So today’s the last day of LSM2201 open lab. After spending several weeks in the lab, (wednesday and thursdays, 0900 to 1830 to be precise), chopping up and purifying rat liver, I think I will actually miss the lab when it’s gone. We took some pics for remembrance. Despite our utterly terrible results, we had some good times.
The closure of the lab will mean we have to start our final report. I have already written the “first draft”, and one can see how pathetic our results are. Ok it’s not as bad as what I wrote, but quite close to it. We screw up because of silly mistakes (many committed by me) which ruin an otherwise perfect set of data.
Now comes the temptation to cheat. I can choose to ‘magic’ the data until it fits our hypothesis, and get high marks, or choose to be honest about it and then trying to figure out how to account for it. Honestly, under normal circumstances, I would have chosen the first one.
But, I don’t know whether I’m lucky or unlucky, I have been teamed up with a group of very righteous mates. All refuse to fake data or cheat, not because we may get found out, but because it’s wrong. I was the opposite. I kept giving them ideas to manipulate data. Even when we were heading home just now, I was still trying to get them to fake the results. They silently nodded their head and went “yea, ok… I guess if there’s no other choice”. But when I asked them if that’s ok, they quietly revealed that they weren’t very comfortable with this actually.
The more I think about it, the more I feel bad. One can always say this is a harmless experiment, so it’s ok to cheat. One can always say scientists have been cheating all along. But I guess it always become a habit, and for sure “no lie is of the truth“, and also, even if everyone is cheating that doesn’t make it a right thing. Even though it may be harmless now. Right? (lol trying to convince myself here.)
To make the temptation worse, almost all my friends are like me (advocate cheating), and their teams are also like me. So I should not expect bad data from any of them (then again, their data is not bad to begin with).
I can’t even bring myself to tell my friends that I am not going to cheat, for fear of hearing the brutal news: “wah really? very hard to account leh.” “you know your this mistake is quite a serious one? you’ll be penalized heavily.” So I think I will just shut up, unless they ask me.
As of now, I decide to be honest, more because I respect my teammates decision, and I respect their integrity, than anything else. If not for them, I will confirm take the easy way out and liquid the anomalies away. That is why it may be a good thing that I am teamed up with them. And in any case, if I screw up, I can always.. S/U.
But hopefully, in the near future, I will choose to be honest because it is the right thing to do.
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