Diary of an MW student – part 53

Having decided to move from a dissertation to one of the recently proposed Research Papers (see MW diary – part 51.5), I have spent the last two months desperately trying to settle upon a topic. Coming up with interesting ideas is easy enough, but finding something which is realistically achievable – that’s another matter.

The problem I have encountered is much the same as that which haunted the dissertation: the viability of the research. My idea about investigating how bottle weight influences quality perception, for example, was impractical because it required consumer research at a statistically significant level. Short...