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Fiolet Fiolet
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11 years ago
I am starting a postgraduate course in biochemistry and haven't got enough experience with research. I would like to now what makes a good research student, what kind of skills are required, how much should somebody work or read etc.
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11 years ago Edited: 11 years ago, bio_man
I'm sure you will be given some guidance as to how to proceed with your project, but I guess it's the tips you could use.

A good basic one - whatever hypothesis you're planning to test, be sure to build in all the positive and negative controls you will need to prove that your results from your experiments aren't ambiguous.

Productive wise - as soon as you gets results in, analyse them before simply continuing with your experimental plan.  Productive researchers pick-up on key new data as they get it and alter their planned experiments as necessary to capitalise on the information they're gaining.

People are one of your greatest resources - you probably have access to a range of skilled and experienced people around you.  Especially when trying new techniques, it's good to ask for any advice from people that know more about the technique.  They're the ones with the really cool tips and advice and they've been where you are!

And always know what chemicals you are handling - read the MSDS's, and always be safe  Wink Face

Best of luck!!

EDIT - would also be a good idea to have a 'plan B' or even 'plan C' experiments and theories in case something goes horrible wrong or you don't get the amount of data you will need to flesh out your thesis.  Alternatives could be purely data-generating plans that aren't as elegant but enough to do the job if need be.

Also, you need to know your subject matter so that you don't waste your efforts and your experiments are relevent and your data novel to the area of research.
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