So, I'm back in a lab, doing the first rotation of this structured PhD programme. The people are lovely, and the subject seems pretty fascinating, but I've been stumped searching through the literature.
I tend to underestimate the value of text books, but for the basic beginning of looking into a subject they're fantastic. Naturally the most relevant books in the library have been checked out (and thanks to the clear website of the library, I dont realise this until I'm over there and the books not on the shelf). So I start looking for review papers, and here's the problem, noone writes textbook level introductions to topics. There's wonderful review pieces on small topics within the whole, but no crash course on families of molecules or the mechanism of glycosylation. The primary research is great, but in order to understand something in a slightly new field (or a field that you didnt study so well as an undergrad), you just can't beat the simple introduction. The wikipedia is great for the super-superficial look at things (the science pages can be surprisingly detailed, though nowhere as impressive as the pages discussing comicbooks).So if you'd like to write some nice detailed but not excessively dense articles on anything I could possibly be researching in the next few years, that'd be well appreciated, cheers :)