Question: Do you get any competition when you are making new discoveries?

Gemma Purser answered on 28 Jun 2012:

Hi boxofstrawbs,

Yes, you can get some competition as such. Sometimes people like to try and discover something first before anyone else and so can sometimes be more secretive with their data until they have published it in papers. The best thing sometimes that happens in science is when all the people that are having similar ideas about an area of work get together and discuss ideas and help each other to learn more. This is called collaboration and can involve many people at many different research institutions or companies.