Why science is frustrating
By: Malte Borggrewe
Tags: Academia, Research, Careers, Jobs, Science

Science is frustrating. And that’s probably what makes it so rewarding.

Any job can be frustrating at times of course, but I believe that science is a particularly frustrating profession.

Science is slow

For a start, everyone probably knows that science is slow. However, it is not immediately apparent why.

From first experiments in cells to an FDA approved drug, many years and decades can pass by. Several small steps have to be taken in order to assure that the drug is effective and safe, which of course is necessary. This may cause frustration since the product of your effort is not immediately apparent.

Looking at science on a day-to-day basis, however, there are several factors that make science progress slowly. First of all, money is an overarching issue in academic research. Important reagents and machines often cannot just be bought, but they are shared among several research groups. This factor may spark collaboration, but it slows down progress, since experiments have to be planned according to availability; or if experiments cannot be planned differently, long hours are necessary. For now I won’t regard the fact that machines can fail on you, possibly making long hours or long planned experiments worthless.

Furthermore, every discovery has to be validated several times in order to be certain that a finding did not occur by chance. This means that an experiment has to repeated over an over again and has to yield similar results everytime in order to be regarded as trustworthy. This takes significant amount of time and money, but is crucial for the validity of your data.

All these factors (and many more) make science a slow process, which makes it frustrating at times. However, many of these time-consuming factors are a necessary evil to ensure that science is done properly; to be honest, others are unnecessary evils though.

Most results are negative

The biggest frustration comes from negative data. Imagine working for long hours for weeks or even months, just to find out that what you have been working on will not yield any exciting result. In fact, most results are negative. This is why researchers usually work on several studies and projects at the same time. That way, you can move in a different direction in case you hit a dead end. These dead ends occur very frequently and hence an important characteristic scientists should have is to handle set backs.

Set backs can be small, i.e. an experiment did not work out methodologically and you have to optimize your approach. This can take up a significant amount of time and resources, but usually ends up in success. Another type of set back are negative findings, i.e. an experiment worked out perfectly methodologically, but the results do not verify your hypothesis. For example, you have been studying the effects of a drug in cells for a long time and it seems to be effective. However, when you start testing the drug in preclinical or clinical trials, it fails to be effective. By that time, many people have put a huge amount of work in these experiments, which ends up with a negative outcome. This happens on a regular basis and can be disappointing and demotivating.

These are only a few factors that make science a very frustrating profession. However, when the moment of success comes, it will be much more intense, and even the little victories should prompt a smile upon your face. (You may take this as a worldly wisdom if you want.)