• Question: Although your scientific knowledge is obviously quite high, how well do you do in other subjects?

    Asked by nateleya to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      I think scientists are mostly people who are interested in things, be that science or other subjects. I like to think I have a pretty good level of general knowledge and I’m trying to learn a couple of languages at the moment, but I think it’s a myth that scientists are these super intelligent people. We’re no more intelligent than a lot of people, it’s more curiosity that drives us, at least that is the case for me.

    • Photo: Anzy Miller

      Anzy Miller answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      Hi Nateleya!
      I actually think my general knowledge is pretty bad! I like learning, but I realise I like learning only when I’m interested in it, so stuff like politics or history I don’t know much! (Although the older Ive got, the more interested I’ve become..!) So at pub quizes, noone wants me on their team 😛

      I also think that we get very specialised in what research we do – so although i really liked chemistry at school, I have forgotten a lot of stuff I learnt because I don’t use it every day or need to think about it…

      Anzy

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 15 Nov 2013:

      I agree with Matt, that science encourages us to be curious about a lot of subjects and doesn’t need us to be super-smart. Because I’m curious and like to find out a lot about everything, I became interested in science at school and since then I’ve carried on enjoying science, but I do also enjoy reading books about history, psychology, economics, politics, languages, art, music, films and sport, as well as fiction. I think I have a fairly good general knowledge because of this. I don’t think I’m very intelligent, I just read a lot about a lot of different things.

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