{"id":55,"date":"2015-07-30T11:01:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T11:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/temp.smartfantasyandscifi.com\/blog\/?p=55"},"modified":"2016-03-10T15:18:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:18:30","slug":"change-one-thing-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/2015\/07\/30\/change-one-thing-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Change One Thing at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are doing a research project that isn\u2019t working, then change one thing at a time.<\/p>\n

When you see the complete absence of usable data, it will be very tempting not to follow this advice because the assumption is that something has gone drastically wrong. However, this is not necessarily the case. Very often a single problem is sufficient to throw a procedure way off track. Thus, if you change more than one thing, you may well be correcting the error, but introducing another one.<\/p>\nGet Practical Tips<\/span>

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  1. Once you have got the procedure working, repeat it several times on different days before you move on. Then, if you ever have to come back to it, you will remember how to do it well.<\/li>\n
  2. If the data are acceptable but not great, then don\u2019t accept mediocrity. Think about how you could make the procedure better.<\/li>\n
  3. Sometimes it will become clear a\u00a0procedure\u00a0has failed before completion. In some cases, where the workload and cost of completing it are not high, it can be worth finishing and analysing it. You can learn a lot from the outcome of failed work, and it may help you to identify future mistakes.<\/li>\n
  4. Don\u2019t compensate for not understanding the procedure\u00a0by doing it more times.<\/strong> If you don\u2019t know why it isn\u2019t working, find out by researching the procedure. Otherwise you will just have lots of failures.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

     <\/p>\nGet Wet Lab Tips<\/span>

    \n\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
      \n
    1. The fastest way to correct error is to change one parameter to several different values at once. Then if none of the values for that parameter yield good results, it is likely (assuming you picked a good range of values) that the test parameter was not the problem.<\/li>\n
    2. Check to see that none of your reagents have expired. This accounts for many failed experiments. If reagents are cheap make up a new batch before repeating failed experiments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

      \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nRead Personal Perpective<\/span>

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       <\/p>\n

      Whenever one of my experiments failed, and admittedly this was not an infrequent occurrence, I always felt rushed to do it again and present something useful to my supervisor as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

      This was a huge mistake. It wasn\u2019t until I was doing my first year report that I properly researched the problems with the experiment. After this, things went a lot more smoothly, but if I\u2019d just done the research after the first experiment, I could have saved myself a lot of time.<\/p>\n

      The problem is not always immediately obvious, requiring more than a token alteration. Although it might feel like you\u2019re wasting time, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Have you ever failed to follow this guideline? Do you have additional practical tips? Share your experiences or feelings in the comments below, or just give it a thumbs up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div>
      <\/div><\/div>
      <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If you are doing a research project that isn\u2019t working, then change one thing at a time. When you see the complete absence of usable data, it will be very tempting not to follow this advice because the assumption is that something has gone drastically wrong. However, this is not necessarily the case. Very often … Continue reading Change One Thing at a Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1374,"featured_media":237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-research-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/fmspgrstudentguidelines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}