This is how it is...as an interdisciplinary PhD student

Before, I get ahead of myself you may ask what exactly is an interdisciplinary PhD student? Well, we’re a bunch of much laughed at people who do research at the boarders of the different scientific disciplines. Basically, you combine two of the sciences (or any 2 fields of study for that matter) in one hopefully harmonious project. I do a strange combination of physics and biology, which is a bit of a challenge, but really rewarding. As you might imagine, the squishy world of biology and the world physics, which renowned for its rigour and precision, don’t tend to get along very well. (I still find myself close to tears at the sight of how biologists do error analysis).  In many ways this makes me “a child of two worlds” aka the greatest cliché in fantasy literature. However, it also encapsulates what it is like to work in an interdisciplinary science, but instead of being the messiah born of humble origins, you’re just a street urchin, constantly struggling to make your way in the world.

So what do I actually do? My PhD is part of the snappily named Doctoral Training Centre in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine which is run by Leeds, York and Sheffield Universities. In my project, the final goal is to grow pieces of bone and examine the development of the hard mineral part of bone by looking at how a laser interacts with it. So, as well as doing my physics heavy laser work I grow bone cells in full biological style meaning  I now have a new shiny set of skills. Unsurprisingly, biological work is very different from physics work. With physics I’m used to trying again and again to get an experiment right. You have to constantly analyse the problem and make changes, but in biology that just isn’t possible. You’ve got keep doing the same thing for almost two months without knowing whether your experiment is going to work, so it’s completely devastating when you find out it was all rubbish in the end. However, when it does go right and you do get results that are at least a little bit interesting it is truly phenomenal. All that hard, repetitive work pays off in a big way. In physics where you keep changing things you don’t get that same rush of achievement. You make small gains, steadily over a long period of time so it’s hard to identify what you’ve achieved at first glance. It’s only when you sit down to document your work that you suddenly realised how far you’ve come and that you’re not just struggling against a tide of failure. It’s then when you finally see the full picture and think, “Oh wow, I’m actually good at this and doing well.” I think I’m really lucky to be able to mix the two styles of work together, because it means I can always keep on working at my laser set up, but still have the big thrill at the end of a biology experiment. The biggest challenge I have is the gaping hole in my knowledge of biology, but it’s not a challenge in the way you’d expect. In physics I know exactly what I don’t know. It’s a strange thing, but it’s very comforting as you know precisely when to get help and when to dive straight into something. However, in biology there is so much I don’t know, but I have no idea where the gaps in my knowledge are. That means I make really silly mistakes because I assume some problems have no solution when they can be fixed easily. Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot I can do about that. I don’t and never will have the biological knowledge a degree gives you, but maybe one day I will at least feel comfortable in growing my little bone cells if nothing else.

So, after all that I suppose the pressing question would be, “Rachel! If interdisciplinary research can leave you feeling homeless in science and pulls you into unknown waters, why would you want to do it?” For me the answer is this; one, they’d pay me to do it and two (the real reason) I wanted to do something I felt might help people in the real world. I did physics as my undergraduate degree and when the time came to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life I was pretty sure of one thing. I didn’t want to do pure physics and be stuck doing something along the lines of looking at galactic dust (like Queen guitarist Brian May).But that’s not to say fundamental physics research doesn’t have an impact on our everyday lives. Medical scanners are better than ever due to work on particle detection at CERN. However, I wanted to be able to have the opportunity to do something with impact now and interdisciplinary research is where a lot of that work happens. I really wanted to do something medically minded and my course seemed like the perfect way to apply my physics to medicine. I definitely have that balance and fingers crossed my work will improve medicine, which feels great. However, the best thing about my PhD is that by doing so much biology I have realised just how much I love physics. After my degree I had lost that love and I needed fresh work, but a year of biology lectures made me realise that physics really was my passion. From this experience the key bit of advice I would give to anyone thinking about further study is don’t lose your conviction! You chose your A-levels, GCSEs or degree for a reason, so never lose sight of your reason or you might regret it, but never ever be afraid to push yourself out of your comfort zone either. You’ll be surprised what you can do. 

*For context, this is my original post which led to me being selected as  a Blogden Bloggie this year*