limitations, University of Tuebingen, Germany. Application due: 31 Jan 2011.

4 day workshop organized by Thomas Borch (Colorado), Ruben Kretzschmar (RTH Zürich) and Andreas Kappler. It will present and discuss the application of several spectroscopic and microscopic techniques in environmental biogeochemistry.