• Question: What do you enjoy most about being a scientist?

    Asked by shreedesai to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 14 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by alf1e, evieb123, tmbeharry.
    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      I really enjoy talking about science- in particular microbiology of course- and trying to find out ways of making new discoveries. It is important to me that, whatever I do, that it is going to benefit society in some way, and even though I don’t get paid lots of money, I love the variety of my work as well- no two days are the same.

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      What I love most about science is that it tells a story. Not just any story, but THE story, the story about how the world is and why it came to be this way. And what I enjoy about being a scientist is that I get to tell a little bit of this story – not just to myself, but to the whole world, because it affects everyone just as much. Even though an astronomer or a geologist may seem to be doing completely different things from what I do, in the end our parts all add up to a whole! It’s easy to forget the real meaning of science when I’m struggling over the day-to-day grind in the lab, but when I do get a result I’m reminded why I’m doing this, and that’s what makes me happy with life!

    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      The freedom to do research into whatever I can get the funding for.
      The chance to make a difference.
      The (very) childish satisfaction of “I know something you don’t know” that comes with finding out something totally new.
      I could go on…

    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      I enjoy the freedom of working in science – as long as I work hard, I can plan each day myself and make my own decisions about how to best spend my time. I also like knowing more than almost anybody else about one particular thing and being able to look for jobs anywhere in the world where they need people who know it!

    • Photo: Ruth Mitchell

      Ruth Mitchell answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I most enjoy fitting my story into the bigger picture of how our bodies work, thinking how cool this is and discovering something new that no-one knew before! Also, I like the practical side of experiments (we are not just sat at a desk all day).

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