To be a pioneer

"You don't have to push a handcart...to be a pioneer!" Children's Songbook #218

In the past couple weeks I've gained a deeper appreciation for pioneers - not just for my plains-crossing ancestors but for every person in every aspect of society who has established a new way of doing something. This appreciation had come, oddly enough, through my research class.

This research class is called Phage Hunters, and the objective of the course is to find, isolate, and analyze a novel mycobacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria). I have been extremely lucky in my work so far: I was able to find my phage right away and progress through the research steps quickly because my particular phage has a relatively fast infection cycle, requiring only one day of incubation instead of the more typical two. Because of this success, I have been one of the first in the class to move on to each stage of research.

Now, this is the second year that Phage Hunters has been offered at BYU, but that doesn't mean that all of the procedures have already been established. We have done a lot of revising, changing things that didn't work out last year and trying to find the most effective and efficient protocol.

That is where my pioneer appreciation fits in.

I took my phage to the electron microscopy technician three times before I finally got really good images. We adjusted the stain, then the buffer solution, then the level of sterilization before I was able to get high-quality, clear pictures of my phage. I enjoyed participating in that problem-solving process, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But my classmates aren't going to have to go through that hassle. The main problems have been solved, and they will just have to follow directions for a method that we already know works.

So many aspects of life are like that. Even with simple things like cooking, exercising, or even studying, somebody else has gone before and figured out the best way (or at least a good way) to do it.

I am grateful for those figures of the past who problem-solved and set precedents so that, at least in most areas of life, I don't have to perform multiple experiments to make things work.