An iPad for the lab and beyond
by Chris
The Idea
In my lab, almost everything we do ends up in digital form of some sort or another: data collected by the image analysis software as CSV files, confocal scans as TIFF files, gels as JPG files, etc. So a few years ago, I installed MediaWiki on the lab server to serve as an online lab notebook. It was great, I posted PDFs there for students to read as background, and lab protocols, and students even maintained their own lab notebook pages. Then the server died, and because I’m not full-time tech support, we quit using it. Then OWU subscribed to Wikispaces, and we’re back in business with a vibrant, active wiki that (hopefully) captures most of what we’re working on in the lab.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last two years is that students will work somewhere in the lab or down on the microscope, take notes on scrap paper, and eventually enter their notes on a particular trial or experiment on the wiki (or not). So when the iPad came out, I started to wonder how good it would be as a readily available (instant-on) bench computer. Two weeks ago, I started testing one in the lab, with the idea that if it works well, maybe I’ll try to put together a workflow for using them in an upper-level teaching lab.
First test case – confocal microscope data
My first chance to use the iPad in the lab presented itself last week, when I was imaging a large number of roots on the confocal microscope as part of a research project in my lab. I had already dabbled with Numbers for iPad, the native spreadsheet app by Apple, so I thought of it as a means to capture information about the particular root under observation. I created a new plain spreadsheet with a column for the file name, so I could match it up to the confocal image later. I was just planning to capture the file name and notes about that root, but then I noticed the “check box” field type on the soft keyboard that opens when editing a cell in Numbers. So I ended up including a couple of those true/false indicators for the observations, leaving the notes field for specific features of the root under observation. The image below represents my data table with a few observations populating it.
Data entry table in Numbers for iPad.
The first time I used Numbers like this, I just tapped on a cell to select it and begin editing and it was easy enough. Then I noticed the option to create a new form by clicking that “plus” tab above, and that lets you create a nice input form rather than poking a cell at a time.
A data entry form in Numbers for iPad.
This streamlines the data entry process quite a bit, and actually treats the rows of the table as though they are individual records in a simple database. As far as I can tell, the form view is not editable, it just automatically populates based on the contents of the table to which it is linked. This keeps it simple, but ideally one would be able to exclude certain fields from a form like this and have them auto-complete (such as the date field). But still, this is the kind of simplification that really helps one to remain focused on the research rather than record-keeping while at the bench. Not having to scan an entire worksheet for the right cell to enter a value into is a big step forward, in other words.
I plan to keep working through examples of common work in the lab and whether that work is facilitated by the iPad or made needlessly more complex. In the case of the iPad for routine record-keeping, I like it so far. It’s like a fancy electronic clipboard with an endless supply of customized forms waiting to be created.
