• Question: Why are you na scientist?

    Asked by trudiryder to Andy, Jo, James, Barbara, Alice JB on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by osborne, kamran, camg13.
    • Photo: Andy Norton

      Andy Norton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Good question! I reason that I got into science, and then became a scientist, was that I was always sort of interested in science at school. I was always fascinated by the different science things that I was taught – everything from how petrol was made, to what makes up an atom, to make to make batteries, or how to shoot a bullet from a gun etc. etc. I always thought that this stuff was really cool, so I decided to take A-level Chemistry and Physics. And I really enjoyed those, so I sort of got hooked on science! Then I did it at Uni, and so it carried on. I am just amazed by all sorts of science, and I want to try and learn and teach as much of it as I can.

    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I really like science and medicine. I like being in the lab and learning all the time. It’s great when you get a weird result and then it makes sense but you didn’t make it happen. It let’s you know you are doing things well. I like teaching students, I like travel (I’ve been to China, India, Singapore, America and Canada with work) and I like being in the lab. It feels like playing a symphony when you do an experiment all day without having to look at your notes. I love talking to people at meetings or getting help or helping. I like talking to people about what I do, especially when they say wow (when we got DNA out of strawberries today) or say how exciting when I say I am trying to make a vaccine for cancer. I really hope I can make a difference, that would be amazing, but if not I hope I can help some other people to try even when they are told they are not good enough (like I was) and find something they really enjoy in life (like I did).

    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      By accident really… It took me a while to realise that I could do science and that I really, really loved using scientific methods to find answers to the things that I was interested in. Being a scientist isn’t just one thing – my type of science is pretty different to lots of the other scientists here, but we do all use the same sort of principles to guide what we do – these are the things that you learn about in science classes, fair tests, careful methods, extraneous variables (do you still call them that?).

      I find science satisfying, I enjoy what I do and I like feeling that I can contribute something useful to society.

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