I am new to the laboratory setting and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or tips on how to start designing experiments? What is the first thing I need to look at? Are their any things in particular I should look for?
Kelly McGhee ---- Kelly, your question is something I became aware of in an undergrad class in “problem solving”. Then a few months after grad school had a sense that I had learned “how to learn”. For my entire career your question and learning how to design an experiment has been on-going process of actually learning how to design an experiment. - My personal experience with an “answer” to your question is each experiment (regardless os success or failure) lets me see more about the question. I go from utter blankness to being able to think & imagine the problem. And more able to figure out what the question is vs what I assumed when I started. Designing each series of experiments can give you the tiniest way to think about and refine the essence of the question(s). — There’s a big but here. - Experiments go bad in a myriad of ways. Designing experiments is hard. Re-designing to get around the failures is harder. When an idea for improving the design is not there I try an expression like “I wonder what would happen if I….???”. And use whatever comes to mind as a way to move forward. — — I’m sure you’ll encounter people (more likely professors) telling you (1) what they think/know the answer is (2) that we already know “that” and (3) the only thing that matters is publishable results. — My advice is to try and ignore them. Research in any field is far from elegant. Its hard work and messy. On the other hand designing experiments lets you engage with the things we still don’t know, don’t know how to think about and can’t yet imagine. - — Over the years I’ve read and heard about many design ideas. Some I tried. Some I literally copied to be like researchers I admired. Personally I’ve found designing an experiment is a process more than a “how to” answer . Often, and quite literally, showing up and working every day —
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