• Question: when you were a child what or who inspired you to become a great scientist you are today?? and what made you choose the category you work in today???

    Asked by alishac to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 11 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by eillim, lukeyoung.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Haha thanks for calling us great scientists! I’m not sure I’m that great yet!

      I don’t remember any one thing or one person that inspired me. I had a few really good science teachers at school which meant that I always enjoyed science lessons and ended up doing a science degree. Near the end of my science degree, we had to spend 20 weeks working in a lab and I really enjoyed it, so I decided I wanted to carry on working in labs.

      I didn’t know what research I wanted to do, but thought stem cells sounded cool, so I applied for and got a place on a PhD course where we get to try out 3 different labs working on 3 different things in the first year of the course. I did some work on brains and a form of epilepsy and I did some work on how bones grow as well as the work I am now doing on sugar consumption by stem cells. When I was doing those 3 projects in 3 different labs, I was deciding which one I wanted to carry on doing by thinking about how interesting I found the science and how well I got on with the people I had to work with. You have to be happy at work, so you need to find it interesting, but I think it’s also really important to find it easy to work with the people you have to work with.

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Flattery will get you everywhere! I’m definitely not at the great stage yet but it’s something to aspire to!

      I had a couple of good teachers who made me interested in the subject, they showed me what science has helped achieve and that it could be something I did as well. Also around that time was the start of the debate about genetically modified foods which got me interested in the subject of genetics and was the reason I chose biochemistry and genetics for my degree.

      The reason I started to work in tissue engineering is because when I was 15 I fell and fractured my wrist, this then didn’t heal and when I was 16 and 19 I needed operations to try and fix the break. This involved taking bone from my hip and placing it into my wrist and screwing it in place, which as you can imagine really hurt! It also didn’t work all that well and I still get pain from time to time. At the time I hadn’t heard of tissue engineering but when I was choosing my PhD project it seemed like a really interesting area of research and one that could be used to help people like me who had fractures which wouldn’t heal. After that I started to work more and more with stem cells which are really important for bone healing and now I spend my days finding out more about tooth stem cells and turning them into bone-like tissue.

    • Photo: Anzy Miller

      Anzy Miller answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Hi alishac!
      When I was really little I wanted to be a vet because I really liked animals, but I did a week voluntary work at a vets, and then I realised that I was really squeamish! But all throughout school I liked the science subjects (or most of each subject – there was always parts that I didn’t find interesting), so when I was about 17ish and actually thinking about going to university I did some more work experience, but in a research lab this time. This experience I thought was really cool – I got to have a go with some experiments as well, and I think that all sparked my interest.

      I then just followed whatever interested me – chose the modules at uni that I thought were cool or interesting, and I also chose a university that allowed me to do a “Year in industry” – This was a whole year of working in a lab in a pharmaceutical industry – and really was the best way to experience working as a researcher (a whole year of working on a project, compared to the practicals you do at school or uni that are only for a couple of hours and you already know what the answer should be).

      So really the way in which I have ended up being a scientist and doing the research I’m doing now, was just trying stuff out – what interested me? what didn’t? And hopefully I will become a great scientist hahah!

Comments

  • Photo: alishac

    alishac commented on :

    oh ok I really like science but I don’t know whether I am very good I am trying to get inspiration

    • Photo: Dave

      Dave commented on :

      If you enjoy it and think you want to do it, then just try. I’m still not sure that I’m any good at science, but I’m still trying. If you stop liking the science because it gets stressful and too much hard work, then science isn’t for you, but you should try to do it if you like it. Good luck! 🙂

  • Photo: Matt

    Matt commented on :

    Enthusiasm is one of the most important things, if you like what you do then you’ll work hard and you will succeed. I don’t think I’m very good, but I love my work and that has allowed me to put in the effort to get where I am now.

  • Photo: alishac

    alishac commented on :

    ok thankyou for your support i will try science but if things dont work then i known what i want to do