Lab Notebooks: Virtual or Reality?

Dear Valerie: When it comes to lab notebooks, which do you prefer, digital or physical? 
—Paige Turner

Dear Paige:

While you frequently can find me on my laptop, iPad or juggling two iPhones, you may be surprised to learn I’m a little old-fashioned in the lab notebook department. I actually keep a physical notebook and I write some of my formulas in it with a pen! I would most prefer to write in pencil, sharpening a #2 frequently in the trusty Caran D’Ache that is attached to my desk, but it goes against the good lab practices we all learned way back in high school chemistry.

For myself, I like the permanence of good record keeping, and have been the victim of lost data in a computer file. That doesn’t mean I don’t use digital records. Sometimes I write formulas in an Excel file, print them on the back of a piece of office paper I don’t need anymore, and glue them in my lab notebook. All my notes are then made real-time, directly in the lab notebook as the experiment is going on. Afterwards, I update the Excel file with my cursive notes.

If your lab has formulation software, this is a great resource to track digitized work. You can make notes, record results, have version control, search easily, integrate with regulatory and so on. Digital only works if the data is secure, can’t easily be written over, and can frequently be backed up. I personally would still use a physical lab notebook, even if this software were available to me. There’s something nostalgic about scrawling words and thoughts, memorializing hypotheses and rationalizing outcomes on acid-free paper with those perfect little gridlines. Paper has a good memory! 

Valerie George is a cosmetic chemist, science communicator, educator, leader, and avid proponent of transparency in the beauty industry. She works on the latest research in hair color and hair care at her company, Simply Formulas, and is the co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast. You can find her on Instagram at @cosmetic_chemist or showcasing her favorite ingredients to small brands and home formulators at simply-ingredients.com. Her email is askvalerie@icloud.com.