The experimental experience

Doing experiments is the most creative, and often the most exciting, aspect of a life in biology. But not everyone who enjoys science takes naturally to doing experiments. Like most things, it takes practice. I had to do five years of research before I really understood and got to like experiments, and a colleague told me that as a student he hated the smell of Escherichia coli so much that he seriously thought about quitting graduate school. But when a senior student said to him, “Everybody feels the same way to begin with. You’ll soon get to like it,” it suddenly didn’t seem like a big deal. Narauyori nareyo, as the Japanese say, meaning ‘You learn more from getting used to things than from studying’. There are many different ways to become fond of experiments (and to dislike them). For me, there’s nothing to beat the thrilling moment when, after all the build-up to an experiment, you get to the heart of the problem. Of course, good results help to make you like experiments, but sometimes a stupid mistake can make you so upset that it motivates you to get more involved. When I was an undergraduate, there was a series of language textbooks called French with No Tears, German with No Tears, and so on. Tears are not necessary for improving experimental skills, but you can’t do without failures. After my first few days in the lab as an undergraduate, I broke a glass instrument. This was less than two hours after being warned by a senior student, “Please be really careful with this. A little too much force will break it at the joint. It’s the most precious glassware I have, and very time-consuming to mend.” More than 30 years later, I still remember my terror at the thought of having to tell her. Another student tried to cheer me up by relating how the head of the lab was not good at experiments when he was young. Because he broke every instrument he touched, he was left alone without a research theme. Thanks to that he had lots of time to think, and so became a prolific researcher. Which brings me to the fact that experiments are not limited to physical activities. Francis Crick rarely did experiments himself, but his lectures, conversations and writings clearly show how much his mind was occupied with experiments and their interpretations. The structural biologist Aaron Klug isn’t best known an experimentalist either, but he has always been excellent at analysing data to find meaningful interpretations, as well as having an astonishing memory for other people’s experimental data.