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07 - A Lesson in Failure

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90 views2 pages

07 - A Lesson in Failure

Uploaded by

田宇欢
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WORKING LIFE

By Jennifer Lanni

A lesson in failure

W
ith class about to start, I print 14 Western blot images for my students to discuss. The 3-hour
lab is supposed to be the culmination of a weekslong research project in my undergraduate
biology course, the day my students determine whether their experimental results support
their carefully crafted hypotheses. But the images are all the same—and all full of nothing
but background bands. My students are about to have a hard lesson in scientific failure and
how to be resilient in the face of it. It’s a lesson I wish I’d learned before starting grad school.

As a Ph.D. student, I went through to interpreting the data. But I re-


many frustrating cycles nurturing fused to let the students move on.
hypotheses that would later wither After a solid hour of struggle
because of technical failures or and some leading questions on
ambiguous experimental results. my part, one student finally spoke
When I graduated, I thought I up. “It doesn’t make sense. The
would never do bench research bands look the same size, but the
again. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice so proteins should be different sizes.”
many hours away from my young Hallelujah! A student had stepped
children with so little to show for back from seeing what they ex-
it. Instead, I embraced my love of pected to see and described what
teaching by working as a lecturer. the data actually showed. Their

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A decade later and with my kids breakthrough helped their class-
in school, my scientific curiosity mates start to look at the results
came out of hibernation and I re- with more objective eyes. Within
started my research career. After a minutes, they were overflowing
stint as a postdoc, I secured a posi- with questions and ideas about
tion at a liberal arts college, where
I established my own small lab. In
“Research is messy. … what could have gone wrong. We
spent the next 2 hours covering
my undergraduate classes, I asked Trying to protect students from that the chalkboard with plans to trou-
my students to complete lab experi- bleshoot the experimental proce-
ments that were virtually guaran- reality does them a disservice.” dures. My students were thinking
teed to yield interpretable data. But like scientists—a development no
after a few years, I grew uncomfortable with the gap between amount of advance planning could have created.
those picture-perfect experiments and my own research proj- Afterward, I reflected on how we train future scientists.
ects. Yes, my students left lab sessions with results, feeling Should we talk more openly with students about failure?
their time had been well-spent. But I worried I was deceiving When I quietly left research, frustrated at what felt like my
them about the actual experience of practicing science, which lack of accomplishment, was this a typical experience? How
rarely produces data on the first try. often do we inadvertently discourage students from persist-
I decided to develop a new course that would give our stu- ing in science, simply by omitting honest descriptions of
dents experience performing real experiments, ones that had the failure inherent to the research process? Research is
the potential to fail. Using my own research interests as a messy and full of failed attempts. Trying to protect students
framework, I gave the students a collection of papers to read. from that reality does them a disservice.
During group brainstorming sessions, they identified new My class never did generate data to test their hypoth-
questions that arose from what had already been done and eses. Instead, we finished the semester reading about and
collectively came up with their own hypotheses. After spend- discussing scientific failure. I hope the handful of students
ing time learning lab methods required to test their hypoth- who go on to graduate school will learn from the experience
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

eses, they got to work performing their first experiment. and bring an awareness with them that success doesn’t al-
On the day of data analysis, I handed them the West- ways come easy. I trust this knowledge will help my other
ern blot printouts and asked them to look over the images students as well, wherever they go. j
and discuss their findings. Most assumed their blots were
correct—that the background bands they saw represented the Jennifer Lanni is an associate professor at Wheaton College in
proteins they had hoped to detect—and jumped immediately Massachusetts. Send your career story to [email protected].

1642 24 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6575 science.org SCIENCE


A lesson in failure
Jennifer Lanni

Science, 374 (6575), • DOI: 10.1126/science.acz9857

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