Summer Research: If at first you don’t succeed, lower your expectations.

My summer research project started today!  And while it won’t exactly forge any new horizons in the exciting field of summer research, I’m comforted to know that – since it’s already August – it IS forging new horizons in the field of summer research.

… I’m not even kidding, guys  For all the useful data I’m going to gather with my “n= tragically small” project, I suspect I may as well just re-title it “Redefining “Summer”: The Implications of the Lengthy IRB Approval Process on The Traditional M1 Summer Research Project“.

(Or, alternately, “Biokinetics of Pyridoxal-5′-Phosphate in Sea Scallops“, because that title may actually improve the chances that someone will eventually read it.)

For this reason, all new M1s can consider this post my present to them.

My mentor told me that “it’s not about the results – rather, it’s about how this project will help set the tone”  for my future research.

I think I started out hoping that tone would be something stellar, like a John Williams orchestral theme.  You know, something with a lot of brass, no subtlety whatsoever, and some kind of discernible melody.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be ‘Yackety Sax’.

But, okay, fine – I can’t get too upset.  The important things are that I tried, I got funding, I’m putting something together, and I’m learning!  … And also, that my CV will look exactly the same no matter how much this project sucks.

So… yep: cynicism.

Mostly the cynicism.