As to my background, I am a graduate student in the Zoology Department of a midwestern university working toward a Master's degree, or actually a doctorate--we can bypass the M.S. if we choose--in the field of Cellular Physiology. My sponsor is an internationally known man in the field. The area of research that I have selected is concerned with the effects of physical and chemical agents on the synthesis of nucleic acids of the cell. Obviously, this is a big field, and I hope to select from among the different agents, one or two that will give "positive results." I have been doing active research for about half a year testing the different agents. As for the _fundamental_ questions raised, I am positive that it would make _no_ difference in what field of science I were to work. By now I have had enough course work to realize that when performing any assigned laboratory exercise--they should not be called experiments--even of a cook-book type, little or even major discrepancies arise, and _always on the initial trials_, no matter how carefully one works! As you are probably aware, the teaching assistant in charge of the lab or the instructor, generally runs through the exercise before the class does in order to get the "bugs" out of it--I am deliberately generalizing, since the above holds for all of the laboratory sciences--so when the student gets confusing or rather contradictory results, the instructor can deftly point out the error in the setup or calculations, or _what have you_. He may _even_ indicate what results may be expected. _The last is critical._ Similarly other students in the laboratory usually have friends who have had the course before and know what results are expected--_this technique is frowned upon_. Or one may consult textbooks and published papers. (This, by the way, is known as _library research_, and is generally conceded to be indicative of the superior student, especially if he points out the fact that he is _so interested_ that he just had to delve into the literature.) By any technique, _the expected results are always obtained_. _Always. And by everyone._ The initial confusions--that some _honest_ students perpetuate--are easily brushed aside as errors due to inexperience, sloppiness, lack of initiative, stupidity of congenital sort, et cetera, et cetera. Since being a teaching fellow, even simple cook-book experiments don't seem as cook-bookish. Some pretty weird things have happened when I tried out an exercise prior to the class. Fortunately, I was taught to keep data--in duplicate: indelible purple Hexostick original and carbon copy. These, _vide infra_, are a few of such happenings. Elementary General Physiology Laboratory: 1. Initial maximal vagal stimulation: _Expected results_: inhibition of heart beat. _Obtained results_: one series of increased heart beats. (Possible explanation: I missed the vagus nerve)???? 2. _Frog nerve-muscle preparation_: