• Question: would a lot of experments go wrong

    Asked by tiddelyflea04747 to Andrew, John, Emma, Ruth on 8 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by sarah my bae, L-Wolf, Flying Pig.
    • Photo: Andrew Quigley

      Andrew Quigley answered on 8 Nov 2015:

      The short answer is yes 🙂

      But that’s what happens in research. You have to remember that you’re trying to do something that nobody has ever done before, so it takes some time to get it right. I know it’s a bit of a cliche but for every “wrong” experiment you do, it points you in the right direction, so experiments that didn’t work the way you thought they would can actually tell you what you need to fix in order for the experiment to work.

    • Photo: Emma Feeney

      Emma Feeney answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Andrew’s answer is perfect – experiments can go wrong all the time, perhaps something doesn’t work, or you don’t get the answer you were expecting. But you still learn something from it, and that can still contribute to the overall knowledge. So all experiments can help you learn something, even if its ‘what not to do!’

    • Photo: John Gleeson

      John Gleeson answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Agree with the guys! Sometimes you ask yourself “do experiments ever go right”. I know I spent 3 months trying to reproduce an experiment that a group in Spain did. I gave up… Came back 2 months later and it worked the first time. What changed? Possibly my patience 😛

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