• Question: How long have you been interested in science and what would you say is the best part of your job?

    Asked by anon-290377 on 20 Apr 2021.
    • Photo: Ross Low

      Ross Low answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,
      I started to really enjoy science when I was doing my GCSE’s, but it wasn’t until I was about 20 that I decided I wanted a career in science. Until then I was just sticking with the subjects I enjoyed most.

      The best part of my job is when I finish an experiment and I get the results. Before I tell people I’m the only person in the world who knows that thing.

    • Photo: Karrie Liu

      Karrie Liu answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,

      I love Maths from young age, honestly cannot even remember when or how.

      The best part of my job is that “explaining people how number/maths is important in our life, and I can translating a hard/difficult information into pretty data viz. I believe everyone good at different thing, and we are all trying to work together to make the world to be a better place.

      Regards,
      Karrie

    • Photo: Abdullah Iqbal

      Abdullah Iqbal answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,
      I have been interested in science since midway though highschool. I don’t really know when but it was fascinating to learn about the workings of the world and the body. The main importance is that you have an interest in the topic. Even though I was interested at that time I didn’t think I would become a scientist until the end of my GCSE’s and early college years.
      The best part of my job is doing experiments that is working on an area of science that no one else knows about. The information I am discovering is brand new and could have massive impact.

    • Photo: Quentin Leclerc

      Quentin Leclerc answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hello!
      I was already interested in science during high school, but my interest became more and more specific the more I learned. For example, in high school I just liked biology in general, but then at university I realised that I preferred to study small living things (bacteria!) instead of big ones (like animals).
      Now, the best part of my job is solving problems, which is something that I always enjoyed when I was growing up! I use a lot of maths in my work, it’s always really satisfying when I manage to find the solution to a problem and the numbers suddenly make sense. Especially since these numbers represent what real, living organisms do, so I feel like I’ve learned more about how the world around us works.
      Hope that answered your question! 🙂

    • Photo: Neil Guthrie

      Neil Guthrie answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,
      I have been interested in science since I began my degree, so when I was 18. This is when I realised it can be applied in so many ways that are relevant to so many different people/scenarios. My favourite part of my job is teaching the students how to use all of the specialist equipment we have in our lab, which we have lots of!
      Thanks for the question!
      Neil

    • Photo: Steve Briddon

      Steve Briddon answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,

      I’ve been properly interested in science since I was at secondary school. I just got really fascinated by understanding how everything around us works. It started with physics and understanding atoms, which lead to a love of chemistry which increased through my A level studies. I work in something completely different now, but it’s still a fascination with how things on a very small scale (in my case cells and medicines) can change our bodies and how we work!

      As for the best part of my job, I would say when you try a new idea and it works! And just for a tiny minute, you’re probably the only person on the planet that knows it! Equally, I love working in a team with other scientists and talking to them about ideas and results.

    • Photo: Kip Heath

      Kip Heath answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      I’ve always liked science, when moving house I found my collection of ‘Horrible Science’ books from when I was in primary school. The best part of my job is that it’s got a lot of variety. I spend some days in meetings, some days answering emails, some days swabbing wards to see what viruses are there and once I spent a day with reindeer!

    • Photo: Ed Peake

      Ed Peake answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Since I was 14 so about 12 years – I really enjoyed seeing the chemical reaction when we convinced our supply teacher to add a load of potassium to water (BOOM!). Best part of my job is finding out something no one else has ever discovered. For example, in the Physics department at Nottingham Uni we showed that you can levitate a frog using really strong magnets!

    • Photo: Rosie Goodburn

      Rosie Goodburn answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      I have been interested in science since I was quite young. I was very lucky that my parents would buy some of those illustrated science encyclopedias that had great pictures of things like the structure of atoms and of planets and stars. This was in the days (90s!) before everyone had the internet, and there wasn’t as much on the web anyway!
      .
      The best part of my job is definitely the fact that I get to solve problems to create something useful and push forward my little part of the science!

    • Photo: Sophie Comer-Warner

      Sophie Comer-Warner answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hey IndigoJ,

      I was interested in science when I was younger – around 9-10 and then when I went to high school I stopped being interested for a while. I got back into science during my AS and A levels and then took chemistry at university. The best part of my job is collecting samples and running experiments at my fieldsites, I have worked in England, Spain, Vietnam, Sweden, USA and Canada and it is always fun to be outside in streams and mangrove forests!

    • Photo: Lucile Crete

      Lucile Crete answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,

      I have been interested in science since I was very young, about 7 or 8 years old, thanks to very good teachers in primary school and thanks to the science magazines that my parents would get for me. I was convinced that I wanted to be an archaeologist by the time I was 9, and I never changed my mind (although many people told me as I grew up that it was not a real job, or that I would be very difficult)!

      I’d say the best part of my job is that I get to travel and work with a lot of great scientists, which means that I get to learn new things all the time. I really love fieldwork as well, when working on excavations, and never get tired of the thrill of findings objects or bones that have not seen the light of day in thousands of years!

    • Photo: Carmen Whitehead

      Carmen Whitehead answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      I have been interested in Science since primary school, where I had a wonderful teacher who was very passionate about Science. This sparked an early interest and it was my favourite subject through school. During my high school studies I developed a further interest in Human Biology and get studying this while at university.
      The best part of my job is doing lab work and knowing that my work is ultimately helping people get the right diagnosis and treatment for what might be making the sick!

    • Photo: Laurence Tan

      Laurence Tan answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      I have always been interested in science from a young age, I would say I have always been more interested in Biology and Chemistry! I would say the best part of my job is knowing that the work I am doing could genuinely make a big difference to peoples lives and from a personal aspect the most fun part of my job is the freedom to be creative with the experiments I want to do!

    • Photo: Rebecca Reed

      Rebecca Reed answered on 20 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,

      I’ve been interested in science since secondary school, but it took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I just followed what I enjoyed most, even up to my Master’s degree. It was only after that that I realised I wanted to do research.

      I’d say the best part of my job is running experiments. I’ve always loved the hands-on part of my job, and designing my own tests, running the experiments and getting information out of it that I didn’t have before is really interesting.

    • Photo: Lisa Humphreys

      Lisa Humphreys answered on 21 Apr 2021:

      Hi IndigoJ,

      I’ve been interested in science since I was a wee girl. I loved watching science fiction films and tv shows with my dad. My dad passed on his love of science to me. I enjoyed learning new things in physics and chemistry especially when I was in school. I wasn’t quite sure how I would apply this joy to a career until I had to start thinking about what I would want to take on to study at a more intense level at university. I settled on Forensic and Analytical Chemistry as my favourite aspect of chemistry as this was all about problem solving and drawing the value from the data you collect.

      My favourite part of my job is that I get to teach a wide variety of students of all ages and backgrounds about my area of research; explosive mixtures.

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