I am really proud of a grad in our group, but not for the reasons most commonly shared on Twitter... [1/7]
She got some very tough experimental results that cast serious doubt on an exciting interpretation of a long-term project. Despite how much effort she had invested & how hard the results were to process, she conducted careful & creative follow-up work to figure things out. [2/7]
Sadly, the challenging results were real and our earlier exciting interpretation evaporated. The reasons we were misled were very subtle, but she untangled them. Further, she fully embraced how the results could change the project. [3/7]
Of course, she was upset (as was I) but she took genuine solace in understanding what was actually happening in her system, and that she had figured it out. In addition to her incredible resilience, she showed how she appreciates science as a process, rather than a product. [4/7]
Although efforts like hers are sometimes unsung, they are at the very core of what it means to be a scientist: to wrestle with data, to reconcile discord between data and a model, and to countenance the abandonment of a model when the data demands it. [5/7]
I think we need to continually recognize that being a scientist requires courage to take challenging data seriously, strength to design and execute follow-up research that may destroy your pet ideas, and a commitment to honestly integrate everything to form new ideas. [6/7]
These foundational elements aren't always easy to implement, but it is possible to embrace all of these things- a grad in our group did just that, and I'm very proud of her. [7/7]
