Patience and Perseverance: What is scientific research really like?

It is essential to understand that each lab member has his or her own project. Projects can overlap and people often cooperate, however, each one of us has our own scientific thesis that we try to prove or disprove. For the subject study of my project, I chose a gene in the model organism Schizosaccharomyces pombe and my goal is determine its function. In September, I outlined a plan of experiments that could help me get all the necessary data to find gene’s function. Therefore, from the beginning I had an idea which experiments I would be working on, however, with more data and information one’s research can take a new turn. This makes scientific research varied, but also makes quite risky as one can easily get off the point and follow a completely different path than was originally intended.

My daily lab routine is as following. On Monday morning, I schedule experiments for the whole week since the majority of methods takes more than one day. Thanks to the incubation times, one can manage to do several experiments at once. This form of multitasking can be, however, quite tricky and requires experience. Hence, for the more difficult methods I tend to focus on one thing at a time to avoid making mistakes.

What surprised me the most about scientific research was the fact that everything takes so much time. First, as an undergraduate student, you learn about methods theoretically in order to understand the underlying principles. I remember reading scientific papers and being surprised from the amount of time a group would spend working on that particular project when the method could in theory only take a month in total. Now, I finally see how wrong and naïve I used to be. In lab, you fail on an every day basis. In fact, you fail way more than you succeed. Not only do experiments take weeks, but also they fail ever so often. Imagine working on an experiment for weeks and then failing by not getting any data, or getting negative results. Sometimes you know what went wrong and sometimes you do not. Indeed, this is the most frustrating feeling. Afterwards, you need to do your detective work and try to figure out what you have done wrong, or if it just randomly did not work. To me personally, it happened multiple times that I was working on an experiment for two weeks and then obtained negative results. Subsequently, I had to repeat the whole process, only to fail again. Laboratory work challenges my patience and teaches me to appreciate any form of success.

Having completed more than a half of my lab placement, I can now say with confidence that the most important skill I have leant so far is the ability to fail. Now, I understand that it is normal if something does not work out at the first attempt and that only with hard work and perseverance leads to success. I have truly perceived, what a real scientific patience and persistence are all about. Lab life is diverse and fascinating, but also frustrating at the same time. Most importantly, no theoretical lecture can explain what scientific research is like; you need to experience it yourself.