• Question: Have you ever had an interesting dream or daydream about science? If so, what was was it about?

    Asked by AnabellesThrone to Matthew, K, Jacque, Hazel, Fiona, Daniel on 6 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Fiona Macfarlane

      Fiona Macfarlane answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      I sometimes dream about my work when I sleep, mainly about ways to resolve problems in my computer code. Sometimes the ideas actually work, although not always. I’m not sure these are really that interesting though!

    • Photo: Hazel Gibson

      Hazel Gibson answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      I daydream about science related things all the time! A recent one I had after watching Studio Ghibli’s film Ponyo revolved around the questions: what would it be like if I was living in the Carboniferous Era right now, when dragonflies were the size of seagulls and cockroaches the size of hamsters were alive, and what would the ground be like without grass (because grass evolved really recently)? Would the world feel different to live in so long ago, or would it feel just like it does now, only wierder? All of these thoughts run through my head when I start daydreaming – especially about geology. What would a Triceratop’s skin feel like? What does granite look like 4km underground? Will we ever be able to see the change between the mantle and crust where it happens, rather than just in rocks that suggest it? So many questions and I like to dream about all of them.

      That’s the fun of science for me, because if any of those dreams gets too pressing then I can go off and start trying to find out. Daydreams and what-if questions for me are the beginning of a lot of science. Just like Fiona says, we often dream about our work and that wondering just makes it better in my opinion!

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