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Asked by 592arth42 to Alejandra, Ana, Daniel, Sophie, Todd, Zach on 10 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by Moogie, Moriparty, 439arth42.
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Daniel Morse answered on 10 Mar 2017:
It happens all the time. In experimental biology at least, the cells can behave differently, the way you do things can vary slightly, and the variability is quite big..that is why we repeat everything a number of times to make sure what we see is the actual result..not just there by chance!
I cant put a number on things, but about half the time I’d say, something goes wrong… Sometimes it is little and doesn’t affect it much though 🙂
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Todd Burton answered on 10 Mar 2017:
Unfortunately you have good days and bad days, good experiments and bad ones.
I have been experimenting with a bioreactor (used to grown my cells) for the last two years and have hit many problems along the way. I am pleased to say it is finally ready to go, with no more foreseeable problems that could come up!
Other project go really well. When working with live cells things can always be a little unpredictable and good time management is key!
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Alejandra Aranceta answered on 10 Mar 2017:
Hi Arth,
That is the common place, if I’m honest! you often think that something was done wrong when you succeed at your experiment, believe it or not! The important thing is to keep on trying, try until you make it!
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Ana Gallego answered on 11 Mar 2017:
I don’t think I can count the times, but it is part of the process. Failing is what you learn that is not written in any book, because every time is a new way of failing, a new scenario, sort of speaking,
In fact, sometimes even if you haven’t failed, you just need to repeat the experiment a lot of times after just to make sure you obtain the same result time and time again. This is the scientific way of doing things. -
Sophie Cox answered on 11 Mar 2017:
Hi 592arth42,
A whole bunch of times!! What I’ve learnt from working as an engineer is that failing is part of the journey to success. Sometimes you can learn more from failing than succeeding.
For example during my PhD I made this material using a new method and put some cells on it to see how they would behave. At first all the cells died and I couldn’t work out why. I changed things and the cells were all still dying (sorry cells!). It took be about 5 attempts to get it right but it meant that I learnt how lots of different parameters affected how cells respond to this material and I was able to share that with the research community by publishing a paper on it. Through failing I also got a lot better at working with cells and designing my experiments really carefully so I could figure out what was happening.
Sometimes I think people don’t try things because they are worried about failing and I try to tell them that failing is not a negative things, it’s part of the learning process and the journey to succeeding. The best things in life are never easy… 🙂
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