So like most grad students, I’ve been feeling extremely retarded lately. Experiments are giving me weird (and quite repeatable results) that throw a wrench into my understanding of what I’m doing, I’m ending up with different products from the same synthesis, and I’m getting all types of twinning (tropochemical, pseudo-merohedral, etc, etc) in an allegedly ‘single’ crystal. In other words, I feel dumb.

However, after commiserating with my fellow grad students, and eventually with the parental units, I was lead to an interesting article published way back in the day in the Journal of Cell Science.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research

It definitely made me feel better, and I’d like to add some things that my dad (who was once a grad student and is now a chemistry prof as well) told me.

If you dont feel stupid every now and then…

1) …you’re not picking the ‘right’ research question

2) …you’re not working hard enough to get results that stump you

3) …you really dont understand enough about your project

4) …you’re way too arrogant and belong in business school instead (no, he really didnt say that)

But, he did add the caveats that you did need to feel smart and accomplished every now and then or else you just dont know what you’re doing (it goes along with #3)

so to everyone out there who feels dumb on occasion from their research, remember, it’s okay! Just keep on truckin!