How has my opinion changed regarding intensive research?
Hmmm, this is a challenging question for me because I’m not sure I really thought about research thoroughly before taking this course. For me, research always meant coming to see Dr. Schnee and shadowing him in the lab junior year. I had no idea what an aspirator was and was convinced that I would somehow find interest in flies.
I finally decided that I wanted to study something that combined neuroscience with biology. Dr. Schnee and I began collaborating on different experiments that I could possibly test. I chose to run an experiment testing aggressive behavior types in females. I used yeast as a way to elicit such a response from these females in terms of where they would lay their eggs (flies tend to want to lay eggs near resources, such as yeast). After getting poor results and not seeing much action, Dr. Schnee introduced me to working with cadmium. I then began to think of numerous ways in which I could test flies with cadmium and found that mating behavior was probably the most common and useful in terms of applying my research to live experience.
I had no idea the effects cadmium had on the human body before starting research with Dr. Schnee and I am now more fully aware of environmental factors that can cause damage to oneself. For example: tobacco smoke contains cadmium. I did not realize this and I also learned that second hand smoke, in terms of cadmium, can cause just as much damage. Cadmium is responsible for bone demineralization, renal filtration disturbances, and lung damage.
I feel that my opinion regarding intensive research hasn’t really changed, but possibly grown. I am now more fully aware of what research entails and the amount of time graduate students and researchers invest in their projects. I know that I could come to develop a love hate relationship with research and that it is important to find balance in order to maintain sanity. Dr. Schnee always tells me that when people get tired or do the same things monotonous times, that it can become very sloppy. It is important to not be spending more than 60 hours a week in a lab and to find time to do other things as well.
Intensive research to me is valuable not only for the community it impacts, but also for the researchers who invest their lives into making drugs or discovering new techniques in science. I do feel that researchers are not given enough credit in terms of their work ethic as well as the actual projects that they continuously pursue.
I’m not sure if society is not aware of the demand placed upon researchers or if researchers are looked at as an indirect means when it comes to helping fight diseases and illnesses. In the next 10 years I predict that research will be more popular than ever, and more students will be going to graduate school to work towards a master’s/PhD in a certain discipline. I also think that research might be more competitive and that the research burden students carry might be worse than what it is today.
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