Question: How long did it take you to do the longest experitment you have ever done?

Jess Wade answered on 18 Jun 2015:

Some experiments take years and years ! A PhD is basically a four year experiment, where sometimes you don’t even get a proper answer!

My longest running experiment was over about three weeks in Korea- we had to keep taking data and going for food and going back to the lab. Things often happen quite slowly. If you do your work with X-rays you use a special device called a synchrotron. It bends particles with a magnetic and makes them move really fast, making really high energy x-rays. IT’s super hard to get any time using these pieces of equipment because they are really rare and really popular, so you have to book months in advance and then go for a week or so. You have to stay up all night to get the results you need in time, so people go in teams and sleep on shifts- kind of like guarding a tree house. Sometimes, astrophysicists have to do this when they are looking at the stars.