• Question: Has being a scientist helped you?

    Asked by anon-255121 on 19 May 2020.
    • Photo: Emma Daniels

      Emma Daniels answered on 19 May 2020:

      Hi Hisham, great question! I think being a scientist helps me a lot in my day to day life. In the lab I have to solve problems most days, so I think my problem solving skills are much better than they would be if I wasn’t a scientist. Being a researcher has also taught me to be critical about what I read and see – I always do my own research to make sure I have all the facts. But most importantly, being a scientist has helped me be a better team player! My lab is quite big, and I work with a lot of people who all have different areas of knowledge. Being able to work in a diverse team is one of my favourite skills that I’ve learnt from being a scientist!

    • Photo: Alicia Galdon

      Alicia Galdon answered on 19 May 2020:

      What an interesting question! I think being a scientist has helped me in a lot of ways, but something that I think is really important (especially in todays society with all our access to the media) is that it has made me very critical, but in a good way! Being a scientist, we know that in order to trust data you have to make sure your experiments are done in a proper way, with all the right controls to make sure your data is real and it isn’t just something that happened by chance, or by mistake! This means that before we can publish our work to the world, it has to be looked over very carefully by experts in the field that check it, and they give feedback such as how you can make it better and even more reliable. This is called ‘peer review’, and because of this process, it means I’m very careful with the information I do and don’t trust. We should all be cautious with information we read on the internet or in newspapers unless we know it’s come from a reliable source (like scientific research papers, or websites like the NHS and World Health Organisation) – and I think being a scientist has helped me better understand what is reliable information and what isn’t. I know not to believe a lot of headlines in the media without reading the research they came from, because sometimes they quote things wrong, or they try make something seem better, or worse, than it might actually be (we call this sensationalism). As well as helping me, it also means I can help friends and family better understand what to believe and what not to believe, which can be really useful.

    • Photo: Alex Holmes

      Alex Holmes answered on 19 May 2020:

      This is such a good question, I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about how being a scientist has helped me, but there are so many ways!

      I think being a scientist has helped me personally by making me way more confident – I used to be so shy in school and scared of asking a stupid question (not that there’s any such thing as one) or saying something silly. Every day in the lab, I have to talk to the people I work with so we can organise lab chores, or I have to ask if I can’t find something or I can’t remember how to use something. Or I have to talk to people in other labs I don’t know as well to talk about equipment or working with them. I also have to present in front of people all the time, which years ago would’ve scared me so bad – and it still does – but I know I can do it now and I feel confident in myself to do it. You also have to learn how to stand up for yourself and your research because sometimes people ask really tricky questions or think they’ve found a flaw in your work (and sometimes they really have but sometimes it’s a mistake on their part) and you have to be able to talk about it with confidence and remember even if there is a flaw, it’s unlikely to be your fault!

    • Photo: Sophie Pritchard

      Sophie Pritchard answered on 19 May 2020:

      This is a very interesting question! It has certainly helped me to have an appreciation of the amount of time it takes to make new medicines, and new scientific developments. I never realised the amount of safety checks there were, and the number of scientists that had to review and comment on your work. Being a Scientist also makes you question things, and I am always googling how something works. It gives you a very inquisitive brain. Science is also great to develop your team working and communication skills!

    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 19 May 2020:

      Well….being a professional scientist has kept me in steady employment! I think the training in science to question and research everything is really valuable in every day life. However, other disciplines do this as well. My son is studying modern studies at the moment and my sister is an art historian and they both use similar research methods as science, just not the actual experimental part. Working at home at the moment, though, it’s really hitting home to me how much I actually love the hands-on nature of scientific research. I can still do some research by reading other published work to design experiments to ask questions, but I can’t actually do the experiments and I find this pretty boring, to be honest. So, being a lab-based scientist certainly helps me not to be bored!

    • Photo: Alena Pance

      Alena Pance answered on 19 May 2020:

      Hisham, certainly and in many ways. I have learned a lot about how cells work and how they interacti with each other… super important when it comes to the immune system and understanding how it fights disease! But I also learned many other things like analytic thinking, speaking in public, teaching, critical reading of scientific material. I have met wonderful very interesting people from all over the world through my work and I have also travelled to fabulous places to present my work at conferences and meet collaborators.

    • Photo: Louisa Lee

      Louisa Lee answered on 20 May 2020:

      Hi Hisham, being a scientist has definitely helped me in lots of ways! Not only have I learned a lot about subjects that I am interested in, and have made interesting discoveries, but I have also gained many useful skills and travelled to different places to meet other scientists. It has given me opportunities to teach and communicate with young students like you! I have been able to work in mixed teams and give talks about my research, problem solve and adapt my plans in order to further my research. When you do any kind of project, you have to expect that things will go wrong, but it’s a good skill to be able to think of a way to overcome your problems and being a scientist, I’ve had to do this often 🙂 When you are training to become a good scientist, as Emma and Alicia both said, you have to be able to look at someone’s research and look at it critically, question what they have done, and make sure that you can believe what they are reporting. I hope you also think being a scientist is worthwhile, and consider science in the future!

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