Monday, October 6, 2008

Research Sucks

Since the start of this semester I have been doing research with my microbiology professor. I've always considered myself open to research at some point in my life, and I figured this would look good on pharmacy school apps. After four weeks of it do you know what I have realized?

I hate research.

This is one of the most tidious things I have ever done. The whole concept we're working on is quite interesting (we're trying to prove a factor of evolution via bacteria) but the procedure is mind-numbingly boring. The worst part is, you get pissed off at least twice a week because of it.

Example, I needed to amplify some DNA to run a gel to figure out how many kilobases this fragment of DNA has. You amplify using a PCR which takes 2-3 hours. The gel itself takes about 1-2 hours to run. All together to get the data you need, you must wait up to 5 hours, not including all the prep work. After all of this, you go to look at the gel under UV and what do you see? Absoutly nothing. Fuckin' gel did not work for some reason. All that work for jack shit.

Really doesn't help I'm doing this at 8 in the morning (I am NOT a morning person). And the fact that my day usually doesn't end until 7pm due to classes/work. As of today I have decided to give research a big ole screw you as I shall not be doing this ever again. Now to squeeze in a short nap before stats....

1 comment:

Frantic Pharmacist said...

I agree, it takes the patience of a saint to do that stuff. And to do any kind of serious research requires you to be constantly asking people for money and writing long, long grant requests only to be turned down. I'm glad someone's willing to do it, but not me...