Finding positivity in negative results
In the past few weeks, as I recently defended my MS thesis, I have been getting questions of how I faced the challenges or overcame obstacles or avoided being demotivated on getting negative unexpected results. These questions and an aim to reach out to people struggling with negative results in their research, I was inspired to write this article.
Beginning with my story, as most of my friends who saw me positively defend my thesis in the presentation hall, almost none of them are aware of the challenges I faced throughout the 10 months of my research. I almost lost my extract after extracting it on the 3rd day of my research, as one of my classmates mistakenly broke the petri dish that had my extract. I was fortunate enough to work temporarily and arrange the first set of experiments in the first month of my research, at a lab scale. Followed by this event, the GCMS machine at my institute broke down due to technical issues and I had no option other than outsourcing my extract to identify the bioactive components in it. I had always wanted to work on GCMS, but the breaking down of the machine broke down my dream of working on GCMS. Nevertheless, I found an amazing faculty member at IIT BOMBAY - Mrs. Sharlett Joseph who guided me as she conducted the experiments on my extract. As I received the bioactive component details in my extract, I moved ahead with literature review and set up microbiology experiments in my lab. The Christmas vacation was approaching soon and I had to complete my first set of microbiology experiments, when I was allotted an old Laminar air flow that was nothing but a piece of scrap. No offense to the Lab in charge or Department Head reading this, but I am sure I wouldn't have faced severe contamination issues and failed experiments if I had been allotted a well working LAF. As time did not permit and I had a thesis submission within a week, I had to wrap up my microbiology experiments by writing the failed data into my thesis. Owing to negative data from my failed microbiology experiments, I was disheartened as I couldn’t achieve one of my goals of my thesis experiments. When you have a bad incident, another bad incident gets attracted to you like a magnet. In my case, that’s exactly what happened. As I was about to end my experiments in triplicate assays, the chemical I used for extraction was consumed by my Department and I had to request for a new bottle of it from the Department of consumables, which never supported my chemical request. Because of this, I had to request for the same chemical from a third party, a chemical which was not only hard to find, but also not sold to students. Somehow, I managed to get a mere amount of the chemical that sufficed my needs to run my experiments in triplicates. No doubt I was in depression while I was almost about to complete my thesis and prepare for my defense. Due to this depression stage in my research work, I messed up my mathematical calculations while working on the statistics part of my result interpretation. But somehow at the end, I managed to put myself back together and felt grateful about having the positive data that I was going to put in my thesis. Summarizing my failed or negative experiences while pursuing my research, I believed in myself and the resources I had in hand to work on getting positive results despite all the issues I faced while achieving them. So if my friends are appreciating my nervous yet confident thesis dissertation that was not only liked by the External examiner, but also encouraged to be published in an International journal, I hope you now know the struggles I faced before getting the appreciation and motivation from the External examiner.
Negative results and failed experiments, according to me, are something we are bound to face at some points in our research lives. These results of the experiments gone wrong are usually considered as hopelessness by researchers. As a human, we are bound to make mistakes, be it in our regular lives or the laboratory life. Not all mistakes in our lab lives should defeat the research work we do. As whatever happens, happens for a reason, most of the negative results should be considered to be ‘Lush lessons learnt in lab adversity’.
As Thomas Elva Edison has said, “I didn’t fail, but found 10,000 ways that won’t work to make a light bulb”. I believe every individual should change their perspective towards failure. Rather than whining over the failed experiments, look towards the bright side of discovering how your experiments won’t work and incorporate the changes next time.
A belief and faith that these negative results have taught me something that will prevent me from making the mistake I made earlier that ended up into a negative result saves me a lot of time, hours and days of depression and procrastinating for repeating the experiment. Most of you might be thinking of how to relate hope and faith in the field of scientific research, but allow me to share my secrets of getting positive results 90% of the time in my research life until now. There has not been a single day in my life when I have hoped to get a positive result and still failed my experiment. Not being superstitious or not kidding, but believing that ‘Today’s gonna be a great day and I’m gonna rock my experiment’ is what will help in getting you positive results. Your mentality matters. It works for me every single day (Except for the days where I get a damaged LAF or lack of chemical or when at my level, I mess up my mathematical calculations and end up making a bizarre solution :P ).
Before whining and procrastinating prior to repeating the failed experiment, always remind yourself that this was an experiment of a research life you chose for yourself so it is simply one of the loves of your life and remind yourself to be grateful to the abundance of resources and the brain to use those resources you are blessed to be working with. Always hope and work for the best. But in case you get negative or unexpected results, consider it inexorable and search for positivity in the failed experiment. A researcher should always know to be sane before beginning the experiment, throughout it and once it has ended with a positive or negative result. I keep one thing in mind just like Thomas Elva Edison, that it was good that I failed this experiment because now I know ‘How not to perform this experiment next time’. So next time you are depressed due to a bad day at the lab just because your experiment failed, be smart to excel next time.
Remember the good times when you got positive results and cheer up by presenting my strategy of ‘3 L’s’ that I just enlightened you with :
Lush resources you got a chance to work with.
Lessons - ways of not performing that experiment you just explored
Learn - how to trick yourself and cheer up thinking of the times you got positive results in lab adversity !
- Rachna Jadhav
@theresilientresearcher
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