Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of 
SciWo is an assistant professor of geosciences. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found 
Well, my data collecting trip could have gone better. Besides the 2" of snow, and the fact one participant had to bow out (hopefully to be rescheduled soon), I discovered that one of my participants was not actually at the company I was visiting, but at a competitor's company. In another state. Needless to say, I didn't make that interview, and had to embarrassedly confess and reschedule, and then somehow pull myself together to carry through on the remaining meeting and interview. In the end, I learned a lot about how companies work and how I might be able to investigate various things, I made some good contacts and also got to see my family a bit, but all these mistakes might be signs that the original study (intended as a pilot anyway) may not work out. This is a little awkward, because I already submitted an abstract on this work to a conference. Bleah.
Oh well.
So now I'm taking advantage of the holiday to regroup and work out a new plan, hopefully looking farther than the hood of my car (as it were) to figure out where we need to go next.
Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving with you and yours, and come out into December renewed for the final stretch of the semester.
Comments
What the hell was that annoying ad that covered the text of this post?
Posted by: Danimal | November 26, 2008 12:28 PM
Sorry that the field trip didn't go as planned. Have a good rest!
Posted by: ScientistMother | November 26, 2008 1:36 PM
Alice - I think it is more common that not to have to contradict your abstract by the time all the results are in, so don't worry too much about it.
Danimal - if you see the annoying ad again (iphone?) please let us know. These complaints are taken seriously by us and by our overlords. I also recommend Ad Block Plus if you browse with firefox. It is an amazing extension.
Posted by: ScienceWoman | November 26, 2008 2:01 PM
Well, sometimes you just have to laugh. I knew someone doing a thesis on a particular kind of wildlife, and after a year of study, her subject group got eaten... long story. So it could always be worse ;).
Posted by: Sara | November 26, 2008 8:29 PM