• Question: whats the best thing about being a scientist?

    Asked by xploding to Edd, Zara on 24 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by josh791, combelad250.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi xploding

      I like a lot of things about my job:
      – I have the freedom to look at whatever I want. This means I can go off and look at new areas for studying or research new things that interest me. Nobody tells me what to do and I can work on things I enjoy!

      – I like working with other scientists and learning from them. Almost all our research is done together with other people so this feels like a proper team effort!

      – I like finding out new things! Sometimes these are things that I hadn’t learned about before, but other people have studied. Sometimes these are new things that nobody has ever found out before – this is when science gets really exciting!

      – I like studying ecology and animal behaviour because I find animals and their behaviour really interesting and want to understand how they behave and why they do certain things.

      – I like the fact that some of my work can be really relevant and useful and make a positive difference to people and the environment. For example work we did on overfishing led to us being invited to a special EU meeting where we came up with a new plan to manage cod in Europe – this made us feel like we could really make a difference! Some work I am doing now on how human crowds behave could be really useful for people who need to manage crowds when there is a fire escape or in a large football crowd.

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      Hey xploding, josh791 and combelad250! 🙂

      Oooh tough question! There are a few things that I love about my job:

      1. Getting to work outside… I’ve worked in some beautiful places – lochs, rivers. It’s even better if the weather’s good! I even got a tan once (in Scotland?!!!). Much better than being stuck in a stuffy office!

      2. Travelling – as well as travelling to do fieldwork, I get to go to conferences to present my results – last year I went to France and met loads of other crayfish geeks 😛 we chatted about our work… and I’ve never eaten so much nutella in my life!

      3. Probably THE best thing… is finding out things about animals that nobody else knows! 8) and knowing that the results I find will help solve important problems in today’s society! The more we know about animals, the more we can do to protect them… so that future generations can appreciate them too!

      Scientists don’t know everything (as you’ve probably found out! check out this video I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Va-Y2kL5CI or http://www.zaragladman.com/ias.wmv ). But they can help answer important questions!

      PS Actually, yknow… one of the best things is also sharing my results with people like you and getting great feedback! I’m always chuffed when people are actually interested in my work!

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