There are various examples of people talking about the benefits of failure (TED on failure including the amazing E.O. Wilson with his advice to young scientists) and how it shouldn't be something to be scared of. I am not sure that helps much when you are banging your head against your desk - but I am still going to talk to you about my own experiences and maybe you can find a tiny ray of hope or enjoy a moment of smugness that you didn't have these experiences.
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| Above: Me - way back when: with my wave-tunnel. The photo is taken by my supervisor, Charlie Griffiths. Below: The alien crab (photo by Arthro)  |
In honours (in South Africa, it is a 3 year BSc followed by 1 year Honours) we had two research projects. One of mine was meant to be on spiny starfish Marthasterias glacialis eating sea snails (Oxystele spp). I was investigating prey size or species preference - honestly, I just don't remember the details. We collected the star fish and snails from a lovely spot in False Bay, brought them back to the aquarium and set everything up... Nothing happened. The silly star fish didn't want to eat. There was no reason for this not working, it was a simple, neat experiment (that I forget the details of so don't try replicate it to prove me wrong), but it flopped.
My supervisor, who really is one of my heroes in science, and I came up with another idea (OK, I was in Honours, it was probably all his idea). I really loved this project too. I set off to the V&A Waterfront with a crab trap baited with sardines I had bought from Pick n Pay (I resisted buying the ones marinaded in tomato sauce) and sat on the pier catching crabs (you can imagine the teasing I received during this project). I then tested the gripping strength of an invasive crab species (Carcinus maenas) compared to a local species (Plagusia chabrus) by putting them in a wave tunnel and timing how long it took until they let go off the rock. (Spoiler alert - the local species was much better adapted to wave exposed coastlines). This second project worked out really well and was subsequently published and won me a poster prize at the South African Marine Science Symposium in 2008. (*Failure flop*)
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| Above: Ridiculously adorable penguins at Boulders Beach. Below: Transponder reader installed on Robben Island. |
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| Me fitting a flipper band |
In my MSc, on African Penguins, (I know you are thinking ahhhhhh - but don't be fooled, those seriously adorable, ridiculously photogenic birds can be surprisingly mean and their bites draw blood!!) I was testing whether flipper banding impacted on foraging trip duration and survival. Half the birds were banded and all birds had a unique transponder inserted under their skins (like the pet ID you use with dogs and cats?) I had set up a walk-through transponder reader to record time and direction they were going in on one of the major penguin highways on Robben Island. The trouble was, half the time, it didn't work: the computer overheated, the power on the island was ridiculously unreliable and each time it failed I lost EVERYTHING, I couldn't reliably tell which way the birds were walking etc. Near the end of my first (of 2) year I was understandably in a panic.  |
| Photo taken by +Richard Sherley of penguins walking through transponder reader on Robben Island. |
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| A view of Boulders Beach. |
As a back-up plan, we decided to do a breeding success study at Boulders Beach (between banded and unbanded birds). This meant watching the sunrise over one of the most beautiful beaches in Cape Town on my weekly nest rounds (sometimes while knee-deep in guano, of course). Again, this work was actually published. (*Failure flop*) Incidentally, my amazing friend +Andrew , who is one of the cleverest people I know, (he is now a software engineer and lecturer at Oxford) managed to rescue the other part of my project and in the end I had a whole chapter on methods (and their problems) in my thesis.
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| Boulders Beach penguins |
(Unfortunately, the biggest failure for penguin work is that the ridiculously adorable African Penguin population has plummeted and they are at seriously risk of disappearing all together despite a lot of effort going in to protecting them. Check out the amazing stuff being done at SANCCOB and some of the awesome research being done by various people at UCT - +Kate 's penguin tracks blog, ADU website, +Richard's site or Penguin Watch. And if you can support with MySchool or "buy" a penguin from SANCCOB or come visit Robben Island on an Earthwatch team.)
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| Don't be fooled; that beak is strong |
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| Greeting the sunrise on Boulders Beach |
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