ELN - Electronic Lab Notebooks - They're here now!
By midknightr, Section Reviews Posted on Thu Apr 26, 2007 at 01:14:14 AM PST
Even before tablet PCs arrived, computers were used to organize data. However, the old paper research notebook has never budged an inch. With the advent of tablet PCs and increasingly better software, soon the paper research notebook may budge (probably only an inch though). Visit www.e-lab-book.com for a great an example. Read on for pros and cons.
Have you ever tried to look through someone else's research notebook (or maybe even your own)? Even with the neatest of notebooks finding specific information or protocols is a time consuming event. A good table of contents helps alot. But what if you could search you notebook for a certain word, just like you search a document on the computer or the web?
Pros
Templates - why write you procedure or make tables for your results over and over again. Just pull up a template with your protocol and/or a table to fill in with your results.
Collaborate - Using Onenote and a network everyone in a lab (or in two or more labs around the world) can have instant access to experiments being run. Or your research pages can be webpublished (example: www.e-lab-book.com) to a research 'blog' where collaborators can instantly comment/give suggestions on research.
Data Access - You can always have your research with you on your laptop, or (via the web) you can call it up from anywhere with inernet access.
Organize - You can create easily navigatable flow charts of your research (example: http://e-lab-book.com/?p=138). Rather than flip through page after page, you can read flow chart - click on a page - click back.
Data Backup - No more hours copying your notebook pages on a photocopier. Publish to the web, backup your files, there are many options that don't require the copy room.
Super Calculator - Use a spreadsheet to instantly calculate yields or quantities to be used in a reaction.
Infinite Colored Pens - Change the color of your ink instantly :) No searching for a specific pen.
Camera - Some have built in cameras! A great way to document stuff.
Cons
$$ - The paper notebook still is less than a buck :).
Write Speed - Open a paper notebook and start writing. Current tablet pcs can come out of standby mode in seconds, so it's not a huge difference.
Battery - If your battery dies and your in the field - back to paper.
Scanning - If you get pictures in the lab that you would normally cut & paste into your lab book, you have to scan them.
Chemical Spill! - Although paper notebooks get just as ruined, a tablet pc is not as easy to replace.
Do you have more Pros/Cons come to e-lab-book.com and post your suggestions. Lets get this working!
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