/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #14288621

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Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 15:11:07 2022 No.14288621 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>14288633 >>14288658 >>14288665 >>14288684 >>14289131 >>14289339

>Doing molecular biology
>Am really good in the theoretical part of it, but not really good at practical labwork
>All my internship supervisors say im well above average in the data crunching and theoretical aspect, but below average in lab skills
>All supervisors also say "you have to talent to go far, but im not sure where"
>Despite looking everywhere, there's really no purely theoretical work within life sciences that is actually scientific, besides epidemiology, which i dislike, or bioinformatics, which i cant get into cause im a mathlet
Any advice?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 15:19:13 No.14288633 Report

Quoted By: >>14288653

>>14288621
>bad at labwork
>bad at bioinformatics (i.e. advanced data crunching)
>good at the "theory"

lol OP what the fuck does that even mean? Like you can read papers and memorize the names of enzymes well? Sounds like your advisors are just telling you you suck at everything and trying to get rid of you.

HOWEVER, no good supervisors do that so I'm going to go ahead and assume they're dicks and you should actually find a better lab. I have wasted probably over 10k in reagents by now and I still have my job. Fucking up experiments is just a fact of life. I rarely do it anymore but that's part of the learning curve. Supervisors that can't comprehend that somehow (even though they were likely in the exact same position as you) are best avoided. Also how are you "bad" ad bioinformatics just set up a sequencing workflow with R/Unix of your choosing and practice it, you can literally do this at home.

Like I said, labwork and bioinfo are basically the bread and butter of biology and reading papers/memorizing big scientist words/writing grants is something that only PIs/Scientists do when writing grants/giving seminars. You need to prove yourself with foundational work to get one of those positions though. Anybody can read papers, Professors HATE to admit this, but it's the truth.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 15:33:06 No.14288653 Report

Quoted By: >>14288755

>>14288633
to be honest, it was mostly one internship that went really badly, and one that went decent. I had a grade of 7,5/10 for my practical skills on that internship, but when i asked to do a PhD there, they rejected me, for a vague reason that i would not fit in the group. The internship that went poorly i also had a supervisor i didnt get along with at all (i honestly suspect she's a psychopath or very deep on the spectrum)
TO be more specific, the problems tend to arise when working with immunochemistry and western blots. Ive done a shitload of PCRs, cloning, genotyping, expression assays etc. and it went fine, but whenever i have to do something with an antibody, it just always turns into a useless mess. Problem is that even the genomics labs ive worked at now do functional work, and sooner or later youll have to work with it. Doesnt help that ive got permanent nerve damage in my main hand.

When i say im good at the theoretical part, it's basically anything that doesnt involve the wet work, including the data of exome sequencing we got, siRNA expression assays, interpreting the results of my experiments, everything. Ive used plenty of bioinformatic tools, its just that making them myself isnt really an option.

Viruses don't exist

Viruses don't exist Tue 08 Mar 2022 15:35:03 No.14288658 Report

Quoted By:

>>14288621
loser

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 15:47:40 No.14288665 Report

Quoted By:

>>14288621
nigga just make meth/crack as a side hustle

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 15:59:31 No.14288684 Report

Quoted By: >>14288740

>>14288621
You're better off being worthless at the bench and decent at analysis and interpretation than vice versa. Otherwise, you're basically stuck as a tech forever which is fine if you like shuffling small amounts of clear fluids between microcentrifuge tubes for the rest of your life. Even though I was in a molecular department, my PhD was 100% computational. As a result, I had a lot more employment flexibility than peers did. Keep developing your analysis skills. The capability at the bench will come with time, and if it doesn't, become a bit fiddler and it'll be alright anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 16:30:54 No.14288740 Report

Quoted By: >>14289300

>>14288684
what was your PhD in then? Bioinformatics?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 16:47:05 No.14288755 Report

Quoted By: >>14289284

>>14288653
Making bioinformatics tools isn't bioinformatics, that's CS/software development. Bioinformatics is just using the tools. Just get a job as a tech or something, you seem pretty normal, just sounds like you've had bad luck with labs. I've done western blots a couple times and neither worked, I left that lab shortly after because my advisor told me I probably don't belong in a biology lab. So I just joined another and the main guy liked me. Simple as. Some people are just assholes and don't want you to succeed. Just keep joining labs until you've met enough friendly advisors that you have the rec letters necessary for a PhD program. Or just make 60k a year starting doing manufacturing/QC/technical sales/sequencing for any biotech/pharma company.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 20:02:02 No.14289131 Report

Quoted By:

>>14288621
you can just do biophysics or computational biology. learn to use google and stackexchange to ask these kinds of questions, stupid helpless self pitying moron.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 21:25:53 No.14289284 Report

Quoted By: >>14289300

>>14288755
Pretty much every bioinformatician i know makes bioinformatic tools itself to some degree, and all are pretty heavy into programming.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 21:30:46 No.14289300 Report

Quoted By:

>>14288740
It was in a microbiology and immunology department, but I would call myself a computational biologist.

>>14289284
There's a huge difference between gluing tools together with a python to make a pipeline and building hardcore tooling. The vast majority of bioinformaticians aren't software architects. The ones that are software architects are worth their weight in gold.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 21:44:48 No.14289339 Report

Quoted By: >>14289349

>>14288621
Go to plumbing school.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 08 Mar 2022 21:49:02 No.14289349 Report

Quoted By:

>>14289339
Tried that, its not for me desu

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