Posted on by siphomabusela · 3 Comments

Light @ the end of the tunnel!

In order to really understand the intensity of the light, I would have to paint you a portrait of where I have been, to where I am currently with regards  to my MSc research.  This blog entry reminds me a lot of a song that I like to sing whenever I am in a good mood; “I can see clearly now the rain is gone, I can see all the obstacles in my way. Here is the rainbow I have been waiting for, it’s going to be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day”. Well in my case, it’s going to be a bright, bright tunnel end. For the last two and a half years, I have been on a long, often dark journey.

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http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/07/the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/

 

If that journey was to have a sound track, I think it would be “Thunderstruck by AC/DC”.  My journey has had a lot of ups and downs that I would say were filled primarily with downs than ups. Normally, I enjoy going to theme parks for the roller coaster ride but this roller coaster which is my MSc research was different. My past blogs have been mostly about all the things that I have been through and how hard I’ve had to work and struggle just to get my trials going.

This blog is a little bit different, this blog is about nearing the end of my MSc degree, the end of the dark tunnel with a bright light at the end. It’s about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as my bright future, instead of a train coming to knock all my hard work off the rails, as well as using support structures in your life as a coping mechanism.

Keep your head up. Keep fighting. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, and your struggles only make you better in the end
http://quotesgram.com/keep-up-the-fight-quotes/

The obstacle that has been standing in my way from submitting my dissertation was the fatty acid profile (egg yolk) samples that I had sent to the Agricultural Research Council Lab for profiling. I have to sincerely thank them for their quick turn over time because fatty acid profile analysis normally takes forever and a day. To be honest, my impatient side was starting to get the better of me. At times, the desire to succeed does force us to make irrational decisions that we later regret in life, all in the name of progress. Thank God it never came to that though (Chuckles). So I received the data a few weeks back and since then, I have managed to put the data on Excel, run it using the SAS Procedure, tabulated and finally discussed the obtained results.

The results were not what I originally hypothesised in my proposal. There is no doubt chemically, that Moringa oleifera seeds are exceptional but the results obtained were not at all positive. Moringa oleifera seed meal in my study decreased feed intake and body weights of chickens and did not improve the omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids in egg yolks. This was a horribly negative result from my perspective.

But was “negative” really negative?

I was once invited by Caradee Wright to speak at one of her “High School Spaza Science Club” and on our way there, we ended up talking about cancer research. I felt that it was dangerous conducting research as a post graduate on Cancer and other hard to treat diseases because the inability to find a cure would mean your research would’ve failed to produce positive results. She said “Any result in research is a positive result”. At first I was a little puzzled but later it made sense. My “negative” results may not be what i had hypothesised but they were still positive. Having those results meant that no one will ever research this again because now information is available in literature. In the future, the next time a researcher thinks of using these seeds in layers, they will be able to find information (my study!) advising them against that.

Through the dark times in my life, I have always been lucky to have coping mechanisms that assisted me in navigating my way through the dark tunnels of life. Having important individuals travelling with you through the dark times of your life is one of the coping mechanisms. My supervisors, my friends, my family and my girl friend have always been part of that support structure. Any great person will tell you that there are times in life where you doubt yourself, times when you feel like giving up would be easier than to continue.Having such people in your life is awesome, people who will remind you of your talent, your abilities and why you decided to embark on that journey in the first place.

So what’s the bottom line? Well the bottom line is that you will struggle in life, your life

images (1)
https://za.pinterest.com/alinekd/amazing-wise-quotes/

will have ups and downs, maybe more downs than ups and you will virtually travel under pitch black tunnels but if you have a rigid support structure and also use all the acquired knowledge and assistance from all the troubles that you faced to navigate those dark tunnels then you will be fine. It will be scary at first but just like me, your tunnel will have a light at the end if you work hard and believe in yourself in whatever you do.

Posted on by ScientistSim

Supervision: May the force be with you

Academia is first and foremost a teaching environment. Many people that pass through its fickle doors are earning higher degrees and those that mentor them must have a strong stomach. The supervisor-student relationship is a strange one. I, being a complete nerd, like to think of my supervisors as Yoda guiding the innocent clueless Padawan through the minefield of poorly devised experiments and failed controls. Of course, I am Luke Skywalker in this scenario.

jedi knights academics
From phdcomics.com – a must-read to retain your sanity!

I have been lucky to only experience only one bad mentor — an undergraduate advisor who made me so terrified of doing a PCR that I still suffer from post-tramatic stress disorder. In my Honours year I was supervised by a vibrant Cuban woman who truly has one of the best scientific minds I’ve ever encountered. She was always 20 steps ahead of me, which was excellent because I had no idea what I was doing. She spoke like a freight train and on that basis we did have some comical misunderstandings. Often I would just nod and then panic because I would realise that “Put those precious samples in the kitchen” couldn’t be what she meant. Then one day she told me to sit down (probably because she knew I was prone to the dramatics) – she had some bad news. She was emigrating to Aus and I needed to finish without her there. A lesser supervisor would have left and never looked back. But every week for the duration of my course, I had Skype calls with her. We spent time on Skype practicing for my presentations and copious emails back and forth as if she was in the next room. Other senior scientists in my lab also helped me  — It takes a lab to raise a scientist… This advisor was the one who taught me all the skills I needed to know in 3 months and it was glorious. I never felt orphaned and was grateful that I had her.  The best piece of advice I had from her is, “It’s ok to be slow now Simone but some of us remain slow. Don’t be one of those people, those people get eaten.” That last word may have been “beaten” (the Cuban accent still had me occasionally confused).

I have been fortunate for both my Masters and my PhD to have the same 2 supervisors who truly have my back. I have always been the one student doing things that are not the direct focus of our laboratory and my supervisors have always tried to give me the best resources and contacts. In a female-led lab, it has been a great privilege to see the success of my supervisors in a field dominated by males. With one supervisor rushing off to do the Duzi or climb another mountain and the other having the most incredible shoe collection with 3 very cute kids (she says I’m her 4th), I feel I have access to wide perspectives not only one in terms of science but in terms of  life.

I have realised that a supervisor is not just someone who is science smart but is someone who is willing to make time for you. Having an open door policy is imperative. Being hard on your student so that they don’t crumble when the science world gets tough is also important. Good supervisors never put their names on things that are sub-par and neither should you. The best line from my current supervisor? “Yes well science isn’t easy. Doing a PhD is like producing a really potent antibody. It’s how many mutations you can take in order to target lots of things.”(This is alluding to a process called somatic hypermutation, check out this video for an explanation.) She knows how to be tough on me. I hope it’s because she sees potential in me! It seems that supervision is a bit like parenting: you can mould and mould your little ball of clay but it is unclear at the start whether your masterpiece will be a wonky vase that your 5 year old made or a beautiful work of art.

Mentoring is something everyone has to do in academia and the truth of the matter is that not everyone is a good advisor. What you as a student need to remember is that you are ultimately the person that picks your supervisor. Don’t pick on fame/name alone; read the work your supervisors have been involved in and critically assess whether this person will want to see you grow or wilt in their shadow. You want to become part of a research family, not war zone. (For other good guidelines on picking a supervisor see this great article by Tara Brabazon.) So as is the case with most things in my life, I will end with another Star Wars reference; choose a Jedi, not a Sith lord to be your supervisor. The Dark Side may have more street cred, but the Light Side, well, they have publications.