Alternatives to BioRender

BioRender is unbeatable when it comes to scientific visualization… or is it? Here are some open-sourse alternatives. In general open source icons are free to use but licensed under creative commons licencing, which may require acknowledgement. While BioRender employs professional artists to create their artwork, most open-source projects allow the community to submit icons. For this reason, the quality may not be as high, but the cost is much lower.

Bioicons

Bioicons is a library of free open-source icons in biology and chemistry and consists of over 2700 icons in around 30 different categories. Each icon has a license; many are CCO or BSD. For some licenses, the creator must be attributed in the figure caption or the acknowledgements. Many are in the public domain and for these, attribution or credit is not required, but is appreciated. This project seems to be created by Simon Duerr.

Open Science Art

Open Science Art offers a comprehensive, open-access library of icons, 3D models, and illustrations for many scientific disciplines including biology, chemistry, physics and space science.

SciDraw

From their website: SciDraw is the work of Federico Claudi and Alex Harston. “SciDraw is a free repository of high quality drawings of animals, scientific setups, and anything that might be useful for scientific presentations and posters.” Users are not required to sign up to post a drawing, so submissions undergo a review and approval process before being published. Users are free to download, modify and use all drawings on the website, acknowledgment of the drawings’ authors and of Scidraw.io are appreciated. Each drawing has a DOI, many in Zenodo.”

Simplified Science Publishing

Simplifed Science Publishing allows you to create your own professional scientific graphics with online courses and templates or you can buy banks of icons. They offer hundreds of vector graphics to create professional scientific designs using fully customizable templates. This service is not free but costs far less than BioRender.

Reactome

Reactome is an open-source, open access, manually curated and peer-reviewed pathway database that includes an icon bank with around 1600 icons.

ProductVector GraphicsNumber of icons (Jan 2025)Allows submissionsCost
Biorenderyes> 50,000no$79/month
Bioiconsyes2735 yesfree
Open Science Artyes138yesfree
SciDrawyes640yesfree
Simplified Science Publishingyeshundredsyes59$/year
Reactomeyes~2500yesfree
Comparision of different scientific icon collections

WE are shocked

2022

2022.11.24 500 Women Scientists Zurich organized the Really, What now? event https://www.500womenscientistszurich.org/really-what-now to help female Ph.D. candidates to deal with sexism, harassment, and microaggressions. They collected anonymous testimonies on a padlet https://padlet.com/500wszurich/a-collection-of-doctoral-student-stories-iy5fkd8ri226pl and organized a sereis of cartoons illustrating the problems encountered by women in science.

2023

2023.01.25 On the 25th of January, 2023, more than 50 female doctoral students met with Joël Mesot and members of the Executive Board to share testimonies about the challenges they face in their day-to-day activities, and to recommend measures for preventing, monitoring, and holding individuals accountable for inappropriate and disrespectful behavior at ETH. https://www.500womenscientistszurich.org/post/eth-president-meets-doctoral-students

2023.02 Open letter from WiNS and 500 Women Scientists Zurich to ETH Leadership asking for concrete action https://wins.ethz.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Open-Letter-to-ETH-Board_WiNS.pdf and https://www.500womenscientistszurich.org/_files/ugd/c1ab5e_4275cda3955f4a9eabd96f612db8f39f.pdf

2024

2024.08.29 ETH responds to new reports of sexual harassment with “shock” https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/eth-hochschule-ist-schockiert-ueber-vorwuerfe-gegen-professor-849003779879

2024.08.30 Tages Anzeiger releases a podcast about sexual harassment at universities https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/vorwuerfe-an-eth-warum-hochschulen-sich-damit-schwertun-318538866073

2024.08.30 Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership responds to the situation in the ETH Staffnet https://ethz.ch/staffnet/en/news-and-events/internal-news/archive/2024/08/external-clarifications-are-now-needed-to-provide-clarity.html

Several Reddit threads discuss the problem:

We are Shocked petition and assembly https://www.reddit.com/r/ethz/comments/1gipr70/comment/lvhc6lp/?context=3

ETH ist «schockiert» über Vorwürfe gegen ihren Professor https://www.reddit.com/r/ethz/comments/1f4qtnd/eth_ist_schockiert_%C3%BCber_vorw%C3%BCrfe_gegen_ihren/

#MeeToo https://www.reddit.com/r/ethz/comments/1f834ix/comment/llc6z03/

2024.11 WiNS, Speak Up! in Academia, and 500 Women Scientists react to their shock with the WE are Shocked petition https://www.change.org/p/weareshocked-it-is-our-collective-responsibility-to-hold-eth-z%C3%BCrich-accountable.

Nov 8, 2024

Representatives of the three groups (Speak Up! in Academia, WiNS, and 500WS Zurich) that had initiated the petition, which had over 1300 signatures, to the ETH Zurich Vice President for Finance and the General Secretary of the ETH Zurich Executive Board. There were over 150 people at the assembly on ETH Zurich’s Polyterrasse to hand over the petition signed by almost 1500 people to ETH Leadership.

At the same time, similar problems were reported at the University of Basel: Vom Professor sexuell belästigt – von der Uni im Stich gelassen https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/kassensturz-espresso/kassensturz/universitaet-basel-vom-professor-sexuell-belaestigt-von-der-uni-im-stich-gelassen

Reportage in the NZZ «Wir sind schockiert!»: Junge Wissenschafterinnen setzen die ETH Zürich wegen Mobbings und Übergriffen unter Druck https://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/fehlverhalten-an-hochschulen-eth-zuerich-in-der-kritik-ld.1855846

Tages Anzeiger: «Wir sind schockiert» – 1300 Leute fordern, dass die ETH sich bessert https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/eth-zuerich-frauen-fordern-bessere-massnahmen-bei-mobbing-und-belaestigung-391443534646

SRF News: Zürich: Demonstration gegen ETH-Leitung https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/schweiz-aktuell/video/schweiz-aktuell-vom-08-11-2024?urn=urn:srf:video:db121d09-c169-449c-ac12-7fe4e3a465c4

Nau.chMobbing? Junge Wissenschaftlerinnen setzen ETH unter Druck https://www.nau.ch/news/schweiz/mobbing-junge-wissenschaftlerinnen-setzen-eth-unter-druck-66858988

PS Zeitung Die ETH-Führung muss Verantwortung übernehmen https://www.pszeitung.ch/die-eth-fuehrung-muss-verantwortung-uebernehmen/

Limmattaler Zeitung Mobbing, Diskriminierung, sexuelle Belästigung: Wissenschaftlerinnen wollen ETH zur Verantwortung ziehen https://www.limmattalerzeitung.ch/limmattal/zuerich/zuerich-mobbing-diskriminierung-sexuelle-belaestigung-wissenschaftlerinnen-wollen-eth-zur-verantwortung-ziehen-ld.2691723

ZSZ «Wir sind schockiert» – 1300 Leute fordern, dass die ETH sich bessert https://www.zsz.ch/eth-zuerich-frauen-fordern-bessere-massnahmen-bei-mobbing-und-belaestigung-391443534646

RTS Des scientifiques pressent l’EPFZ à agir contre les agressions et le harcèlement sexuel https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/autres-cantons/2024/article/des-scientifiques-pressent-l-epfz-a-agir-contre-les-agressions-et-le-harcelement-sexuel-28689100.html

Watson Vorwürfe gegen ETH-Starprofessor – Gericht legt Journalisten Maulkorb an https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/zuerich/559284636-vorwuerfe-gegen-eth-stardozent-gericht-legt-journalisten-maulkorb-an#discussion_559284636

Dec 2024

ETH Professor Thomas Crowther must leave the ETH according to the Tages Anzeiger. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/klimaforscher-muss-eth-nach-vorwuerfen-verlassen-228788455075

ETH stellt Top-Klimaforscher nach Vorwürfen frei https://www.20min.ch/story/zuerich-eth-stellt-top-klimaforscher-nach-vorwuerfen-frei-103243092

Nau.ch ETH Zürich will Klimaforscher nach Vorwürfen nicht behalten https://www.nau.ch/news/schweiz/eth-zurich-will-klimaforscher-nach-vorwurfen-nicht-behalten-66882170

Watson: «Steve Jobs der Umweltwissenschaft» verliert Job an der ETH https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/forschung/597337406-thomas-crowther-eth-klimaforscher-verliert-job-nach-vorwuerfen

20 Minuten: ETH stellt Top-Klimaforscher nach Vorwürfen frei https://www.msn.com/de-ch/nachrichten/other/eth-stellt-top-klimaforscher-nach-vorw%C3%BCrfen-frei/ar-AA1waeBp

Watson: «Steve Jobs der Umweltwissenschaft» verliert Job an der ETH https://www.msn.com/de-ch/wissenschaft/umweltwissenschaften/steve-jobs-der-umweltwissenschaft-verliert-job-an-der-eth/ar-AA1wdVJo

January 2025

Nature: Star ecologist accused of misconduct loses university post https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00230-z

Writing for Sciences from AP Communication

Good academic writing has a clear focus. there is a question the author is trying to address which has to be made clear right at the beginning. Then they say here is how we addressed that problem. Then you mention potential problems and what you could do to address them.

Summary of Episode 2: Writing an Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to give background information to help readers make sense of the text.

There are 3 approaches:

  • Place the study within a meaningful area of research
    • Strategy 1: Identify the problem
    • Strategy 2: Describe the established knowledge about the topci
    • Strategy 3: Refer to existing research
  • Identify a smaller part of the area that needs more research
    • Point to problems with existing studies
    • Show that it’s important to conitnue an existing line of research
    • Describe a knowledge gap
  • State the purpose of the study
  • Phrases that introduce a knowledge gap: “but no studies have investigated…”, “it is still not know whether…”, “currently there are no data on” or more in the Manchester Academic Phrasebank

Summary of Episode 3: Writing a Methods Section

The purpose of the methods section is to describe how the research was done. It helps readers judge how convincing they find the results and helps researchers who want to reproduce the study.

It is common to address 3 questions using past tense and passive voice. Phrases like “using” and “based on” are used to say how things were done. Make your definitions in the methods.

  • What kind of data were used: study design and case definition
  • How were they collected: data collection and processing
  • How were they analyzed: data analysis

Summary of Episode 4: Writing a Results Section

The results section presents the answers to the questions proposed both verbally and through tables, figures, and graphics. Results are expressed in the past tense. The results section addresses the expectations of the hypotheses set out in the introduction.

  • “no significant interaction tersm were identified among the fixed effects.”
  • “When clustering by trainer was accounted for…”
  • Hedging is common. Generally, older horses were at more risk…
  • Refer to tables in the text
  • Highligh the important parts

Summary of Episode 5: Writing a Discussion Section

Explain the significance of the results

  • Refer to the research questions of the introduction
    • This paper has presented an investigation into…
  • Highlight the principle findings
    • So far it has been seen that…
  • Explain how your findings relate to existing research
    • These findings reflect those of X and Y
    • This finding is in contrast of X and Y
  • Explain what is novel
    • A newly developed model was presented
    • These unexpected results may indicate…
  • Say what future reserach should be conducted
  • Suggest practical uses for the findings

Seven ways to write like a native speaker

In this video, Kerstin Gackle from the Academic Lab at the Universitaet Leipzig presents a fantastic set of tips that will help you improve your ability to write like a native speaker.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAKuBeGHqFP/

Here is a written summary of the video. The seven rules are:

  • 1 Write like you Speak
    • Written German puts more weight into nouns
    • English puts the action in the verb
    • promotion of democracy -> promoting democracy
  • 2 Focus on Subject -Verb -Object
    • Verb should be no father back than the 2nd or 3rd position
    • Move elements “disturbing middle elements” between the subject, verb, and object to the front or the back
  • 3 Put important information at the end of the sentence
    • The Queen, my Lord, is dead. In order of importance 2, 3, 1.
    • Creates correspondance with previous sentence
    • Adverbs go in the middle
  • 4 There are common ways to start academic sentences in German that are not used the same way or with the same frequency in English so avoid using thes as sentence starters: “Due to” (Aufgrund), “Especially” (Besonders), “Only” (nur), “Not only” (nicht nur), “Also”(auch)
    • The same goes for these phrases anywhere in the sentence: “due to” “different”, “more and more”, “nowadays”
    • Look at the frequency of usage in academic texts vs learner texts to judge whether usage is standard or not. source: MacMillenDictionary, Improve Your Writing Skills
    • “Only when a question was answered correctly, I confirmed the choice” -> “I only confirmed their choice when a question was answered correctly.”
    • False friends, God and Bad Translation
  • 5 Remove words that are too informal for academic writing
    • connectors: so, besides, and (in some fields), but (in some fields)
    • Phrasal verbs figure out -> determine, look into -> investigate, put up with -> toleratre, come up with -> develop
    • to sum up, in a nutshell, all in all -> In conclusion, To conclude
    • more and more, bigger and bigger -> increasingly, numerous, an increasing number, a greater amount
    • nowadays -> currently, today, at the present time, recently
    • chance -> opportunity
    • get, got -> obtain, receive, increase
    • good bad, nice, big, huge -> positive, beneficial, negative, deterimental, poor, significan, large, enormous
    • really -> very, highly, truly, an integral part
    • stuff, things, stuff like that -> similar aspects, issues, factors
    • plenty of, a ton of -> enough, sufficient, a considerable amount
    • so far -> to date
    • whole -> entire
    • happen -> occur
  • 6 Use common academic phrasing
  • 7 Use customized google searches
    • “term or phrase” site:edu or site:ac.uk
    • “term or phrase” keyword site:edu
    • Use asterisk to find the word you need “in recent years, there has been * interest in ”
  • Bonus tip: Use a dictionary and a style guide

Also check out this paper 10 rules for structuring a research paper: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005619

BioRender

BioRender is a tool for creating professional-looking science figures in minutes using templates and over 20,000 stock icons from 30+ areas in the life sciences using a web-based, drag and drop interface. The following figure is one of many templates; each element in the template is a simple icon.

BioRender App

Icons

BioRender contains an immense library of science-themed, simple icons including: cell structures and types, anatomy, different biomolecules, lab equipment, membranes and many different species from the simple to the complex. Have your own data you want to include in the figure? You can drag and drop images from your computer’s file system onto the canvas, they’ll appear as icons. Need something that is not in the library? With a paid subscription, you can ask BioRender to create new icons.

The simple icons in the library can also be grouped into compound icons in the same way that objects can be grouped (and ungrouped) in most drawing programs. A third type of icon, the bio-brush is unique to BioRender.

One of my favorite features is the bio-brush. If an icon has a brush next to it, you can use the bio-brush feature to draw repeating sequences of the icon, complete with the ability to make curves. Imagine drawing a lipid bilayer, a layer of cells or a string of nucleosomes as easily as drawing a line. Drawings that would take hours in a normal drawing program can be done in seconds with BioRender. For an example, see this BioRender tutorial for a demonstration of the membrane brush and a vessel brush.

Schematic of membrane disruptive and non-membrane disruptive bacterial killing mechanisms of AMPs Illustration created with BIORENDER.COM.
Membranes can be drawn with a membrane brush and then ungrouped to form a break into which additional elements can be added. Figure taken from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-of-membrane-disruptive-and-non-membrane-disruptive-bacterial-killing-mechanisms_fig3_336372513.

The Biorender Learning Hub has a lot of videos on topics such as design, learning, usage and customization. This in combination with the intuitive interface means that the user can make professional-looking figures in an afternoon. Another feature is the ability to make and present slides within the BioRender interface; shared work spaces are planned.

The free license gives you the right to use the figures you create for educational purposes and in grants. If you want to publish your figures in journals or use your figure for commercial purposes, you need to upgrade to the commercial license which is $35 per month for individuals or $99 per month for a group of up to 5 members (in October 2021). Institutional licenses are also available.

Are there any negatives? The interface is optimized for Chrome so if you’re not using Chrome, there may be some issues. The price is too steep to keep a permanent license if you don’t have a research budget. However, even a student can cough up 35 dollars to buy a month-long license to make their final figures right before submitting.

Resources for learning German

Preply online tutoring from native speakers at good prices

Deutsch Einstufungstest and C1 course

Exercises on different levels

Goethe institute

Herr Professor’s podcast juggles one verb per day, the right amount and very well done. His list of tools and treatise on articles are also helpful.

News in slow German has many resources in addition to news read slowly.

Festung Aarburg, Olten – Aarburg – Olten, July 18 2020 with Korinna

Festung Aarburg

During my daily commute from Zurich to Bern, I often noticed a big castle positioned on the Aare River. Finally, after 9 years of commuting I finally visited with a friend. This hike from Outdoor Active is a easy stroll from Olten to Aarburg, followed by a 7 kilometer hike including a 250 meter ascent to the Sälischlössli and a pass by an animal park on the way back to Olten. We included a visit inside the Festung Aarburg, an old castle which is now in use as a Jugendheim (Juvenile Detention Center) for boys aged 16-20. For this reason, visiting the castle is limited and currently, there is only one 1.5 hour tour per week on Saturdays at 14:00 (in Swiss German). It was well worth the visit.

The walk to Aarburg is along the Aare by meadows, train tracks and farms.

On the path to Aarburg from Olten, the Sälischlossli, a rebuilt castle with a restaurant, can be seen across the river at the peak of the first hill.
The view from a distance shows the size and location of the Festung Aarburg.

At 14:00 on Saturdays, the Festung Aarburg is open for a guided tour in Swiss German (cost 10 CHF). The guide explains the castle’s construction history, life in the castle, how the rooms were used and a bit of how it is used today as a juvenile detention center for boys aged 16-20. The fortress, strategically located at a narrow point of the Aare River, is built into a massive spur of rock with steep walls on the outside.

After the castle visit, we continued to the Sälischlössli, a small castle with a restaurant built in 1870/71 as an expansion of a castle ruin. After the walk up, the Restaurant Sälischlössli is a relaxing place to have an ice cream (or french fries) and a great view.

The way home passes by an animal park. Unfortunately, the raccoons were not out but we did find some handsome deer.

Hike near Lauterbrunnen Wengen: Gimmelwald – Sefinental – Stechelberg

Friday, June 26, 2020

This 11.5 km hike from outdooractive.com has a gentle 200 meters up followed by 900 meters down. Travel started with a train from Bern to Interlaken Ost, another train to Lauterbrunnen, followed by a gondola to Grütschalp, and finally another train to Mürren, the starting place of the hike. Highlights include views of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, many waterfalls including at one point the trail going behind a waterfall and an old water-powered sawmill.

View of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from the train to Mürren
View at the start of the hike
Town of Gimmelwald
The number and variety of wildflowers was amazing.
This old sawmill is in the Sefinental. Powered by water, it is still functional as seen in this video.
Stop for a rest and a foot bath in the ice-cold water.
Thanks for the hike, Marta!

Want to feel better about population growth?

This video by Hans Rosling from the Gapminder Foundation paints a portrait of population growth that is less bleak than most people intuit. The video doesn’t address climate change but it does convince that population growth is not an unsolvable problem, nor will population increase always be exponential. Using population data collected from different countries, he shows how population growth is projected to level off at 11 billion people.

Achieving a state of the world that can sustain 11 billion people is not out of the realm of possibility. If resources are used wisely, sustainably, and shared somewhat fairly, the earth can accommodate this population size. He says at the end of this video that he is not an optimist but also not a pessimist. He is a possibilist, meaning he knows what is possible and works toward the best possible outcome. One way to feel better while being inundated with an overwhelming amount of pessimistic news is to get involved in local politics, vote and work towards sustainability both at home and in coordinated actions. Put your energy toward the possible!

Bern Restaurants

Du Nord SG’s and my favorite restaurant in Bern, nice chill atmosphere with good food
Royal Asian good food at a good price, 10 CHF for lunch
Kloesterli Weincafe nice food and wine, excellent polpo
Tre Fratelli I had a homemade pasta with seafood, really yummy, would bring my Italian relatives.
Restaurant at the Alpine Museum nice lunch place, fills and some plates sell out, good secret tip for lunch in Bern, Helvetiaplatz 4, reserve +41 31 331 22 22
Restaurant Commerce good food in a homey atmosphere, one of those restaurants where it seems like nothing has changed in many a year
Fugu Nydegg Thai & Japanese restaurant. The owners are Thai, so better stick with Thai … and spicy really means spicy
Essort great lunch but also excellent in the evening
Metzgerstuebli