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What is the Lab Book?
In line with our dedication to Open Science, we are excited to share our work with you as it happens, in real time. Explore our scientific journey firsthand by accessing our comprehensive online lab notebook on Notion.
As part of our commitment to rigorous scientific practice, we systematically document all results and procedures, capturing both confirmatory and non-confirmatory findings.
A detailed lab notebook is not only crucial for debugging experiments and orienting new researchers but also serves as a daily log of our scientific endeavors. We invite you to delve into the intricate and often non-linear process of 'meaning making' that emerges from our work.
Experience the raw, dynamic progression of real-time science with us!
ITERATIONS
Here are the experiments we're running and why:
THE CONTROL
~50 uT
Earth's magnetic field, outside our chamber
This is our control condition for how tadpoles should develop under a wet lab environment. All experiments will be benchmarked against these control conditions. In particular, for every tadpole batch inside the chamber, another batch fertilized concomitantly and from the same parents will be placed outside the chamber.
We will also record the average temperature, humidity and light conditions for the control experiments.
EXPERIMENT #1
~1 nT
One of the Earth’s most hypomagnetic field environments, inside our chamber and at its most shielding
The first experiment will test tadpole development under conditions that shield the Earth’s magnetic field, and other spurious fields, to the highest degree possible. We will compare tadpole viability under 9 nT and the control conditions.
We will also record the average temperature, humidity and light conditions inside the chamber for Experiment #1.
EXPERIMENT #2
~50 uT
A magnetic field that is Earth-like, artificially applied inside the chamber
The second experiment aims to clarify the extent to which potential tadpole viability changes inside the chamber are unambiguously caused by the absence of magnetic fields, rather than by other factors such as the chamber’s average temperature, humidity and light conditions.
If viability rates of Experiment #2 are similar to the control condition, we will be more confident in assigning the potential effects observed in Experiments #1 and #3 to different magnetic field conditions.
We will also record the average temperature, humidity and light conditions inside the chamber for Experiment #2.
EXPERIMENT #3
~1 uT
A magnetic field that is Mars-like, artificially applied inside the chamber
The third experiment will answer the question of how viable “tadpole colonization” of Mars is, if magnetic field effects are not taken into account. We have reason to believe that magnetic field effects in biology are cell- and organism-type agnostic. Depending on the results we obtain, we will extrapolate and raise the question of whether plans for “human colonization” of Mars can proceed as usual, or whether they will need to be updated to account for magnetic field effects in biology.
We will also record the average temperature, humidity and light conditions inside the chamber for Experiment #3.