Lab notebooks are essential, but more important than neatness is a careful documentation of observations whether the experiment works or not. Da Vinci's notebook (see yellowed page at right, his notes on mirrors) is a phenomenal work of art, as are Vesalius' notebooks (anatomical dissections below). Many famous scientists of course were extremely messy, doodled, wrote upside down, spilled things on their notebooks, etc. For those of us who are organizationally challenged, we may take heart in pioneering molecular biologist Max Delbruck's "Principle of Limited Sloppiness" that states we should be sloppy enough so that unexpected things can happen, but not so sloppy that we can't find out that it did.
One does need to start somewhere, though, so for a helpful and free online lab notebook, check out
Thelabnotebook.com. A screenshot of a sample page is shown at bottom right.
Image references:
Vesalius' notebookIsaac Newton's notebookLeonardo Da Vinci's notebookCurie's notebook
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