If things don't work in the lab then it's useful to go back to the books and write your own protocols. Use your strengths in theory to get things working in the lab -- the two are connected.

Reality check. KB's supervisor, a salaried academic professional, wrote 2.5 pages of A4 full of negative comments about KB. She won't be disciplined or censored because, believe it or not, criticism is not illegal. I wrote a couple of paragraphs on an internet forum suggesting how KB's supervisor probably isn't the only one to blame, and suddenly voices go up in loud protest demanding censorship and moderation. Get a grip -- PhD students are not infallible.

Well keenbean, you're reacting to me the same way you're reacting to your supervisor. Learn to accept criticism and try to countenance the possibility that your supervisor may have a point. There is no rule in the PhD Life forum that we should always agree with the student, nor is there a rule that states students must always be viewed as victims and supervisors as heartless aggressors. Sometimes the truth hurts.

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"Please suggest me what I can do about this? "

Nothing. What's your problem? He's your supervisor and ultimately he's going to have to see your work anyway.

Your results probably belong to the University anyway (at least this is the case in the Sciences).

If you don't like people accessing your computer, just put a password on it.

Ignore screamingarabs, your post demonstrated your guilty conscience.

It sounds complicated. What you could do is take project A and project B and spin it off to make project C. Then spin project C off into projects X, Y, and Z. The trick is to continue spinning in this way until the spinning eventually boomerangs back into projects A and B. This creates what is known as a cohesive thesis. Continue in this way until an infinite loop is produced, producing a paradox in the space continuum. This may destroy the entire universe, or its effects may be very local, destroying only our galaxy. Just try it.

One tried and tested solution to earn a lot of money in a short amount of time is to write letters to everyone in your department promising them a share of $15 million dollars bequeathed by the King of Uganda to you. They pay you $500 to help wire the money out, they get a share of the megabucks, badaboom badabing.

I found the transition from Matlab to R was no problem.

Everything is difficult before it becomes easy.

I actually taught myself R by trying to reproduce various fancy plots from ggplot2. It was a fun way to learn as it's visual and rewards you with very nice looking figures.

Don't worry WalmartPeeWee, you'll be a doctor soon and next Valentine's the ladies will be fighting over you.

Good science is reproducible.

Maybe you go home feeling miserable because you didn't do good, reproducible science, and you'll soon be exposed as a data-manipulating fraudster.

You will be exiled.

Everything will not be ok.

Unless of course your science is good, in which case there is nothing at all to worry about =)

Actually I passed my viva over a year ago. Now I'm a postdoc rolling in the big bucks.

Permission to feel smug, sir?

Granted.

Ah. Smug mode.

:p

My preferred method is to use the full version of Adobe Acrobat. It has the option to export pdf files as a rich text file and the output is almost always perfect.

I asked this question once in grad school to an office full of around 7 PhD students. Their answer was a pretty unanimous "because I want to be called a Dr". Pathetic really. This is clearly an example of the moral decline of society.

Just go for it. For a person who loves their subject (and I'm guessing by your name "sciencegirl1" that you're in that category), a PhD is a chance to immerse oneself in their favorite subject while getting paid.

Sure, I had a horrible time in grad school due to personal problems and not getting along with my supervisors, but now I can honestly say that I love my job. I get paid doing exactly what I love. So yes, for me it was worth it. I can come into work in whatever clothes I like, at whatever time I like (most days), and stay as long as I like. So long as I get the work done it's fine. There are not many jobs with this kind of flexibility. And ultimately, we're contributing to society in a positive way.
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