• Question: how old were you when you wanted to become a scientist?

    Asked by osborne to Andy, Jo, James, Barbara, Alice JB on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lovegrove.
    • Photo: Andy Norton

      Andy Norton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I’m not really sure, to be totally honest! My Dad has always done science (he used to make low-fat marg, mayo etc. for a big company), so I’ve always sort of known about science. He used to take us to his lab when we were little (maybe 7 or 8), gave us a lab coat, a pair of goggles, and we could “help” him with his work (I think that we caused more problems than we actually solved!). So I think that I always thought that science was pretty glamorous and intriguing. However, it wasn’t really until I went to Seniors School that I sorted of realised that science was actually really cool, and that it was the sort of thing that I ACTUALLY wanted to look at. We had some pretty good teachers, and then sort of inspired me to look into science a bit more. Then I realised that I didn’t want to just me like my Dad and walk around in a lab coat all day, but actually wanted to be myself and study science.

      Hope that that made sense!

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I knew I wanted to be a medical doctor when I was eight. When I didn’t get good enough grades at A’level I remembered I had really enjoyed genetics and so I applied to do that. I have really enjoyed my career in science and have no regrets about my career choice. I wake up in the monring excited about going to work.

    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I came to science pretty late (compared to most other people). I wasn’t brilliant at science at school (my chemistry GCSE experiment involved exploding a test tube by accident), but I did enjoy it. I realised when I got to university that I could ‘do science’, and that it was absolutely what I wanted to do. I was lucky enough to do some work experience at Great Ormond Street Hospital with some excellent psychologists and I basically wanted to be like them (I was 21 btw).

    • Photo: Jo Hulsmans

      Jo Hulsmans answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      It must have happened at a very early age, my mother used to work at a library and I think I read most books in the science for children section. My interests in science have changed quite a bit though, it went Paleontology -> chemistry -> biology -> plant science -> systems biology specialised in plant science.

    • Photo: James Jennings

      James Jennings answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I’ve been through a few different stages of wanting to be different things – chef, writer, etc. The science path had always been on my list, though I probably was more interested in being an astronaut at first! I then realised that there were more realistic options in science than going into outer space! Luckily, there is plenty of choice in the area of science, as you can tell from the variety of subjects in this zone.

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