research in real

Being a research PhD student could be lot of fun. But research has a quite boring part as well. (I am not talking about the whole administration stuff here) Doing the research itself is lot of fun and I like the time puzzling around with some application and writing my own scripts, Perl, PHP , SQL etc.

But then there are these seminars you have to go to, although they are not in your field of interest. Yes, I do respect other researchers and I let them do what they like to do ... but why do I have to listen to it? I do respect the Beatles, but I don't have to listen to them.Yes, they could introduce new techniques you haven't thought about, but if it is really out of your field it won't be really relevant.

 

Photo courtesy by Markus Brosch

I am somehow permanently in such a situation, as I ended up in a group full of labrats, oops I mean cell biology scientists. And here I am, sitting 24/7 in front of a computer in my world of applications, code and visualisation.
Just imagine, having a group meeting with these guys ... plenty of fancy pictures on the wall, live imaging of cells, fluorescent tagged proteins  ... is amazing stuff. I am loving it. Then my presentation ... charts, tables and numbers and everyone starts to yawn.  Not that I didn't yawn at their presentation ;o) They are coming out with their ideas and how to improve the assays etc. It is not helping my work. But how can u get around it?

• chose the right research group straight at the beginning
• make clear with your supervisor what info you need and which seminars you really have to go to
• don't change the environment too often (I did move offices several times, with no real benefit at the end)
• have a goal and stick to it
• finish your PhD thesis as soon as possible
• avoid any procrastination ... it is just getting more painful

I am in the final stage of my PhD, so I won't change things anymore. But I learned a lot, no doubt about it. Maybe more about me instead of biology ;o)

So let's get this paper published and then we start the final part, a quick analysis.