• Question: why did you become a scientist

    Asked by zainab to Catherine, Charlotte, Colin, Becki, Rick on 17 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by bluedolphin11, beccasmiley123, demibrookfield, jadeestonee, hollierose.
    • Photo: Rebecca Scott

      Rebecca Scott answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I became a scientist because I was frustrated at having to send my samples to someone else for analysis. I would dig up objects and record them, but had to have someone else tell me all about them. I wanted to be able to do that myself. So I went back to uni and studied science through a forensic archaeology course. I love being able to tell the story of an object from its creation through to destruction or abandonment all through the interpretation of scientific data. I also like testing the assumptions made about objects. For example, all ancient glass can be recycled. I got some old glasses and melted them together to see if this was true or not…

    • Photo: Colin Swift

      Colin Swift answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Because I find the subject to be very interesting, learning how and why things work, how the laws of physics apply to everyday situations, and discovering (and publishing) research work on new aspects of science.

    • Photo: Catherine Fontinelle

      Catherine Fontinelle answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I probably really wanted to be a doctor however, on reflection, I was too terrified of everything at the time to have been the best medical student.
      I went to one of the best universities, and, by choosing the subjects that appealed to me most, ended up with a Microbiology degree. My favourite topic had been Medical Microbiology and a job vacancy appeared at the local hospital. The rest…is history.

    • Photo: Charlotte Dalton

      Charlotte Dalton answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I think it is because I was always interested in the way the world works, I used to go to the library when I was little and get tons of books about science and geography, and the more I read the more interesting it was. Plus I was good at maths in school (probably better than I am now!) but it seemed a bit dull to me, science was like a more exciting version of maths!

    • Photo: Rick Smith

      Rick Smith answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I think I am the same as Charlotte in that I always wanted to find out how things worked. As a child I took every thing apart to see how it worked from things like my toys to things like my parents video recorder (I wasn’t always able to put them back together again). Being so curious I think only becoming a scientist would let me feel rewarded and satisfied.

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