The Paper to End All Papers

I always figured I would have to write an actual scientific research paper sometime in my life. What I didn't figure is that I would be doing it so early. I guess I didn't really think this reality through very well - I just assumed that somewhere along the line in grad school I would just magically gain insight into writing a paper. Now that I've finished the first true research paper I've ever written in my life, I'm not sure how I feel.

All jokes aside, this assignment was just very intimating at first. There seemed to be a million things to do, and at times I thought there would be no way to every finish it. Even now, I feel like if I could just work on this paper until the end of the semester - refining the methods section, adding more references and future experiments, and discussing the results in greater and greater detail. One of the hardest parts of writing this paper was that the results were not very clear-cut and often contradictory with what was expected (particularly the Cell Titer Glo Assay).

That's exactly like real life though. In my UROP we often get contradictory or unsatisfactory results as well. Usually, this results in repeating the experiment, but when these results start to repeat you begin to question whether your own model is correct and dive back into the literature. Thankfully, there was some precedent for our unusual results, which I made sure to address in the paper. Looking back on the very first few homework assignments for 20.109, I realize my paper-writing skills have improved significantly, especially in writing up methods. I could probably whip out another paper if needed to, but I think if I had to do another of this scale before the semester ends my brain just might die. It would be nice to go curl up and hibernate for a couple of months, but the science must go on! (Actually, probably just going to take a nap anyway)