• Question: What is your favourite thing about science and how did you get into it ?

    Asked by anon-259765 on 28 Sep 2020. This question was also asked by anon-259828, anon-263334.
    • Photo: Chris Bloomer

      Chris Bloomer answered on 28 Sep 2020:

      This might sound a bit strange, but my favourite thing about science is learning that I was *wrong* about something! It’s because that means I’ve learned something new.

      When I was little I always wanted to become an engineer. But, I got into science because in high school I had a really good physics teacher who made me realise that I liked finding out more about the universe much more than just building things.

      After that, I wanted to go to university to study physics, I wanted to learn more about atoms, electricity, and how everything works.

    • Photo: Gaby Mayorga Adame

      Gaby Mayorga Adame answered on 29 Sep 2020:

      My favourite thing about science is that is based on facts, rather than opinions. That the truths of science can be tested and reproduced. I like learning from experience rather than just reading something, I like to reproduce experiments and see what happens.
      I got into science when I chose to study oceanography. Since I saw the ocean at 10 years old I was so impressed I wanted to study it to understand it. I loved lab experiments since secondary school, I think chemistry had the most impressive experiments.

    • Photo: Allyson Lister

      Allyson Lister answered on 29 Sep 2020:

      I agree completely with Gaby about facts being awesome, and with Chris that being wrong is really important. What great answers!

      I will add imagination to that list. For me, my favorite thing about science is that in order to be a good scientist, you need to have an active imagination. There are always new puzzles to solve, both small (how do I fix that bug in my computer program?) and large (what is the best way to represent the Citric Acid Cycle in a computer simulation?). It’s super exercise for the brain.

    • Photo: Stephen Clarke

      Stephen Clarke answered on 29 Sep 2020:

      Saving peoples lives. I work in Pharmaceuticals and am personally responsible for deciding if batches are fit for use or not. In one facility we made around 70% of the Penicillin that is used in anti-biotics, in another facility we were making anti-cancer drugs and soon I’ll be joining the fight against Covid-19

    • Photo: Will Davison

      Will Davison answered on 30 Sep 2020:

      I love meeting up with scientists from all over the world and talking about our work and seeing everyone get super excited and enthusiastic about their work. Every time I go to conferences it’s just such an infectious atmosphere to have everyone there to learn from each other about how everyone does things and learning for the sake of learning without the pressure of exams and stuff afterwards!

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