Last summer I found a new potential treatment for pancreatic cancer and I’m fighting to get my findings published right now. I’m not fishing for compliments— understand that I’m looking for words of encouragement from other researchers my age, or really anyone who’s ever felt like giving up on something they’ve spent a lot of time on.
Anyway, last summer was the first time I researched and I made a lot of mistakes, but I proved that this new compound I’d spent hours researching would work. The compound (not naming it since I want to, well, publish my findings) worked really fricking well, but the research was rudimentary. I haven’t even tested it on mice yet.
ISEF is really big on data, and my regional ISEF competition was so freaking competitive, I didn’t even make it as an ISEF finalist. I was out of town during my state’s science fair, so I couldn’t lift my project any further. At my ISEF regional fair, the judges wanted me to test my treatment in mice, but since I live in the middle of no where (there are two barns a stone’s throw from my house) the only medical college with the resources I need just told me they can’t fund my project. This college was the only space I could carry out my research further.
Basically, I’ve done significant research which I’m proud of and I think can help people, but it’s not going anywhere. Sometimes I feel like i’m drowning. Have any of you fellow researchers ever been in this position? Do share.
Eek. I do research in a very different field (aka all my research is analysis of existing data which is really nice because I can do it at home!), but you can also try emailing bigshot medical conferences and seeing if they have poster sessions for high school students–a big geoscience conferences does that. Draw up a poster of your research and try to make connections there. Otherwise, you could try emailing colleges farther away and asking your parents if you can get summer housing there to work on your research for now at least? You could also try looking at research hospitals if there are any around you (many children’s hospitals, for example, are also research hospitals).
Relax… Deep breathes…
The mere fact that you are doing research at your age sets you apart from 99% of all college applicants.
There is no need to try and rush to publish results that you cant prove at this point- to try to do so is pointless. But keep focused on learning HOW to do research, keep asking for help[ you will need to find a scientist willing to help you in order to give your research credibility], dont disregard your classes , and make your college application essays come alive with what you hope to achieve.
My DS started to do serious research as a Jr in HS, under the direction of a noted scientist- he continued his research for 2 summers during college, then wrote up, had to revise and resubmit his paper 2 times and was finally published as first author his Sr year of college- which put him in very rarified air.
He is now at Caltech finishing his PhD.
Research takes TIME- it cannot be rushed, because the results HAVE to be reproducible by other scientists.
In the past few years there have been more than a few medical research results that received BIG headlines, that were later found to have been fraudulently achieved.
So you will need to learn patience…