rebeccmeister: (Acromyrmex)
rebeccmeister ([personal profile] rebeccmeister) wrote2008-02-03 02:38 pm
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I like it when this happens: cool data.

I keep on blogging today because I'm trying to work on my dissertation proposal, which means that I'm seeking out distractions instead. Actually, I *feel* like things have been going okay so far today, which is probably even more important than thinking I'm making progress or actually having any measurable indicator. This feeling could be because I don't have any particular pressure to show a definite product for my effort today.

A large part of what I think I need to accomplish is a matter of getting ideas to coalesce, which is incredibly difficult for me with respect to my chosen research program. (ah, to be able to put fingers to keyboard and have ideas just flow out!) I've been attempting a wide variety of methods, ranging from creating several hundred fragmentary Word documents (rough estimate), to writing out distracting thoughts and frustrations in my paper journal, to pretending that my proposal doesn't exist (not a very useful method, I'll admit). My mind has been balking at the idea of getting this thing together, which is interesting when you consider that I have a MUCH easier time putting together short proposals, and that I have even had a pretty high success rate at getting those short proposals funded.

I mentioned my frustration last week during a lab meeting, and my advisor's advice was to Get Back to the Lab (work on all the hands-on stuff that I need to get done). Sometimes I don't feel like her advice is very helpful, but that's a good thing for me to keep in mind when I am asked for advice.

But perhaps if this process were easier and more straightforward, I wouldn't find it so engaging and interesting, and the presumed long-term reward would feel different.

Anyway. I'm impressed if you read the above blathering, but if you are in similar straits, perhaps it's useful to you. The interesting part of the day is that I figured out a nifty new way to look at some of my data (new to me, at least). I'm working on trying to understand the relationship between leafcutter ant colonies and their fungus as the colonies grow, and so I measured colony size and fungus size every week for two months in 25 colonies (with more than a little help from my friend [livejournal.com profile] myrmecology, of course). My challenge at the moment is how to depict these things in a way that will allow me to ask and answer interesting questions. There's a positive relationship between colony size and fungus size, but that in itself isn't all that exciting. It's the changes over time in the two factors--are they systematic and regular (fungus and colony grow together), or crazy and irregular (colony grows, fungus shrinks, fungus recovers, colony grows)? And how does that relate to the way that other things grow? I can't say much more than that at the moment, but I'm working on it.

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