When I was a young man, I was advised by my parents to do well in school so that I could have the career that I wanted. My father worked in a manufacturing company and earned very good wages. He was very proud of me, so I pursued graduate studies. Unfortunately, it was not financially feasible for me to continue my education until I was older, so I dropped out of college and joined my first job in the field of industry.
During my first summer working at another company, I met a wonderful woman who impressed me with her drive and determination. She was also a very ambitious graduate student who held down a steady job during the summers and then pursued her Ph.D. from an accredited university at the same time. I have always considered myself to be ambitious, but I never expected to become a top-tier scientist in the field of molecular biology. It was a dream come true for me. Later, she told me that she did not have the money to continue her education, so she decided to take a job as a graduate student in chemistry, which put her in the same professional bracket as her former male coworkers.
During my years as a graduate student in physical chemistry, I learned that there are two major ways to approach the problem of how to organize experiments. The first method, which I used to be quite happy with, was to develop my own experimental design. I would collect a number of reagents, make my own experimental schedule, prepare the reagents, etc. I usually found this method very satisfying, but it did not provide the data I needed to meet my career goals. My second method of experimental design involved using ready data packages provided by other lab members or the graduate students in my classes.
In my opinion, one of the best ways to use experimental design is to utilize the experience and knowledge of lab members who are well-established in their areas of physical chemistry. My friend was able to demonstrate that her experimental design was a perfect match for the reagents she prepared in her own laboratory. She had also spent time developing her statistical method of statistical analysis that was consistent with all of the reagents she used. This experience has paid off for her in her recent position as a post-graduate student in applied physics and chemistry at a four-year university. Her dissertation was accepted by the appropriate academic journal, she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in applied physics.
Experiments need to have an objective. If you’re conducting an experiment to discover whether carbon dioxide is a good thing, you might choose to perform your experiment where there is no preconceived idea about the direction of the experiment. A perfect example of this would be to perform a chemical reaction in an enclosed environment, like a small cell. One advantage of performing your experiment in this kind of controlled atmosphere is that you will always know what results you are actually obtaining. If you were to do the experiment in a less controlled setting, chances are that you will get random results and there is a good chance that you will end up with chemical compounds that react badly with each other.
Make sure that the reagents you use are appropriate for the physical state of any substances you are trying to initiate chemical reactions with. I started out using reagents that were designed for my own chemical processes; however, when I tried a reagent that I ordered online, it caused me to get random electrical charges instead of the ones I wanted. Additionally, when I read the manual that came with the chemical reaction substance, I realized that the reagent I used was supposed to have different charges according to the amount of sodium in the reagents. This made it impossible for me to perform my experiment. You may want to purchase reagents that are appropriate for your chemical reactions; but make sure that they are compatible with your equipment. In my case, the reagents I purchased simply did not work, and I ended up wasting a lot of time and money on them.
Physical chemistry can be learned through a combination of reading a good book, attending a good chemistry laboratory, and doing hands-on experiments. However, if you really want to learn the material well, I suggest that you spend some time online searching for tips and tutorials on how to properly conduct chemical reactions. There are a lot of sites on the internet that provide in-depth information on physical chemistry. Once you learn the material well, I guarantee that you will never go back to a traditional chemistry lab again. It is definitely worth spending the extra time to learn the material thoroughly.
