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Asked by anon-254370 on 22 May 2020. This question was also asked by anon-255202.
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Alicia Galdon answered on 22 May 2020:
I was always interested in how the body works, and I really wanted a job that would help people and make a difference. At first, this made me want to be a doctor. But then when I started listening to and reading the news a bit more, I used to get really interested whenever there was a new medical discovery. I was always so impressed by the scientists – I thought they were really inspiring and clever. I thought it would be amazing to be part of that – but I had no idea thats what I’d actually end up doing! But I think this is what got me interested in being a scientist in general, and why I studied Biomedical Sciences at University.
When thinking about what research I wanted to do, I always thought that it was cancer research that I wanted to be involved in – I couldn’t really picture myself doing anything else. But during my degree I realised that I didn’t really enjoy my lectures on cancer – they were complicated and quite dull! Instead, I found that I was really good at immunology, and although most of my friends found the immune system really difficult to learn about and most of them hated it – I loved it! I knew that I’d found my area, but I was a bit sad at the thought of not working on cancer. This was until my final term at university when I was taught about how the immune system is really important in stopping cancer from developing, and how scientists are trying to use the immune system for treating cancer. It was like a massive lightbulb moment – I remember sitting in my lecture and thinking this was it! I’d found the perfect field for me, and it’s what I’m now doing my PhD in.
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Alex Holmes answered on 22 May 2020:
By never accepting the first answer.
Have you ever had to deal with a really small child who’s favourite question is “why?”? Well imagine that, but an adult and doing their pharmacology degree and the question “how?”.
Pharmacology is the study of how medicines and the body interact. So in my lectures the teacher would say “paracetamol is a painkiller, if you’re in pain you can take it and it will stop” and I would say “how?” and then they would say “when part of your body is damaged it gets inflammed (red, swollen, warm and painful) and paracetamol reduces the inflammation” and I would say … you guessed it! “How?”. “Okay Alex, when paracetamol is given to cells it stops the pathways involved in causing inflammation” “….how?”.
“Okay game on”, my lecturers would say “paracetamol stops a protein called COX from working, which then stops COX from activating the later pathways involved in inflammation and therefore stop pain part of inflammation and act as a painkiller”
Now you guessed it: “how? How does it stop COX from working?”
The paracetamol binds to the protein through different kinds of chemical bonds and causes the protein to change shape a little and blocks any other chemicals getting in that would then be activated and activate inflammation pathways. I wanted to know how things worked on the absolute most detailed level and it turns out – a whole bunch of other scientists did too and had discovered ways of finding the answers out and I decided to join them!
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Emma Daniels answered on 22 May 2020:
I first got interested in Chemistry at school. I had two really great chemistry teachers that inspired me to pursue a career in science. While I was doing my Chemistry degree at university, I started becoming really passionate about environmental issues, particularly about global warming and the issues surrounding plastic pollution. TV shows like Blue Planet made a lot of people, including me, realise how big the problem was and I decided I wanted to do something about it. So I started looking for PhD programs that centered around environmental issues. That’s how I found the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies at the University of Bath. I applied and was lucky enough to get in! Now I work on making plastics from renewable resources, like sugar, to try and reduce plastic pollution.
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