Science is hard. Not because it is complicated, and full of math. Not because it requires a lot of training and excellent problem solving skills. Not even because it is often necessary to work with extremely toxic and dangerous materials. Science is hard because it is constantly testing your ability to deal with failure.
I truly do think that science is amazing, the discoveries and advancements science has allowed us to make are incredible. Working on these discoveries, however, can be extremely daunting. Most experiments fail. Many scientists will spend a lot of their life working on research that will inevitably lead no where. This does not make their work any less important, by eliminating these ideas you are one step closer to your goal, however this can really take its toll on your motivation. It is difficult not to put a lot of yourself into your research and when this is constantly failing it can be very hard on your confidence. The continuous disappointments create desperation in people and this can lead to unfortunate behaviour. The amount of fraudulent research that is submitted to journals and published today is despicable. It is frustrating and discouraging to find out a lot of the findings you read about may actually be falsified in some way ( see here for more info http://www.pnas.org/content/109/42/17028 ). Add in the lack of correct information being offered to the public, and sometimes working in this field can be pretty disheartening…….
Sometimes I struggle with these issues with my own research, but I try to make sure I separate myself from science and not let my consistent failures define me. I hope that my research can help contribute to making the world a better place some day, but for now I just enjoy the learning 🙂
Since science is such a huge part of my life mixing it with photography is something I really love doing…. you can get some really interesting subjects around the chemistry department!!!
- 15 Reasons to Date a Chemist (polishdatingblog.wordpress.com)
Kayla Hill Photography 