On this post I would like to comment on the "difference" between being a theorist or an experimentalist.
First of all, what the hell do I know about being a theorist or an experimentalist? After all, I am only a first year (almost second year...) graduate student. Well, guess what? I want to do theory. No surprise, since the majority of the students want to do theory when they go to school. The first point is, I am not really sure I want to do theory. That is, my experiences so far consist of field work in laboratories. I really do not know for certain whether I want work with theory. I just like it.
To tell you the truth, I also liked working in the lab. Last summer I had the opportunity to work at SLAC. My project involved putting together an apparatus that assembled water samples for x-ray transmission experiments. It was fun, since I had to manipulate the fluid cells really carefully. I came up with an array of micrometers that slowly assembled the sample. I also went and try them at the Advanced Light Source in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I know, I am talking about fancy labs, whatever that means. But I was a bit hesitant about working in the lab. My undergraduate years included two semesters of "Intermediate Lab", something that was really depressing. I know that science labs education is a big challenge. My advanced lab experience made me feel really frustrated. Sometimes the experiments were not working; once I even burned one of the detectors. Most of the experiments consisted of a well organized series of steps, that appeared to be really straight forward to carry out in theory. In practice it was not that way. I guess the fun and excitement lies in encountering problems along the way and coming up with solutions. I guess that is how experiments are actually carried out.
There is a little demon inside my head that wants to suggest the following format. Learn about some phenomena (i.e. diffraction). Now device an experiment that will let you measure something (i.e. diameter of a human hair from the diffraction pattern). This type of format will require a considerable amount of equipment, but hey it is just a proposal. Students will learn that the whole process of carrying out an experiment is long and hard. One will have to go not only through the stages of the scientific method but also through the whole design of the experiment.
There is also a little angel inside my head that is suggesting another format for a lab course. How about keeping all this pre-arranged experiments, but having meetings with the professor or the instructor and going through the lab. A quick lecture of the theory behind the phenomena that is to be measure. Also some comments on understanding the instruments and methods used to get the measurements. This way the students will understand better what is actually going on during the experiment. What I am trying to avoid is mindlessly sitting down and pushing buttons to get numbers and just going around with them to get standard deviations and etc.
Having bad experiences with undergraduate labs does not justify that I do not want to become an experimenter... So why do I want to be a theorist?
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