Adventures in Grad School!!!!

Like a lot of things I have on my plate right now, it is high time that I got around to updating this. I could easily argue that I should be updating my lab notebook, working on a presentation I have to give to my department next Wednesday, doing other experiments and things of that nature, but I really don’t feel like doing that right now. I don’t necessarily feel like blogging either, but out of all the things that I don’t want to do right now this seems to be the most tolerable. I also don’t have a subject to be blogging about at the moment either, so be prepared for some supreme blogging crap.

Summer is almost over now, soon the myriads of undergrads will return to graze the campus, fall drunk into the street while talking on their cell phones and the quite peace that currently exists will be gone. Alas, I only have a few more short weeks of solace before they arrive in all their...err... glory. I also have only a few more weeks before youth group starts up. I am looking forward to that starting again, but it does mean that I will be substantially busier. So, what will I be doing during my last few free weeks? Slaving away at the lab of course. As mentioned already, I have a big presentation that is due next Wednesday, and hordes of experiments just waiting to be done. Actually I have one of those experiments stoking in the fire as I write; an experiment of paramount proportions. This is the kind of experiment that could make or break the coming years of my graduate school life. The best analogy that I can come up with is that of a detective trying to solve a murder mystery. He may have his suspect with a strong case, but if ten people verified that said suspect was out of town during the time of the murder, then his case loses its footing. The experiment I am doing won’t confirm the murder (read hypothesis), but it will tell me at least if the suspect was in town. As I am writing this I am practically getting an ulcer as every second ticks away. In about 30 minutes I will have a good clue as to the fate of my upcoming days here at Penn State. Yes, this is the kind of experiment that requires going out to eat for dinner. Either a dinner built in with a huge sigh of relief, or one of extreme disappointment/depression. That’s right, celebration or drowning/wallowing in misery. I’m not holding out a lot of hope right now as my recent bout of success rates at about 1 out of 10 experiments working properly. Before you shower me with pity or go thinking that I am a horrible scientist, you should probably know that 1 out of 10 experiments isn’t to far off of par for the course. Depressing isn’t it. I guess I’ll take some of that pity after all.

Ah, of course...I just checked on my experiment. I set you all up with a success or failure kind of jolt, but it seems as if I left out the third and most common option in the world of science, and that is an experiment not working. This isn’t a negative result. No, no, no. A negative result at least tells you that you are barking up that wrong tree. The experiment not working leaves you with absolutely nothing. No right or wrong. It just leaves you hanging. Hanging on broken promises made by companies of easy to do recipes for experimental success—lousy liars, giving you pretty pictures and touting high success rates. Bagh!
Back to the drawing board. Success has evaded me again!!!