Sun Showers

Research is like a sun shower. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a sun shower is just as its name describes-rain while the sun shines. The phenomenon is unusual and rare to say the least. People are often captivated by their obscurity. It seems odd to compare science to sun showers, but I can tell you that they are actually quite similar.

I’d like to refer to something I said in one of my previous blogs, “As scientists this summer there will be times that we fail, times that we mess up, when our experiments don’t go as we anticipate.” After six weeks working in the lab this summer I am reminded how true that statement is. When we learn about physics, biology, and chemistry what we learn is sound and logical. We take this modern knowledge for granted. There was a time when we did not know what DNA, cells, gravity, or atoms were.  Sometimes theories of the past sound ridiculously silly to us, and the knowledge we now know seems like the obvious reasoning. But science isn't as easy as it looks. There’s a reason why no one figured out the laws of physics for thousands of years, and that reason is that science is hard.

Sure we hear about amazing technology and scientific discoveries all year round, such as the Higgs Boson, water-powered jetpacks, robots, etc. but all of these things took YEARS of hard work, and many, many mess-ups. That’s where science's similarities to a sun shower come in. Like the rain, science is often filled with obscurity, frustration, tired late nights, mess ups and confusion. At the same time however, the sun shines. There are days when your research goes well, when you discover something great, or when you simply enjoy engaging in your research. Though the rain may be coming down, it’s a gentle one. There are of course occasional storms. But, the point is that the sun is still shining! Even when you are burdened with a difficult protocol or failed experiments, all of your efforts are important. The day you fail a protocol is the day you practice and shape your skills so that the next time you perform it you have learned, and have gained expertise. The day your experiment didn't go as planned may be the day you discover something new, and yes, the hours of hard work will pay off, trust me.

So no, science is not a walk in the park. It’s not a perfect sun shining day. It’s a sun shower, which is followed by the occasional rainbow.