Frustration, I kno very well. Not boredom, though.

Do you feel like you are in control; or is the topic something personal for you? I think these factors are the most important.

Birdsandbees - same story here (only at end of first year, but have been trying for a whole year and getting nowhere). Like you, this is the cornerstone not just of my PhD but of the work that will be done downstream of here - it's even written into the contract that this method must be developed. CC: glad you got there in the end. When you say "column", is that chromatography or protein purification? I would like to try some new HPLC columns but they're so expensive.

Same here. And so called "expert" referee who mis-spelled all the important chemical names.

I would definitely try to get a Master's out of it: you put in all that work and through no fault of your own you cannot complete, so you deserve something. Sounds like a schoolyard, not a lab.

Thanks KatQ: just had a look around and I'll definitely be using it Thans for the advice, feel better already knowing it's not just me.

CC: I think I will definitely do as you say and write it up to show my problem-solving approach. It will look good in my thesis, but it won't please the industrial partners unless I can get the bloody thing to work...

KatQ: do you have a link to that forum? I haven't heard of it but I'd like to have a look. Sue, thanks for your comments: I too have tried several things very quickly and chucked them if they haven't worked straight away, I was worried that I was the only one who did this. I know you should really sit and plan and repeat endlessly to be sure it isn't working, but who has the time for that? So I'm glad to hear that it worked for you. And like you, the literature says that what I'm trying to do isn't possible on the machines I've got to work with.

Thanks both for your replies. Tricky; there is one other person in the lab but they have never done anything like this. Its the high-throughput nature of the analysis that's the bugger; most PhDs here are doing small scale stuff.
Sim: you describe just how I feel. I do have some experience but not of such large-scale stuff, and a huge amount of money is riding on this project working out. On the other hand, the machines that I should really be using, on which I think my methods would work, always seem to be broken and waiting for "the engineer".
The worst is always having to explain to the industry people, sure they must think I'm full of excuses.

Probably more a question for the lab-based people, but any thoughts welcome. Just wondered if anyone else has ever struggled with a job for so long (and tried so many approaches) that they've begun to wonder whether it was just them being stupid, or that the task really isn't do-able (at least, with the equipment available to them)?

My supervisors are very friendly but not really lab based - all they can really do is offer vague reassurances like "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll sort it out". But I'm beginning to think I really won't "sort it out" and my industrial partners are getting impatient.

Sit on the balcony watching next door's cats chase other cats off their territory; before marking their territory in the traditional feline manner.

Not a nice thing to say - it's the word "just" that seems to me to make all the difference. Just visualise the day when you make a great discovery and can send him the publication, with compliments .

But on the subject of other students...sore point with me at the moment. Certain ones never admit their mistakes, cover up/fudge fishy results, and nick other peoples ideas. And naturally, supervisors think they are wonderful - no mistkes, everything always works, full of ideas....

Great news, Piglet! It's all upwards from here

By the way, glad I'm not the only one stuck inside on this nice Bank Holiday weekend . Are you going to sunbathe later?

Very true: I bet most people would not like to have to choose. How about the Icelandic system? Girls are called (mother's name)+ dottir, and boys (father's name) + son? Easy!

Interesting point about having a man's name already, Shani - hadn't though of that. Mind you, that could stop with this generation, if people so chose. It doesn't always have to be patriarchal. Women no longer count their date of birth from the date that they married, after all, but that was once standard in some societies.