Back when I was reading Notes on the Synthesis of Form, I mentioned that one of Alexander's productive diagrams can make a bunch of senseless data suddenly morph into something meaningful. I experienced this type of eureka moment today. I have been struggling with the data that I have generated using the chiral column. Assumptions that I had going into the project have been ravaged, leaving me with two or three possible ways to interpret the data. The first step to my productive diagram was reading a paper (that my coworker found) describing how two of the materials that I have been using have different sublimation properties. One of my assumptions at the beginning of the project was that these materials had basically the same sublimation properties. My data was suggesting that their sublimation properties were different, but it wasn't until I read this paper that I could use this insight to interpret the rest of the data.
I encountered the power of the productive diagram when I gave each type of material that I have been using (there are 3) a different symbol in a figure that summarizes my data. As soon as I made this change (all 3 materials had the same symbol previously), my messy data became crystal clear. I now have a relationship between a property of my experimental material and one of my experimental observables. I'm not quite sure what it means, but rather than preparing to let the project sit for a week or so while I try to figure out what to do next, I have a clear plan of what I need to do over the next couple of weeks. I'm running some old samples now to see if the same trend holds. I wasn't sure if I would have something that could be published from this work when I went to work this morning. Now, thanks to a well designed diagram, I see a clear path to a publication. Now I just have to see if my experiments will cooperate with my plan.
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