61–70 of 88 posts
Original publication: Kovar, L. “Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass.” Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 7, no. 3, May/June 2001, p. 4, https://web.archive.org/web/20010620051228/http://www.improb...
Exactly my experience back in the days doing the mandatory "advanced experimental physics laboratory semester" where you had to do like 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester on old equipment that would break during the experiment, with less than motivated PhD students or post grads as teachers. Of the 14 experiments only two worked and we got the expected r…
> 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester My one remaining did-not-graduate nightmare is that I never completed that course. And I was an experimentalist. > This experience drove me right into theoretical physics Had a summer student work on my nearly-intractable dissertation experiment. He immediately switched to theory.
In that class you aren't being graded on getting to the right answer. You are getting graded on how you approach getting the right answer, and no one expects you to get the right answer - in the ball park is generally the average for the course.
You sure it isn’t Schottky diodes formed by the metallic contacts that are interfering with the measurement of the bulk germanium properties? I’d sputter deposit metallic contact regions and solder to those, then maybe compare two different thickness samples and look at the difference in resistivity vs. temperature, essentially de-embedding your fixture.
Came here to say this. You can’t solder leads on to semiconductors willy-nilly. The work functions are too different. So instead of an ohmic contact, you get a diode.
It's not my sub field, but the description of the setup seemed soo haphazard
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just the pay; the pressure as a graduate student and not-yet-tenured professor is immense. The darkly humorous "A (de)motivational letter", purportedly by one "Prof. Hardass Slavedriver", sums it up: https://lifesciencephdadventures.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/a-...
> The darkly humorous "A (de)motivational letter" It's not just darkly humorous, it could almost be satire: > It has to the the kind of chemistry that people read and then jizz in their pants, they’re so excited about it. That’s right: we only do jizz-worthy chemistry I'll assume due to the nature of chemistry, the field doesn't suffer as much from non-reproducible data, but overall, this sentence alone might explain…
Hahaha, gold. I made that realization in the middle of my PhD and switched (40 years ago). Not regretting a moment. What broke me was the amount of politics you must engage in.
>> Going into physics was the biggest mistake of my life. I should've declared CS. I still wouldn't have any women, but at least I'd be rolling in cash. Hahaha, gold. I made that realization in the middle of my PhD and switched (40 years ago). Not regretting a moment. What broke me was the amount of politics you must engage in.