26 Dr. Michael Webster, associate professor of exercise physiology, holds 20 grams of 70 percent cacao dark chocolate, the amount consumed daily by subjects during the research study. Although the data collection for each subject only lasted 30 days, the planning, data collection, execution, analysis, and presentation of the research was extensive, sweeping from February to December 2018. Presler, who was assisted by WebsterandfellowgraduatestudentDeryaKeskin, said unexpected obstacles quickly piled up, from equipment malfunctions to subjects dropping out because the chocolate was perceived as too bitter or getting removed from the study because they forgot to eat the chocolate, leaving Presler scrambling to find replacements in time. “This process has made me appreciate research,” said Presler, who now lives in Germany with her military husband. “Now when I read scientific journal articles, I understand the pain, the tears, and the sweat that goes into this. I used to be judgmental when it came to the research process. I would read things and think, ‘Why are these people so incompetent? I would do this differently.’ Now as I’m reading it I understand because I made that mistake, too.” “I don’t think most students really understand what it takes to do a research project,” Webster added. “We read a paper that’s four to five pages long, and we don’t realize that paper probably has a year and a half to two years of planning and executing behind it. And there are a lot of pitfalls and distractions along the way. Being a research scientist sort of sounds glamorous. It’s not at all. “Probably the one thing that I’ve told Katie and I’ve told other graduate students is that there’s value in the process. You may not find the results you were hoping for. There are just so many different things that could happen over the course of nine months or 12 months or 18 months. And even when things don’t pan out the way you hoped they would, there’s still value in the process, in learning the process.