The Role of Struggle in Research

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
Roman copy of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos (c. 330 BC).
Roman copy of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos (c. 330 BC).

Aristotle’s Metaphysics begin with an oft-quoted adage:  πάντες ἄνθρωποι τοῦ εἰδέναι ὀρέγονται φύσει (Aristotle, Metaphysics A.1 980a). “All humans, by their nature, strive to understand.”

With some spare time over fall break, I decided to brush up on my Greek philosophy. My upcoming junior independent work will focus on Lucretius’ philosophical poem De Rerum Natura, and he engages with so many ideas from ancient Greek thinkers – Epicurus, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle, to name a few – I thought it prudent to be familiar with them. Given that the very purpose of their works is to explain their ideas, I didn’t expect to run into serious trouble as I began reading them. Instead, as I started making my way through Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Plato’s Timaeus, I found myself entangled with ideas of identity, causation, and substance. My overwhelming reaction was… “wait, what?” 

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Patient Stories, Clinical Data and Children’s Lives: My Experience with Pediatric Oncology Research

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
Picture of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
The main building of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.

The nine-year-old patient sat in his bed, nose buried in a book, his peach-fuzz hair just visible over the book he held close to his face. As my mentor quietly began explaining the next steps of his treatment to his family, I crouched next to the bedside to ask him about his book, which I had loved dearly in elementary school. Neither the patient’s beeping machines nor his swollen body slowed him down as he began excitedly chattering to me about the story. A few minutes later, we thanked the family and moved onto the next room.* This child was just one of many leukemia patients whose story and data I had pored over in my clinical research experience this summer.

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Office hours are weird. Here’s how to make the most of them.

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
Sign showing office hours
Office hours signage. Photo Credit: Weingarten Center, University of Pennsylvania

If you’re like me, you’ve been here. Standing awkwardly outside your professor’s door, notes in hand, heart racing slightly as you rehearse your question for the tenth time.  When I first got to Princeton, my professors felt larger than life – giants in their field, accomplished researchers and authors. As an undergraduate, I felt like an ant in comparison. I felt afraid to go to their office hours, because their time felt so much more valuable than mine.

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A Case for Interdisciplinary Study at Princeton

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
Thetis in chariot with winged horses flying over the sea accompanied by the messenger gods, Iris and Hermes.
A Terracotta lekythos (oil flask) depicting Thetis in chariot with winged horses flying over the sea accompanied by the messenger gods, Iris and Hermes, as described in the last book of the Iliad. Photo credit: Sappho Painter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When asked about what courses I’m taking and I share the list, I’m often greeted with blank stares or curious expressions. The response I elicit is, “Why are you making life so hard on yourself?” And no, it’s not because I’m loading up on a truckload of courses like physics, math, chemistry, and computer science.

As a classics major-turned-premed, my schedule has me jumping from subject to subject across disciplines. My days consist of learning about synthesis reactions in organic chemistry in a massive lecture hall, and puzzling over Plato in ancient Greek with a circle of 7 classmates. My head spinning with Greek letters and grammatical constructions, I head for immunology, and then back again to read Latin literature. As STEM and humanities classes are often located on opposite sides of campus, I find myself trekking up and down Washington Road multiple times a day. Aside from getting my daily steps in, what exactly do I get for doing this?

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Proven Tips on How to Read Scientific Literature

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
A printed article with yellow highlighting under a blue pen with the hands of the person reading and annotating.
A person reads and annotates an article printout. Photo Credit: Y.Arcurs/iStockphoto

In our undergraduate years, as we get involved with research and science, it can be incredibly overwhelming to read scientific literature. It’s easy to drown in hundreds of thousands of articles with fancy-sounding titles, pages and pages of complex writings, and dozens of figures that you have no idea what they mean. However, reading scientific literature is a necessary skill to have, and you must be able to understand what scientists know, and what they don’t. 

Therefore, I’ve created a list of tips and advice to tackle scientific literature as an undergraduate. Follow my advice, and you’re on your way to impress your supervisors with your knowledge, and create a nuanced understanding of where your research lies within the body of knowledge that scientists have been cultivating!

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The Alumni Advantage: Tapping into Princeton’s Network

Posted on by Gabriel Ascoli
Princeton alum, many in Orange and Black, participate in the 2013 P-rade.
Princeton alumni P-rade, 2013. Photo credit: Daniel Day.

As Princeton students in 2024, we’ve all heard other students throwing around the terms “connections” and “networking.”  Although I myself was eager to take advantage of Princeton’s vast resources, I didn’t quite know where to start, or how to start. To those of you who are facing a similar dilemma, let me introduce you to an incredible, vastly underutilized resource: our alumni network.

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