• Question: Have you ever encounted a problem that you could not solve before? :)

    Asked by ilovepenguins to Akram, David, Gill, Jack, laurenceharwood on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Laurence Harwood

      Laurence Harwood answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I have encountered lots and lots of problems I could not solve. One of my supervisors once told me that research is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiratoin. He was right. I don’t dwell on my failures but build on my successes – it’s the only way.

    • Photo: Jack Snape

      Jack Snape answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Yes, i once spent months working on something I couldn’t get to the bottom of! Maybe i’ll revisit it one day and have a brain-wave 🙂

    • Photo: Akram Alomainy

      Akram Alomainy answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      So many of them that it needs pages and pages but the lesson is that always you learn from these problems and even if you cannot solve them surely someone else could and you can learn from that someone!! This what research is all about learning, observing and applying and then going through the cycle again 😉

    • Photo: Gill Menzies

      Gill Menzies answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Great answers guys – and I agree – some things are just outwith your control or understanding, but we need to keep asking why, how, what next ….

Comments

  • Photo: laurenceharwood

    laurenceharwood commented on :

    The bottom line is “never give in”

    Moderators – am I allowed to say “Nil carborundum illegitimi”?

    Well – if it gets through I suppose I was.

    People watching out there. Ask your Latin teacher (if you have one – they’re a dying breed – I am convinced I was responsible for killing at least one of them by being so bad at Latin he had a heart attack during one of my lessons) for a translation (it isn’t real Latin by the way).