• Question: what was your worst experience as a scientist?

    Asked by Ellie to Andres, Catherine, Darren, Ellie, Samantha on 5 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Morgdog❤️.
    • Photo: Ellie Paige

      Ellie Paige answered on 5 Nov 2016:

      I haven’t had any definitively bad experiences as a scientist. I think to work in science you need to be quite good at dealing with experiments/studies when they go wrong and at handling rejection. I don’t know about everyone else, but when I set out to answer a science question, I find things almost never go to plan and I always run into problems that need to be solved. But this is one of the things I like most about science (it’s challenging). It’s never nice when you write a paper that is rejected by a journal or when you are turned down for something that you apply for, but I usually try to see these as opportunities to learn and grow.

    • Photo: Andres Olivares del Campo

      Andres Olivares del Campo answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      I agree with Ellie. Sciences comes with its up and downs, sometimes you try something, you work on it very hard but it does not yield the results you were expecting or it does not work at all! However, I think its beauty is that you are always learning new things: Even when things do not work, you learn something in the process, and these things you learn might possibly be useful in the future, for you or for someone else! Also, on an even more positive note, when you get groundbreaking results, the feeling is amazing!

    • Photo: Darren Rhodes

      Darren Rhodes answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      Hi. Good question!

      I echo what was said below – however I will just add that I try to depersonalise myself from the scientific method. By that, I mean that I try to not get emotionally involved in the results of an experiment. Science is about proving theories wrong; it’s above getting evidence and re-testing your ideas. If you’re getting every answer you want when doing science – you’re either doing it wrong, or you are very lucky.

      I have been fortunate enough to work with some brilliant people and cannot say that I have had a definitively bad experience… Rather, there were some tough times learning the techniques I use in my research, but these frustrations are completely overwritten by the feeling of accomplishment when you understand what you are doing.

    • Photo: Samantha Watson

      Samantha Watson answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      The most heart-stoppingly bad thing was losing a radiation source! Thankfully it was very small, and not a major hazard, but obviously it is really important NOT to lose them! Thankfully after about 5-10 minutes panic I found it, but in the meantime I had a sharp lesson in how we would have to notify international organisations if I couldn’t find it, and how it would become a very bad thing.

    • Photo: Catherine Wigley

      Catherine Wigley answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      Unfortunately in my field working within a clinical hospital environment I have to deal with some sad things, I might make the initial findings that a patient has leukaemia, or have a patient die after an illness or accident, I might have worked all night to provide blood transfusion support and that can be hard. The hours are long and tiring, but the pay off is that I get to help people and assist doctors and nurses to save and enhance lives from behind the scenes everyday.

Comments