• Question: Hello! I hope your well. I was wondering if you were able to answer my question, which is... Looking back on your childhood would it be clear to someone that you were going to become a scientist? I hope you like my question. Bye!

    Asked by anon-291482 to Quentin, Neil on 23 Apr 2021.
    • Photo: Quentin Leclerc

      Quentin Leclerc answered on 23 Apr 2021:

      Hello Charlotte! Hmm well it wasn’t clear to me when I was younger that I was going to become a scientist, I had no idea! But maybe other people thought this could happen? At school, I always liked science after all, and I think I even had a toy microscope at some point. Still, I never imagined that I would end up working in science, I only found the subject interesting!

    • Photo: Neil Guthrie

      Neil Guthrie answered on 27 Apr 2021:

      Hi Charlotte, I am good thanks, hope you are as well! Sorry it has taken a couple of days to get back to you! I would say definitely not! I wasn’t ever very good at the science subjects at school. I took Physics and Chemistry at Standard Grade and then Physics at Higher level. And I passed them with OK grades in the end but they wern’t my favourite. I only started to enjoy science really at univresity when I realised you could apply it to so many things! For example, Sport, Exercise and Health, which is what I studied and now what I do for a job! And I only started this job when I was 28 so even through my twenties it still wasn’t clear I would be working in science!

      Hope this answers your question! 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: Ed

    Ed commented on :

    Yes good question. Not really. I liked lots of things, I think I just enjoyed science a little more than my other subjects at school. Even at University lots of people do science like chemistry, biology and physics but end up doing all sorts when they finish.

  • Photo: Karrie

    Karrie commented on :

    When I was young, I dont even understand “what does scientist do?” or “what I need to do to become one?”.

    But I know one thing for sure is that, I wish I can have a career with using number/maths. But only when I was 22 (graduated from university, then I figure out what i can do) Now, I am still learning and evoluting everyday.

  • Photo: Lucile

    Lucile commented on :

    Hi Charlotte! That’s a great question! I’d say that people might have been able to guess that I would become an archaeologist because that’s what I always said I wanted to do, although many people didn’t think it was achievable, nor a great career option.

    That said, I think most of my teachers at school would probably be suprised to see that I became a scientist! Because archaeology is closely related to History and Humanities, I didn’t focus much on science subjects at school, and gradually fell behind on these subjects. It was only at University that I realised how useful biology, chemistry and geology were to archaeologists, and decided I wanted to improve my science knowledge! 🙂

  • Photo: Steve

    Steve commented on :

    I’m not sure they would have guessed I would be a scientist, but my parents and teachers always used to say I had a fascination with knowing things, and how they worked, and for detail and was inquisitive. So I guess those are all qualities you need to be a scientist.

  • Photo: Angela

    Angela commented on :

    i can only connect the dot looking backwards – it was hard to know at that time but my interests led me to this career i suppose