Discussion: Sorry to hear

Whoa - that totally sucks! Time for a nice long run or sling some massive weights around.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.

Wow, that totally sucks. Does it mean you have to redo the work??

No. Luckily, as Kelly pointed out, this is the best time for me. They can't take back my PhD, and I am able to retract my paper before it has reached publication stage. It does however suck that so much time, money and effort has been wasted on this.

Are you sure that it's wrong? Is there a way you can go back and check?

There is a certain group of experiments that is now not valid. These were also the least interesting, probably because the control group was wrong. What they still have to find out is how much of the protein this line shouldn't have been expressing was expressing. I don't think it is too much, in which case the rest of my results stand. If it is expressing a lot (which I have tested for and never seen) then almost half of my PhD could be plain wrong. I think this is the worst case scenario and at the moment I don't believe this is the case, but they are testing the cells now to get a better idea.

Wow.

If it makes you feel better, it could certainly be worse - I know someone who never finished his PhD because of a series of unlucky events, including one advisor dieing and then his lab blowing up.

Gosh, major bummer girl. But very glad the PhD is safe and sound and you can figure out things for the paper before its published. Hope that the protein isn't expressing a lot and it's not the worst case!

Oh no; that's horrible for you. At least they can't take your PhD away, but it's obviously knocked you for 6 knowing that some or lots of your work is invalid. I know I'd feel terrible if it had happened to me. It's an awful way to learn a lesson, but from now on you'll know to check & double check everything. Is there any way you can salvage your paper? I know just how important it is to publish if you want to get on in an academic career.
Anyway, you have our support. Go & have a good run or workout, to put this into perspective, & then get a good night's sleep.

So not so much wrong as not done on an appropriate system and maybe not now useful. Don't panic, that would apply to most PhDs eventually anyway. What counts is that you got the project to completion, and if you withdraw your own paper you'll have shown a certain scientific integrity too.

Awww Becky that's awful, glad your PhD is safe but not getting the paper sucks

wow. that sucks.

I remember turning in a final paper for a genetics course in college where the main conclusion was that the control samples got contaminated in the first experiment 3 months earlier. But that was totally inconsequential since it was just coursework.

Wishing you all the best.

Never something anyone wants to hear - hope the results turn out favourably. I was dreading a moment during the writing up stage where I realised that I'd done something stupidly wrong in my simulations, guess that's for the examiners to find out now...