• Question: whats your favorate bit about being a scientist

    Asked by jess473 to Debbie, Glyn, Jon, Kat, Nicola on 14 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by zibzab, jessica7, jblue, u11bradshawt.
    • Photo: Jonathan Stone

      Jonathan Stone answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Hey @jess473 : for me it is probably the fact that no two days are the same, and there is always the chance that you can either learn something new and amazing…or even better – be the first person to discover something amazing. I also really like the fact that my work can have a positive effect on other people, which is something that really motivates me.

    • Photo: Debbie Crockard

      Debbie Crockard answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      My favourite thing is when I learn something new that surprises me or that I’m really impressed by – I love fun facts and there are lots in science and my favourite is when I get to share them.

      For example:

      Did you know that the biggest turtle found any where in the world ever – was washed up in Wales it weighed nearly a tonne.

      Spook fishes have tubular eyes because if they were round like ours they wouldn’t fit in their skull.

      Globally about 12 people are killed a year by sharks – but in the UK alone 99 people were killed in falls from beds and 52 from falling off their chairs!

      The oceans cover 71% of our planets surface.

      The worlds longest mountain range is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the middle of the atlantic ocean, its more than 50,000km long – you can see pictures of some animals from there on my profile.

      The deepest point on earth is the Challenger deep its almost 11,000m below sea surface.

      There is a gyre (a circular ocean current) in the Pacific – knicknamed the Great Pacific Garbage patch its twice the size of Texas (and Texas is bigger than Germany!) and is thought to contain 6x as much plastic as plankton.

    • Photo: Glyn Barrett

      Glyn Barrett answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Hi Jess! I I think its probably about being reminded everyday that there are new things to learn about.
      Although there is a lot of repetition its never really boring and people you work with always seem to come up with some new fascinating (and scary!!) facts about the world (just like Debbie’s above).
      Knowledge often is the first step in sparking interest or passion in you making you want to possibly change things for the better.

    • Photo: Kathryn McMahon

      Kathryn McMahon answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      For me its that I get to do lots of different things, so I never get a chance to get bored! Just this week, I’ve learnt how to freeze brains and cut them into slices, which was pretty cool. Next week, I’m going to be using radioactivity to look at some DNA from patients. The week after that, I’ll be making 3D images of fluorescent green blood vessels in brain tumours. No two weeks are the same! Especially working in cancer research – its really fast paced.

    • Photo: Nicola Fletcher

      Nicola Fletcher answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Hi Jess! For me it’s discovering something that nobody knew before and that might make a difference to people – for example a new cure for a disease. That’s what I would love to discover anyway!

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