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Asked by louispasteur to Jamie, Jodie, Kat, Mark, Niamh on 14 Mar 2011 in Categories: Scientist.
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Niamh Nic Daeid answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Things go wrong in scientific research all the time…. that’s part of the challenge and the fun !!! You try out some experiments, see what happens and then modify your experiments to correct any errors or see if you can use the information you’ve found out to explain why you got a particular answer. A lot new advancements in science have happened as a result of experiments not quite going the way they were planned ! N
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Katherine Davies answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Hi
Wow lots! I always assume that something will not quite work, and an experiment will need to be modified and/or repeated, so if it does work, I’m so happy!
Most of my PhD has been about developing new techniques and methods, so it has taken a lot of trial and error. I talk to lots of people for advice about the different aspects of my work, and have to think creatively to try different things.
Most importantly, its about remaining positive and keep trying!
Kat
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Mark Hill answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Monsieur Pasteur,
Too many things to mention – too much embarassment to be felt. However, I suppose skid testing features commonly.
To find the co-efficient of friction of a road surface at a collision scene, so that I can use maths to calculate velocity (speed) of vehicles and, sometimes, pedestrians, I need to skid a vehicle, usually my police Ford Galaxy, over the skid marks left by the crashed vehicles.
Yes, I can see that you are seeing, in your mind, how I can get this horribly wrong and you are probably not far wrong. Over the same marks, at 30 mph, in the same direction that someone has just crashed in.
I have been known to pull out of skid test, because I have started to go sideways, toward a ditch, tree, or whatever could re-shape my car. I then need a few minutes to settle down before trying again. That is a polite way of saying that I usually then need a ‘comfort break’!
The problem is, the crash occurred usually at a common area to crash and there am I trying to skid at the same place, in the same way!
Oh, another instance that I will admit to. It involved putting my camera on the verge at a collision scene, for its safety. I left the tripod in the road nearby. Then the 16 tonne recovery truck came along, drove around my inexpensive, old, worn out tripod, and over the verge and £1500.00 of camera. At least I managed to get the Compact Flash card out, with my images, that still worked.
Right now I am looking at a very nice wooden plinth on my desk, with a crushed camera mounted on it. The plaque reads “The Collision Investigation Unit ‘NOT MY FAULT’ Award for Technical Innovation’. Says it all really!
A bientot,
Mark. -
Jamie Pringle answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Things always goes wrong, that’s one of the challenges in science and one you, in the end, look forward to solving. I think that all of us are scretly wanting to be detectives so puzzling out what went worng, and how you fix it, becomes an interesting challenge!
Just today I was doing a radar survey and one of my helpers accidently snapped the trigger cable off in the socket whilst carrying it to the site. Not ideal! So I went back for some pliers, managed to prise out the old bit and fashioned a makeshift new trigger out, which lasted ok for today!
If you wanted another example, I did a survey at a local graveyard last month, as the Vicar wanted to know if there was any unmarked graves as he wants to extend the church over an old graveyard. I initially collected some resistivity data, but unfortunately the soil type was very coarse gravel, so my results did not show any graves, just different types of soil! Once I found this out, I went back and did a radar survey instead, which worked in the soil and did show where 6 unmarked graves were. Ive learnt from that now and will do both types of survey for the next graveyard!
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Jodie Dunnett answered on 14 Mar 2011:
The original topic for my PhD was based around a technique called capillary electrophoresis. Unfortunately, the machine I was using irrepairably broke and I was forced to change my research topic. A bit of a blow at the time but I picked myself up and threw myself into my new topic.
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