I'm struggling with my research, Dear Readers. I'm supposed to be setting up a basic experiment as a platform for some flashy new tools, but it's just not working and I can't figure out why. This sort of experiment has been used since the begging of ecogeoscience time, yet for some reason I can't repeat what's in the literature. On top of that, I've been asked to turn my attention to several different projects, so I can't ever seem to dive in deep enough to get the problem solved.
Although I'm feeling frustrated as all get-out, in a strange way I'm enjoying the challenge (sort of). There are people around I can ask for advice, but no one to really hold my hand. In contrast, my PhD work was so close to my advisor's research that I didn't have to do much trouble shooting or practical experimental design on my own. I'm super-glad to be gaining new skills, but I'm really, really looking forward to solving this problem.
5 comments:
I find one of the most frustrating things in research is when experiments don't work FOR NO GOOD REASON. As scientists we like things to be logical and have plausible explanations, and it's galling when our own work defies us. Good luck with it! You'll get there in the end...
when this has happened to me, I went straight to the source. Contact whomever is the world expert. Doesn't matter if they're a complete stranger, they will be happy to field your questions and solve your problems. If they're not nice about it, ask someone else, until you've asked all the world experts and all of their trainees.
Whatever you do, don't waste your time reinventing the wheel for too long.
Worst case scenario, the whole thing is B.S. That has happened to me, too. Then you better hope your advisor understands that you've tested every possible control and the only explanation is that the assay doesn't work, or the reagents are crap, or the people who did it originally didn't know what they were doing. It helps if you can give a plausible explanation for why it will never work.
good luck - and feel free to gmail me offline if I can be of any help. I'm pretty good at asking the kinds of questions that can help you think your way through wherever you're stuck.
Good luck! I hate that situation - that being said, sometimes "solid" findings in the research literature are not that solid!
My old advisor used to say, if you really want to discover something new, try to repeat the 'classic' experiments. He was only partly joking! Good luck tracking it down. My answers were always something like "A company that's out of business these last 25 years made a chemical and only theirs worked and nobody knew why." :( Here's hoping for a more logical explanation!
You can do it!!! Perseverance, my friend.
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