Chapter 60: Using a Cannon to Shoot a Mosquito (Asking for Favorites, Asking for Follows)

Fang Ziye and Jie Han sent the relevant preliminary research and processed results to Yuan Weihong for a look first, then took Lan Tianluo out to eat.

But when the three came out of a grilled fish restaurant, Fang Ziye discovered sixteen missed calls on his phone, Jie Han's missed calls had reached nine, all from the same number — Yuan Weihong.

Seeing their respective phone screens, Fang Ziye and Jie Han each gave a start.

Lan Tianluo, after a curious glance, hurriedly slipped away saying, "Senior Brother Fang, Brother Han, you two go ahead and deal with it, I'll head back on my own."

This many missed calls meant Yuan Weihong's mood right now was probably very irritable.

Jie Han asked helplessly, "Senior Brother, what should we do now?"

"I'll call and ask first." Fang Ziye steeled himself and called back.

The moment the call connected, Fang Ziye immediately heard Yuan Weihong's rather muffled voice from the other end: "What did you send over?"

Fang Ziye stood at the bridgehead of Han Street, the wind from Chu River blowing on his face, yet unable to calm him.

He hurriedly replied in a soft voice: "Master, just now Tianluo, Jie Han and I were eating, didn't hear your call. What we sent you was the preliminary research for Jie Han's planned school-level project application."

"I know it's preliminary research, what does this figure represent? You didn't label it, didn't give any detailed explanation, just threw a few figures at me — what's the meaning of this?"

"You and Jie Han come to my place..." Yuan Weihong finally gave the order.

Probably saw something slightly novel, got a bit annoyed.

Fang Ziye and Jie Han hurriedly took a taxi there, not daring to delay in the slightest.

After getting out of the car, neither bothered with bringing fruit or snacks for the teacher's home; they rushed into the community, jogged to the floor below, pressed the doorbell for 2703 where Yuan Weihong lived, half a minute later the access control opened, and only then could they take the elevator up.

"Relax a bit, the teacher probably isn't angry." Fang Ziye saw Jie Han's head full of cold sweat and comforted him so.

Jie Han then pulled out two tissues and handed both to Fang Ziye: "Senior Brother, wipe your sweat."

Fang Ziye took the tissues and wiped his forehead, only to find he was sweating even more.

Just that there was no one else in the elevator.

Fang Ziye: "..."

Fifteen minutes later.

In Yuan Weihong's study, Fang Ziye finally felt he had clearly explained the ins and outs of these results, and what kind of data each represented.

Yuan Weihong then said: "So you had Lan Tianluo help process the data results?"

Fang Ziye thought for a moment, then nodded: "Master, Lan Tianluo shouldn't leak anything, and he didn't take our data for reposting."

Yuan Weihong leaned back, tone muffled: "You said 'shouldn't', not 'absolutely won't'."

"Fine, I won't press that. The final figure you composed — besides the two of you participants, who can understand it? If you publish a figure like this, won't the project review staff also call you in overnight to explain?"

"I can state clearly: if project reviewers see a figure they're unfamiliar with, something strange, they'll just skip it. They won't pursue what it is like I did, you know?"

"You think making the figure prettier makes the results more beautiful, but don't forget where you are, though it sounds bad to say so." Yuan Weihong's words struck especially deep.

Like cruelly tearing off a fig leaf, leaving Fang Ziye and Jie Han unable to respond.

"Master, we'll fix it right away, do the figures ourselves." Fang Ziye acknowledged his mistake and agreed immediately.

Ordinary people, faced with the appearance and existence of outliers, either fear them or avoid them.

When applying for projects, being unconventional is the most foolish, because the proposal you write for a project application is meant for others to read, not for publishing papers to show off how deep your data processing skills are.

If even the project review staff can't understand your project application, they absolutely won't spend great effort figuring it out; they'll just skip past it without a second thought of giving you funding.

This is a reality problem.

"Mm, fixing it is the first reason I called you here."

"The second is, you were planning to take this data and apply for a school-level project?" Yuan Weihong now finally showed a smile, though his smile right now held a hint of deeper meaning.

The project was something only Jie Han was qualified to apply for; he hurriedly nodded: "Master, this is the preliminary experiment Senior Brother helped me with; though the direction is narrower, doing a bit is better than nothing."

Jie Han's expression was very guileless; sitting upright at this moment, he looked a few degrees more endearing.

"Does your current class need to do such an in-depth topic as miRNA for a school-level project application?"

"How would I not know?" Yuan Weihong's mouth corners twitched a few times.

Hearing this, both Fang Ziye and Jie Han's expressions stiffened.

The more they pondered, the more they felt Yuan Weihong's words weren't quite right — this didn't seem like PUA at all.

"How about this: Jie Han, you switch to a smaller direction, keep this data for now, save it to boost a general project, as data and material inside it."

"For you, as long as you find a relatively superficial feasible pathway within giant cell tumor of bone, that's enough; no need for deep transfection. Don't go this deep."

"Oh right, this transfection reagent — how did you get it?" Yuan Weihong asked again.

"Senior Brother earned it!" Jie Han replied immediately, pointing at Fang Ziye!

Then said: "Earlier when Senior Brother Yan Zhiming was handling cell lines in the lab, the reagent for transfecting mRNA could be used for giant cell tumor of bone, so Senior Brother processed a batch for his own cell line too, which led to this wave of experimental results."

Fang Ziye glanced at Jie Han, then at Yuan Weihong, and silently nodded: "Master, our group didn't buy reagent for miRNA transfection, but Senior Brother Yan happened to have extra, I thought wasting it would be a waste, so I kept a bit and processed our cell line."

Hearing this, Yuan Weihong hurriedly nodded: "Okay okay okay, I got it."

"But, miRNA can regulate target mRNA by destroying target mRNA stability and inhibiting target mRNA translation."

"Yet our current research direction hasn't even touched mRNA, you jumped so many steps at once, then took it to apply for a school-level project — what are you trying to do? Use a cannon to shoot a mosquito?"

Fang Ziye and Jie Han didn't reply further.

"Steel must be used on the blade; you've pasted porcelain on the spine and handle too, completely unnecessary. For a school-level project application, just push one small step further on our existing experimental foundation, get a bit of small funding — no need to go this deep."

"Because school-level funding can't support research this deep..."

(Chapter End)