Does anyone else struggle with research?

[andybshaker]

I work in a research lab with extremely dedicated and intelligent people, and I feel completely incompetent compared to them. Today, for the third time in two weeks, my cells were contaminated. This is basically all I am assigned to do currently, and I seem incapable of doing it. With this and other experiments that I've worked on, it seems that every time I rectify something, something else goes wrong. It's not for lack of trying--I research the issues and ask the people around me for advice, and everyone is incredibly helpful. But I feel that they must be frustrated with my lack of progress over the past months. The graduate student I work with is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and I feel like I am letting her down. I don't know what I should do. Do any other undergraduates have this kind of experience?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hoihaie]

I think most of us are like this when we first started. In my first year, I once accidentally destroyed ~$2000 worth of tumor samples we bought from a company T_T

I think research requires you to adapt to a different way of thinking - i.e. we may think our hands are clean enough, but they are in fact covered iwth microorganisms that will jsut fall down to your cells if you hover your hand over the media or flasks. Attention to the small details is helpful for me. It's good that you're actively seeking out how to improve. Don't give up just yet.

 

[Goro]

Heck kid, I'm a PI and I have trouble with research!

Damn reagents have a way of going bad after too many freeze-thaws.

If your cells are contaminated, make up new media, clean out the incubator, and maybe switch to a different type of vessel.

I work in a research lab with extremely dedicated and intelligent people, and I feel completely incompetent compared to them. Today, for the third time in two weeks, my cells were contaminated. This is basically all I am assigned to do currently, and I seem incapable of doing it. With this and other experiments that I've worked on, it seems that every time I rectify something, something else goes wrong. It's not for lack of trying--I research the issues and ask the people around me for advice, and everyone is incredibly helpful. But I feel that they must be frustrated with my lack of progress over the past months. The graduate student I work with is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and I feel like I am letting her down. I don't know what I should do. Do any other undergraduates have this kind of experience?

 

[grivacobae]

I feel you fellow fellower! I too just recently joined and work under incredibly smart PI and PhD student, so much that I am afraid to carry on a conversation with them, also they don't seem to want to converse for that matter. Be thankful and take advantage of their kindness and willingness to help! My PI and PhD just told me to do required training and that's it, I ask him everyday if he needs help in anything and he always says he is either extremely busy or next week he'll get to it, and when I ask a few days later he says he already finished it. It's really uncomfortable and annoying for because I really want to grow with them and be as valuable as possible, and I haven't even had any work in the lab! I hope it's common like this at the beginning because I'm really not just checking off a box (I think that's what they think), but really trying to figure out if research is a suitable option for me!
You seem to be surrounded by smart people that want to see you succeed, and will do what they can to help you, remember, research is their number 1 priority ( that's what i tell myself =D ) !!

 

[optimistic3]

That's one of the reasons I never did research. I didn't feel like my lab skills were that great as I was a bit clumsy in a lot of my chem labs. and I was always afraid that they'd ask me to do things that I had no idea how to do or would be bad at it. I did apply to a handful of labs and I was always kind of happy in the back of my mind that I never got accepted into one. Unfortunately it may hurt my application come next cycle.

But since you seem to have a receptive and helpful group that you're working with, don't give up!

 

[Lucca]

Research is all about failing forward and improving. I felt exactly the same way when I started in my lab. Asking grad students seemingly mundane questions and messing things up over and over is how you learn. The key is to always be polite, look things up on your own when you can, and never be afraid to ask a critical question. It is better to bug a grad student for 5 mins than break equipment, ruin a sample, or commit a batch of code that ruins everything.

If research was simple and straightforward, PhDs wouldn't take as long as they did and there would be a whole lot more of them.

Also, I didn't feel like I improved by leaps and bounds until I worked there in the summer for 30-40hrs/wk. The reality is that during the semester the most you can probably do is about 10-15hrs a week, and that might be a bit generous.

 

[kraskadva]

As one of my professors always says, "REsearch is all about REpeating." Learn from your mistakes, don't freak out, and one step at a time you'll get there.

 

[Shirafune]

Don't feel bad OP. The getting used to undergraduate research, especially the early stages, is very very difficult and will make you feel like crap. I wanted to quit 3 months into the process, but stuck it out and love it now. As far as your case goes, check with your graduate student to see what you're doing wrong. Ask her to watch your sterile technique! If you are apparently doing nothing wrong, then make new media and clean out the incubator, as Goro already suggested.

Maybe it's just me, but 70% EtOH is my best friend when doing tissue culture!

 

[Theafoni]

Bench work sucks so bad. I hate standing around and waiting. I volunteered in a lab last summer, decent amount of work given to me, but it was tedious.

 

[Theseus]

Bench work sucks so bad. I hate standing around and waiting. I volunteered in a lab last summer, decent amount of work given to me, but it was tedious.

I worked on a project in biochem lab that took me two months to get half way. Then one faithful day a grad student accidentally switched the labels on one of the reagents needed for a wash. Me (a lowly undergrad) and another grad student were working concurrently and both of our projects "done messed up."

 

[looncat]

Everyone starts out like this, I felt the same way (in fact, I used to panic a lot before going into lab), so did the others in my lab. No one is frustrated with you (unless you have a bad attitude) and it'll get much better.

 

[ShabbaRanks]

I am currently in a gap year and am doing research 40 hours a week (more like 50). I feel like I mess up as often as I get things correct. It sucks, but I just try to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.

On another note, do people feel like it would be bad for me to mention to my mentor that I do not want to work over 40 hours a week? I am an intern and I feel that I constantly have more work/ am the last one in the lab most nights. I feel like this is starting to take a toll on me and it is only September.

 

[Shirafune]

I am currently in a gap year and am doing research 40 hours a week (more like 50). I feel like I mess up as often as I get things correct. It sucks, but I just try to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.

On another note, do people feel like it would be bad for me to mention to my mentor that I do not want to work over 40 hours a week? I am an intern and I feel that I constantly have more work/ am the last one in the lab most nights. I feel like this is starting to take a toll on me and it is only September.

I would say to power through it and to move hours to weekends if possible. 40 hours a week is pretty much the minimum PIs expect for Junior Specialists who get paid to do research. If you are just starting out in research, then you will definitely need to put in the time. If you have some experience already, express a concern about the quality of your productivity and how a more independent work schedule may yield higher quality data more quickly. Remember that your health comes first. You wouldn't want to burn out before even starting medical school! Best of luck.

 

[Lucca]

Quick plug: computational research is the best and you should all try it if you feel bench work is tedious, frustrating.

 

[Heplayer92]

Practice makes perfect...or at least brings improvement =)

As an undergraduate researcher, now is the time to make mistakes. The PI and grad student expects you to make mistakes. Heck even they make mistakes. Similarly, I had these high expectations when I first started...but the mistakes definitely humble you and help you appreciate the art of scientific research. Just ask for help/guidance...maybe ask the grad student to observe you while you're plating/treating cells and see how you can brush up on your tissue culture methods. Best of luck!

 

[thf214]

OP I was thinking of starting a similar thread.. I am applying this cycle and working as a technician in a lab during the gap year, and continually make mistakes after working for almost 2 months now. I definitely feel better after reading these responses.

 

[kthxbai]

Heck kid, I'm a PI and I have trouble with research!

Damn reagents have a way of going bad after too many freeze-thaws.

If your cells are contaminated, make up new media, clean out the incubator, and maybe switch to a different type of vessel.

We aliquot our reagents into small tubes and only freeze/thaw what we need to use while keeping the rest in stocks. We just started using this method and holy hell, we've saved ourselves so much trouble!

 

[lumpyduster]

It's okay OP, I've been doing this for two years and I will be repeating THE SAME GODDAMN gel for the third time tomorrow because my bands look like horse****. It's not even with important samples - it's to determine reaction conditions and apply it to my system. -_- I feel like I'm moving so slowly and that honestly bothers me more now; I got over the "I'm the anti-King Midas; everything I touch turns to ****" phase and you will too!

 

[Atom612]

Quick plug: computational research is the best and you should all try it if you feel bench work is tedious, frustrating.

How much of a CS background do you need for this? Do you have to have mastery of any languages (e.g., Python, etc.)?

 

[ridethecliche]

Quick plug: computational research is the best and you should all try it if you feel bench work is tedious, frustrating.

Just wait till your renderings don't work or your code doesn't compile properly.

A friend of mine is doing his phd in computational chemistry/biology and his facebook statuses are just him being pissed at code.

 

[Lucca]

Just wait till your renderings don't work or your code doesn't compile properly.

A friend of mine is doing his phd in computational chemistry/biology and his facebook statuses are just him being pissed at code.

Stackoverflow is open all the time on my computer. It takes a certain degree of patience but I will take debugging over restarting a whole PCR/cell culture any day and every day.

How much of a CS background do you need for this? Do you have to have mastery of any languages (e.g., Python, etc.)?

None at all, really. However, it does depend on the lab. CS experience would be preferable, however I don't think they expect you to be a master of code like a CS major would and the tools you are using are (generally) not as complex as you might encounter in an upper-div CS course. I'm taking some CS classes because I have room and I like my research/coding in general but the grad students in my lab where straight up Chem majors in undergrad and continue to be but picked up what they know along the way. Really, there is no way to survive in the modern professional world (research, corporate, entrepreneurship, etc.) without knowing how to code or at least being familiar with the best practices.

Like I said, it all depends on the lab. My lab and my research is all about speed so C++ knowledge is good (and I don't have a lot of it, to be honest) and a lot of the data compiling stuff is done with Python (super ez mode, learn this first if you just want to do quick and dirty stuff when you need to/want to put it on your resume). I know a lot of labs that have to do a lot of statistics use R, etc. If you would like to get involved with computational research you should:

1. Look up the faculty at your univ. pursuing comp. research.
2. Ask them how willing they are to work with undergrads/mentor them.
3. If they do not offer mentorship in the required comp. knowledge then go take a class or ask them what it is you need to know to work with them and then go try to learn that.
4. Offer to do smaller, boring things (submitting multiple tests, making graphs and presentations for more senior members of the lab from their data, etc) while you learn the code you need to contribute creatively.

When I started working in my lab though I had only taken the Harvard edX course CS50x online through edX. I did that as a senior in high school though. With a uni course load I don't think I could afford the luxury of taking a class in parallel that isn't graded/won't go on my transcript. I would just end up ignoring it, but you do you!

If you do think comp. research is really cool I would recommend taking Algorithms, Data Structures, and Linear Algebra after an Intro to Programming course (if you have literally 0 experience, which is OK).

 

[ridethecliche]

I do mostly clinical research stuff, so it's similar to what you're playing with in that most of it is retrospective and database-based. We do some prospective stuff, but that's not really my cuppa tea right now.