Finding Science

School is hard and life is expensive. I worked throughout my undergraduate degree to take out fewer loans. Eventually I decided to quit my full-time job to focus on school; I was looking for work relevant to my degree in Biological Sciences. On a whim, I applied for and was awarded a summer fellowship to do research in a cell biology lab. I had no idea what research was like and had taken few classes within my major. I just needed some money and something to do with my summer. 

My first day in the lab, the PI explained the project I was joining: cells that appeared to change morphology when a certain receptor was stimulated for an hour.

“An hour?” I said, “What happens to them after an hour?”

Her response floored me: “I don't know. That can be your project.”

She didn't know? But she’s a professor! I thought scientists knew everything. Can’t we Google it? Look it up in a textbook? Ask someone else?

It wasn't until later that I began to understand. The answer wasn't out there, because no one had ever asked that specific question. Research is about exploring puzzles that have yet to be solved. Instead of asking someone or finding the answer in a book, you have to figure it out. From that epiphany on, I got hooked.

That was 5 years ago. The shift in thinking that research fosters is amazing. It's a little X-files-ish. Now I question everything. Trust no one! (at least not until you see their data). I want to know how things work. I want to know the whys, the hows and most importantly, the mechanisms. Don't tell me that eating XYZ is healthy unless you can tell me what exactly its doing and why. 

Science has turned me a little pedantic, but it has opened up a whole new realm of humor as well:

If you have a mol of moles, digging a mol of holes, what do you see?

A mol of molasses (mole-asses). 

At any rate. Science is awesome. I'm making the transition from lab technician/manager to graduate student this fall. 

I can't wait.