• Question: what inspired you to do science?

    Asked by horsehead to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by megz, samr, samueleason.
    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi horsehead!

      It was a combination of two things:

      1. An interest in the subject, especially animal biology! I’ve always been fascinated by wildlife – I grew up watching David Attenborough – so a job that involved studying them sounded ideal!

      2. Great, inspiring teachers… I had a good biology teacher at school and my lecturers at university were brilliant too. Without their support and encouragement, I wouldnt be doing what I do today!

      🙂

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I have always been interested in science – I have always been curious about the world around me and wanted to find out the answers to questions I had.

      I suppose I was inspired by my science teachers at school who encouraged me to continue learning and studying. However, I guess the moment I thought I wanted to study science as a career was when I did a course on ‘mathematical biology’ in my maths degree – this was what inspired me to really go for it. I realised that I could use the maths skills that I had learnt to look at ecological problems which I found most interesting. So I did a PhD where I used maths to study animal behaviour and here I am!

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Hi horsehead,

      I think just wanting to know more of what goes on inside our body. I have answered similar questions and when I think about it.. our cells are ‘living’ and seem to know how to respond to different things but at a more simpler level- it is all based on the chemical reactions that goes on – everything is made of molecules so enzyme reactions or the many signalling pathways. To think that these small things are probably the most important because we need it to stay alive makes it quite hard for me to comprehend sometimes.
      Teachers definitley played a part because I remember there was a time when we had quite a few new teachers that didn’t give us any lab work.. just textbook stuff!! I never payed attention in those lessons until we got our old teachers back and they were lots of fun!!!

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I guess I had an inner and an outer inspiration to become a scientist. The inner inspiration was a drive to get to the bottom of all questions. The outer inspiration was that I was surrounded by scientists at a very young age, and I guess this made me feel comfortable aroundscientists.
      We have answered similar questions a number of times, it’s worth flicking through previous questions, they are really good 😉

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