I'm still catching up and wanted to add some things about research labs from personal experience. My main lab was micro research but I also worked on a crossover lab which combined a micro/neurology research project. There is no such thing as a failed lab. Really all you do is set out to prove or disprove your theory(hypothesis) and either way it's equally valid. Now, it's not as exciting to have your hypothesis disproved, however, it sets you up to continue research with a new direction. A true scientist is able to take a negated hypothesis and the lab results to come up with a new hypothesis. For me personally, my first research progress presented me with unusual results as I had a strain of pseudomonas aureginosas which was able to exist in environments it shouldn't have(dry cleaning solvent)...so my results ended up pointing me in a different direction altogether by the time I continued with my next hypothesis. All that to say, the only way to have a bad lab is to not do the work, or try to do it hurriedly. Growth plates, especially when dealing with live tissue is particularly time consuming and you cannot skimp on the research time. When I was doing this I would typically be at school from 8am until 8/9pm, but there were times I was there MUCH later. I remember sleeping under a table a couple of times just because the effort of going home just to come back would have been a waste of time.
