• Question: What's your favourite thing about being a scientist?

    Asked by mcintof01 to Amelia, Jim, Liz, Prateek, Richard on 13 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by libby, stansfjr01, lawrencs01, alih27, baileyec01, p1nkp4nth3r, charleypoolton, joshyf, thadshalini, howecl02.
    • Photo: Amelia Markey

      Amelia Markey answered on 12 Jun 2011:


      My favourite thing is doing new experiments and trying to solve problems.

      I’ve always liked puzzles so I like working out why something hasn’t worked or what things mean. I also love talking about my work and doing activities with schools. Next month I’m going to help out at a school activity day at manchester which is called Wellcome to the Matrix. I can’t wait to see what experiments we’re going to do and what the other scientists have got planned for the kids. Should be great fun!

    • Photo: Jim Caryl

      Jim Caryl answered on 12 Jun 2011:


      Easy, I get paid to do my favourite hobby! Every morning I wake up, I don’t feel like I’m going to work. I don’t get that dreaded feeling on a Sunday night knowing that I have to be in work on Monday. I tend to work all the time, if not in the lab, then reading and writing and analysing at home; so it’s just a hobby really, but one that I get paid to do as a professional 😉

    • Photo: Richard Badge

      Richard Badge answered on 12 Jun 2011:


      I guess my favourite thing about science is the “finding out” aspect…

      There are lots of ways to find something out – watch and observe, ask somebody etc but one of the best is what’s known as the “scientific method”.

      This involves thinking of a question (Like, why are wasps yellow and black?), then thinking of an explanation or hypothesis (because their predators associate these colours with a nasty sting), and then testing it… (testing whether predators avoid yellow and black things that aren’t wasps).

      If you get the result you expect then your hypothesis might be true (or at least is not completely wrong) and if not you have to think of another idea. So far from being dull and unimaginative, doing science involves constantly coming up with ideas about how the world works and then testing whether you are right…. which is just great fun!

      Richard

    • Photo: Lizzard O'Day

      Lizzard O'Day answered on 13 Jun 2011:


      Getting to think, explore and wonder as my job. How cool is that?

    • Photo: Prateek Buch

      Prateek Buch answered on 13 Jun 2011:


      I’d say it’s the ability to communicate my work, and that of others, to a wider audience through talks, lectures, and stuff like I’m a Scientist…! I do lectures for post- and under-graduates, talks to school kids and to ordinary people who may be interested in our work to treat blindness – and there’s no greater buzz than seeing people excited by how we deliver DNA to cells in the eye, how we can restore function to cells that don’t work, how we can get mice, dogs and possibly even people nowadays to see better than before – it’s an honour to be able to talk about these things to folk outside of our speciality!

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