• Question: what the best part of being a professional scientist?

    Asked by to Clare, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 19 Mar 2014:


      There are lots of things that I like about being a scientist! I really like the variation in work, sometimes we are up and about and doing experiments, and othertimes working in an office. I really like spending time thinking about the world around us and solving problems. I also like the flexibility of the work, having my own project that I’m working on, and travelling!

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 19 Mar 2014:


      I like the fact that you are paid to be curious! My life is spent asking questions. I don’t always get to do the research to answer those questions, but the point of being a scientist is trying to find out new things. Most scientists will never make one huge breakthrough, but will make lots of little ones which, working with other scientists also doing that, will help us work out how our world works… (That’s the idea, anyway!)

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 20 Mar 2014:


      The variety – I might be a biochemist officially and spend most of my time looking at cells, viruses and bacteria but microscopes aren’t just for that so I get chemists and engineers with nanotechnology they need to look at and weird stuff like ice cream, Mars rocks and dog hair – a constant supply of new things to indulge my curiosity.

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