Please help me... I'm really hating my research

[nishi]

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I took a week off last week from research to study for the MCAT and now that I have to start again I realize just how much I hate it.
I get terrible results, and this week I have to repeat a real time PCR for the fourth time 🙁
I guess I'm kinda stuck with it until the end of the semester, but I'm doing research all summer long as well 🙁
someone, please tell me it gets better. just thinking about going to the lab gives me so much stress

 

[linuxizer]

I took a week off last week from research to study for the MCAT and now that I have to start again I realize just how much I hate it.
I get terrible results, and this week I have to repeat a real time PCR for the fourth time 🙁
I guess I'm kinda stuck with it until the end of the semester, but I'm doing research all summer long as well 🙁
someone, please tell me it gets better. just thinking about going to the lab gives me so much stress

Research is like that. Just remember the incredible high you get when results come out and it'll pull you through the lows.
G'luck,
Ari

 

[dr.z]

I've done it for over 5 years. It still gives me nightmares sometimes, but you have to get through it. My nightmare partly is due to my crazy mentor too.

 

[QofQuimica]

Talk to some of the more experienced people in your lab. They might have some practical suggestions to help you get through your sticking point. If nothing else, they can assure you that everyone goes through these kinds of slow times, and yes, it DOES eventually get better if you persevere and don't give up. Remember also that real research doesn't come with any guarantee of success; it isn't like the artificial "experiments" you do in your lab classes as an undergrad where someone has already worked out the snags in the procedures. The reason why you are doing this work is at least in part to figure out whether it can actually be done. Hopefully you get good results, but even if your experiments fail, you have still learned something useful, if only to show that some avenue is not fruitful.

 

[PostalWookie]

You're bound to have long stretches during which nothing works. I am convinced that all that separates a good scientist from a bad one is persistence - it seems like all the people who made great discoveries did so through stubborness in the face of confusing or bad results.

Now given that, maybe the fact that I cloned GFP and an E.coli enzyme from the damn Aplysia sea slug can be a good thing.

Bottom line is, see how you feel about research when the results come.

 

[MacGyver]

This is a perfect illustration as to why clinical research is not nearly as prestigious as basic science research.

In basic science research, if your experiments screw up, you are screwed and cant publish anything.

In clinical science, it doesnt matter what the outcome is. Even if your results show no difference between therapy A and therapy B, there are many journals willing to publish it.

With clinical research, the work is all front loaded. That is, if you set up the methodologies on paper right, then you are virtually guaranteed of some kind of publishable data.

with basic science research, thats not the case at all. Not only do you have to have a sound methodology, but NOBODY KNOWS if that methodology is even workable to begin with.

1 basic science paper is worth at least 5 clinical papers in my book.

 

[Megalofyia]

Some people aren't research people. . . I know I'm not. As far as I'm concerned doing reserach is far worse than working in McDonalds or cleaning dog poo from kennels. You couldn't pay me enough to do research the rest of my life, and in two weeks I'll be walking out of a lab forever; never to pick up a pipette again.

 

[alphagal]

I took a week off last week from research to study for the MCAT and now that I have to start again I realize just how much I hate it.
I get terrible results, and this week I have to repeat a real time PCR for the fourth time 🙁
I guess I'm kinda stuck with it until the end of the semester, but I'm doing research all summer long as well 🙁
someone, please tell me it gets better. just thinking about going to the lab gives me so much stress

nishi,
It sounds to me like 2 things may be at play. 1) Not a great mentor and 2) Maybe you just don't like bench research. Im only guessing about the mentor thing, but in my experience, if you have repeated something 3 times and its not working, its either because it isn't going to work, or you haven't been trained properly. Either way, your mentor should step in and change the test if it isn't producing usable data or, if the problem is technical, they should work with you to resolve the problem. As far as not liking bench research --- that's not a crime or a weakness. If you don't enjoy the process of research (by which I mean enjoying studying/thinking about/discussing the science whether or not your experiment "works"), then lab work is definitely not going to get better for you. Life is too short, just move on to something that you enjoy! Those are my two cents...

 

[paramus]

I took a week off last week from research to study for the MCAT and now that I have to start again I realize just how much I hate it.
I get terrible results, and this week I have to repeat a real time PCR for the fourth time 🙁
I guess I'm kinda stuck with it until the end of the semester, but I'm doing research all summer long as well 🙁
someone, please tell me it gets better. just thinking about going to the lab gives me so much stress

Four times? If that's the worst problem you ever have in research, you'll be the luckiest scientist this side of the Nobel Prize. I completely understand, though. I have had more than my share of failed/botched experiments. Speaking from experience, though, beating your head into the wall, while tempting, is not as effective as tweaking the protocol.

Ex. I once did a plain old PCR five or six times unsuccessfully, at which point I was convinced that PCR was a bunch of BS. What I noticed, however, was that my bacterial template DNA did just fine, whereas my phage template DNA never produced anything. Eventually it occurred to me that I had put a drop of PHENOL-chloroform into my phage lysate instead of chloroform. After making a new lysate, everything worked just fine - well...I'm still the worst molecular biologist in the US, but the ensuing cloning futility wasn't my fault so far as I could tell.

 

[nishi]

nishi,
It sounds to me like 2 things may be at play. 1) Not a great mentor and 2) Maybe you just don't like bench research. Im only guessing about the mentor thing, but in my experience, if you have repeated something 3 times and its not working, its either because it isn't going to work, or you haven't been trained properly.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your replies. I do believe part has to do with my mentor. I've had the worst experience ever, and I just can't believe that anyone would ever do research if they have had an experience like mine.
I feel as though my PI and the lab tech take for granted that this is the first time I am doing research. Kinda like, lets throw her in the water and expect her to swim. Whenever I ask them to explain something to me, they use terminology I am not familiar with because I haven't studied it before. I have this week and next week left of the semester so I don't I have any options now. The reason why I want to continue with research is because I want to graduate summa cum laude.

...and Megalofyia, I had to laugh from your post. Right now I share those same sentiments

 

[mark-ER]

Don't cry over spilled milk... I've had to repeat the same qPCR 10s of times before I got decent results sometimes. That's how it goes sometimes. Try to understand 'WHY' it doesn't work and do things to fix it.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your replies. I do believe part has to do with my mentor. I've had the worst experience ever, and I just can't believe that anyone would ever do research if they have had an experience like mine.
I feel as though my PI and the lab tech take for granted that this is the first time I am doing research. Kinda like, lets throw her in the water and expect her to swim. Whenever I ask them to explain something to me, they use terminology I am not familiar with because I haven't studied it before. I have this week and next week left of the semester so I don't I have any options now. The reason why I want to continue with research is because I want to graduate summa cum laude.

...and Megalofyia, I had to laugh from your post. Right now I share those same sentiments

Hi Nishi! Your situation sounds a bit like mine a couple years ago, although I was also frustrated because I was working for pay and not really able to do much independent work because of the other tech-like obligations I had. Anyway, it may help to set up some kind of weekly meeting with your PI to discuss your progress -- maybe s/he is just not aware of you much you are struggling. Believe me, PI's can be very clueless about what is going on in their own labs. Also, you may want to ask if there are any relevant articles you could read -- you will start to learn the terminology and also feel more connected as far as where your work fits into the "big picture." If your PI is helpful and you still don't feel better about it, it may be time to throw in the towel, but if your PI thinks this is too much it may be time to start looking at your options as far as switching labs. As an undergrad you are under no obligation to stay in the same lab for the whole time. In fact, I would recommend working in a couple labs just to get a feeling for what you might want to do your PhD in. On the other hand, don't hop from lab to lab all the time either. Schools will like to see that you've made a long term (1 year or more, preferably) commitment to a project.

Well, best of luck to you, and I hope this helped somewhat!