To cap off my experience in Dr. Ade’s research group, I watched the conclusion of Jonathan’s most recent experiment, wherein he took measurements of the new chips he made to test if his hypothesis was correct regarding a certain mixture of polymers. As it turns out, it was only partially correct, as some of the results followed the predicted trend, while several key measurements started to vary wildly once the specimen began decaying in oxygen. As it turns out, lab work is hit or miss.
Looking back on my two weeks of observation and experience in labs, I have been given very valuable experience. As I am seriously thinking about research as a career, this time has allowed me to actually understand the scope of the field in which I may one day be employed. Experimental physics, especially, is absolutely nothing like the classroom experience I have had. I barely saw a single equation while I was here, and the whole process was very inter-disciplinary. Computer scientists, theoretical physicists, chemists, and engineers all worked together on this one project alone. As I prepare to enter college in just a short year and a half, and as I look towards garnering research experience like several of the undergrads in both of my work experience labs, it will be immensely beneficial to my own view that I already understand the patterns and realities of lab work.
In reflecting, I have also come to realize how unplanned lab work can be. Far from predictable, one off conclusion or half a micro liter of a forgotten chemical can drastically alter results, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. I, of course, always understood that a lot of this work is trial and error, but these past two weeks truly cemented this idea that mistakes are truly helpful, and that science is simply just problem solving, but with fourteen thousand dollar equipment and a lot of computer software.