New to research
Started by fewaopi
Everyone's going to be spending their first few weeks getting adjusted and learning new techniques. So what you've said is fine, but as time goes on, you want to taking those techniques, and start doing experiments.
Every lab has their own culture, but nearly all follow the "see one, do one, teach one" circle.
I did not use any books or articles for learning protocols. Our lab was large enough and had enough protocols that I learned directly from the post-docs in the lab. If there was a protocol that nobody was familiar with, we branched out to members of other labs that had experience and received "training" from them (that is, they basically went over the product protocol(s) with us, and did the first one or two experiments alongside us). We similarly gave training to other labs. This sort of thing may vary at your institution.
If you're in a smaller/newer lab that doesn't have any established protocols, there are manuals available from major publishers that contain protocols. You can also look at the materials&methods section of related papers to determine what products and procedures other people are performing.
My personal advice: most people learn by doing (hands-on learning), rather than by watching. For some experiments, particularly the really long ones, you're going to make mistakes - and possibly a lot of them. Get used to that idea. The post-docs in my lab told me that it's normal for someone who is new to an experimental method to have to do it two or three times before their results are usable.
If you have a conservative personality, it's tempting to want to wait before doing anything so that you don't screw up... and that desire only gets worse when you order the reagents yourself, and realize how expensive everything is. But take some risks, challenge yourself, and don't be too afraid of failure. Clearly you don't want to jump in if you have no idea what you're doing, but recognize that you'll probably need to go through a few experiments where you'll feel slightly lost.
That's the advice I'd have given to myself when I was starting out, anyway 🙂
What's your research area? I'm in immunology - I might be able to help you with some things if you're in a related field.
I did not use any books or articles for learning protocols. Our lab was large enough and had enough protocols that I learned directly from the post-docs in the lab. If there was a protocol that nobody was familiar with, we branched out to members of other labs that had experience and received "training" from them (that is, they basically went over the product protocol(s) with us, and did the first one or two experiments alongside us). We similarly gave training to other labs. This sort of thing may vary at your institution.
If you're in a smaller/newer lab that doesn't have any established protocols, there are manuals available from major publishers that contain protocols. You can also look at the materials&methods section of related papers to determine what products and procedures other people are performing.
My personal advice: most people learn by doing (hands-on learning), rather than by watching. For some experiments, particularly the really long ones, you're going to make mistakes - and possibly a lot of them. Get used to that idea. The post-docs in my lab told me that it's normal for someone who is new to an experimental method to have to do it two or three times before their results are usable.
If you have a conservative personality, it's tempting to want to wait before doing anything so that you don't screw up... and that desire only gets worse when you order the reagents yourself, and realize how expensive everything is. But take some risks, challenge yourself, and don't be too afraid of failure. Clearly you don't want to jump in if you have no idea what you're doing, but recognize that you'll probably need to go through a few experiments where you'll feel slightly lost.
That's the advice I'd have given to myself when I was starting out, anyway 🙂
What's your research area? I'm in immunology - I might be able to help you with some things if you're in a related field.
