<p>Hey, I wasn't sure what forum this would best fit under so I took a chance and here it is. </p>
<p>Okay, So I am a first year student at a Big Ten Univ as well as a member of their honors college. During my first semester, I had the idea I wanted to major in Food Science. The area interested me from some HS coursework and the school I go to has a top-notch program. I did fine with the intro general classes (Chem, Calc, Bio) and finished my first semester with a 3.95 GPA. </p>
<p>I had the idea that I wanted to be a prof, one that is more focused on teaching than research, so I began looking to build up my credentials for grad school ASAP. I received a lab asst. job during my first month in school in a food science lab (I worked with the prof pre-college). This diddn't go over very well. The prof was too focused on Extension work and the one grad student who I was working with did not make it a pleasant experience. This pretty much depleted any leftover interest I had for the topic. </p>
<p>So, looking for a better position, I transfered over to a new food sci lab. This prof, who is just starting his lab, seemed really excited about taking me on. I was really digging his research for the first few months, it is cutting-edge and heavily talked about it in a lot of journals. Now as I am nearing the end of my first year, the research that I have been doing and the lab training is starting to get dull, as in I don't look foward to going in to lab as much as I use to, I am messing up more in my protocols and I can tell my advising prof is getting a little annoyed.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice for me? Is my loss of interest in research topics after several weeks a normal thing? Perhaps I need to hone in on my interests more and find a more suitable science area to study.</p>
<p>What kind of work is he having you do?</p>
<p>Him and his grad student take turns training me in doing cancer cell cultures as well as a bunch of assays for them. If I am not doing that, I am helping the grad student with her thesis research. I am not really doing that much dishwashing, maybe once a week with gen lab clean-up.</p>
<p>Well there’s your problem. Read the literature and figure out what problem exists and attempt to solve it. Believe me, that will be far more valuable to your future and your career than any amount of maintaining cell culture lines and running assays for somebody else. If your project looks promising, apply for an undergraduate research grant (you’re at Penn State, right? they have urop grants).</p>
<p>Well I would be doing that, but first I have to master the culture and assay techniques. It is just that as time goes by I am losing more interest in the area.</p>
<p>I’m guessing it’s one of two things…</p>
<p>One: You really don’t like the actual process of research. Lab work is a sad reality of life for most scientists… getting answers takes tedium and monotony, even if they’re really cool answers. Is it the science itself that no longer interests you, or is it what you’re physically doing in the lab that is bringing you down?</p>
<p>Two: It’s just the specific lab. It might be time to change labs again. Sometimes it takes some jumping around to find what works for you and what doesn’t. Staying in a place that doesn’t inspire you isn’t the answer.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>
Santiago Ramon y Cajal (Nobel laureate, all-around neuroscience god): “You should abandon science… if your soul isn’t flooded with the emotion of anticipated pleasure when approaching the long-awaited and solemn moment of the fiat lux.”</p>
<p>And I think Ramon y Cajal would agree with EvoViro that the “long-awaited” part is key – you have to do a lot of work, some of it very tedious, to make any meaningful discoveries. It’s definitely not for everybody.</p>
<p>EvoViro, I’m having a similar problem - what if the answer to the question you posed is that the science greatly interests me, but the research process doesn’t. I love design, and I am a builder, but as far as what goes on in most bio/chem/engineering labs, I am not interested.</p>
<p>I have a top 1% GPA (mech. engineering, but more interested in nanoscience/CS) at a top 5 engineering school, and love having deep theoretical understanding of a variety of topics, but I hate the idea of specializing. I’m a generalist at heart. Also, I would NOT be satisfied as simply working as an engineer in a company doing specialized tasks. </p>
<p>Right now, I have narrowed it down to either business school, and working in a more high-level role in strategy, OR interdisciplinary programs such as the Media Lab and D.School. Both very different paths. Is research less tedious in some fields compared to others? Can I be actively involved in advancing technology without specializing?</p>
<p>it could also be that you’re just not emotionally invested in the particular research you’re doing.</p>
<p>i was an RA as an undergrad for one of my history professors (admittedly completely different field) and as i was reading through 16th century script trying to decipher a midwife’s accounts journal so i could database all the debits and credits, i wanted to jam knitting needles through my eyelids. it didn’t grab me. but when i was doing my own research, in the field, for a 90-page research paper, i couldn’t get enough of it.</p>
<p>i agree with belevitt. read the literature around your particular research and try to get some real personal investment in the work you do. that might help. but also, the monotony is part of the process for any research degree.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. </p>
<p>I am starting to realize it is the monotony of the task that is whats killing the interest for me. The science is interesting to me though, like when my PI and I are discussing the results of my practice MTT assay. However, I couldn’t see myself doing that kind of bench work for the next 4 years for my undegrad honors thesis. </p>
<p>I’ll stick it out for the rest of the semester and see how I feel at the end of the year (its a nice pay job). </p>
<p>Anyone have any idea of a biological science area whose research is engaging, perhaps some of which is not spent in a lab all the time?</p>
<p>A lot of computational work is not done in a lab. But if you’re working with any kind of organism or cells or whatever, you’re going to be in the lab constantly.</p>
<p>As you take more classes and read more, you should learn about more areas that interest you. It can take some time.</p>
<p>Ya if you can push yourself through the all the boring tasks, you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>What I find is that the tasks aren’t nearly as boring as long as the environment is right. Work with an mp3 player or turn on the stereo or have a computer play some music. If your coworkers are really nice and upbeat, that makes things even better.</p>
<p>I mean lab work is rough but how boring is it really?</p>
<p>Those who’ve done internships at banks, law firms, or small offices probably didn’t have the time of their lives.</p>
<p>Most jobs are monotonous. It really depends on who your working with and why your doing it that makes the difference. Money is also a big deal too.</p>
<p>As someone who hates doing the same thing day in and day out, I’d like to offer words of encouragement. If you find the right lab and project, you can at least be doing different protocols on a regular basis, which helps with the monotony (though not the tedium). My first lab experience was just DNA extraction, PCR and sequencing… hated it. My second involved fruit fly matings, mutation mapping, microscopy, complementation mapping, etc… loved it, even though the science didn’t grab me as much.</p>
<p>You say you’re not interested in research so much long-term. I don’t know what your motivations are for that, but I’d recommend giving it a few more chances. If you find the sweet spot where your topic interests you and you don’t find the actual work mind-numbing, you might discover you actually like it. There’s no other feeling like being the first (and momentarily only) person in the history of the world to know something.</p>
<p>1337hax0r: One person’s tedium can be another’s minor inconvenience, so in that respect I can’t suggest one field or another. Unfortunately, I have no answers for you… I can picture you happy at a large institution with diverse projects that you can float between, but I have no advice on a particular path to take. Best of luck, though!</p>