Question: Thank you for answering my questions... :D I would like to know more about everyday life being a scientist

Rebecca Scott answered on 25 Jun 2013:

Ok, well, for me everyday is different. I work in a university, so I teach a class once a week and also help students with course work. I spend quite a lot of time with the pXRF (portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, the thing that looks like a ray gun), sometimes I’m in the lab and sometimes I’m out in the field with it. I also visit other universities to use their machines if we don’t have a technique available here.

Generating the data is only a part of the lab work though. I have to look at the numbers generated and try and work out what they mean. This can be really time consuming. There is also quite a lot of reading involved. There are so many people researching on different areas of the same or similar subjects, so it is really important to read and keep up-to-date with the work they are doing too. And the flip side to that is I have to try and publish my work for them to read.

I’m lucky because in my job I also get the opportunity to do more archaeological things as well, so once a year I try and go on an excavation, where I’ll dig or help with the geophysics and things.

I enjoy the variety in my job, not all science jobs have that, but I honestly think that I would get really bored if I had to do the same thing all the time.