When you first start out in research, going to presentations about people’s lab results is like listening to an alien trying to communicate by spraying you with its scent glands… though hopefully less odorous. The fastest way to make it more intelligible is to listen to more talks.
They will give you a much broader view of science than your fairly narrow scale project. You may find alternative techniques; phenomena that affect your work; materials that are better than the ones you use; and new directions your project could take.
It is a mistake to think you only need to focus on your project. Even if it works ok for your degree, changing topic afterward will be much harder.
Get Practical Tips- Unless you can write very fast, don’t focus on getting every last detail down on paper. You would do better to actually listen and try to understand.
- Take note of the person’s name; broadly what they study; things relevant to your own work; and most crucially anything they mentioned that you didn’t understand.
- Look up a couple of things you didn’t understand after every talk, and make sure you don’t come out as ignorant as you went in.
- Think about potential links you could make with your own work, as this is how many great discoveries are made.
Read Personal Perspective
I suffer from a disorder that I think is fairly common, where listening to people talk at me sends me straight to sleep. It doesn’t even matter if I’m tired. There are a few techniques I discovered that helped prevent this:
- Dressing for the talk so that I was slightly cold – though this isn’t pleasant.
- Asking myself questions about the person’s research and looking things up.
- Keeping a question in mind for the end that I want to ask the speaker.
- Sitting near the front, or close to people I didn’t want seeing me asleep.
- Sitting next to someone who agreed to jab me in the ribs whenever I fell asleep.
- Coffee
