Test
Just a test
To Publish or to Perish: A rookie’s lesson
“Tick,” says the clock “tick, tick”
what you have to do do quick.
-Anonymous poetry from kindergarten
Publish or Perish
That was a poem I learned in kindergarten 16 years ago. I feel older every time I reminisce on one of these poems, but that’s besides the point. This week in biochemistry lab, I came to realize the importance of hastiness and racing for results.
Last year, I interviewed a fellow classmate for The Research Paper Magazine, and I remember her saying, on the record, that research is not about getting results; rather it’s about learning to solve problems without the pampers of a professor’s ready-made answers. To me that was one of the coyest statements to ever come from an undergraduate researcher (as of that time, that is. In semesters to come, I adopted the notion of research for results vs. for learning as part of my interview questions for both undergraduate and professional researchers. And if you were wondering, the answers have been kind of consistent–you don’t only do research to get results.
Until, I took off my reporter vest and press-pass and put on a lab coat and a pair gloves.
It was time I found out that the table has quantum-ly flipped itself upside down like an experimental magnetic induction (using an electric motor/experimental generator) were by the north pole switched to the south and the south, north. That was when my postdoc supervisor told me: Abu, we have to complete this story (as if research projects are like telling stories, you’d be surprised they are!) by June so that P- can have the results and we can open up a new chapter.
As if that’s not enough. My biochemistry lab professor said to the only-two students who registered for her course this summer that timeliness is one of the most important factor in research–you need to claim priority by publishing first, and the only way to do so is to work at a very fast pace and get those results!
Shall we say “publish or perish!”
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