• Question: What is the hardest challenge that you have encountered as a Chemist?

    Asked by anon-227008 to William, Thibaut "Tibo", Harry, Georgia, Emily, Aimee on 9 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Georgia Orton

      Georgia Orton answered on 9 Nov 2019: last edited 9 Nov 2019 11:34 am

      A lot of my work involves using chemicals which set on fire or fall apart if they touch air. I had to learn how to use these chemicals safely which took a while and made me quite nervous. Now I am confident doing this kind of work.

      The most important thing I do is work out what I would do if things went wrong. That has only happened once for me. My planning meant that I knew exactly what to do so I was very calm and fixed the problem immediately.

    • Photo: Aimee Egglestone

      Aimee Egglestone answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Good Question! I would say my personal biggest challenge always comes from balancing safety with efficiency! We generally say that we want to keep things “As safe as reasonably practicable” which basically means that there’s a constant push and pull between “safe” and “easy”. My excitable brain always wants to get on with the science and give it its best chance at working – but as you might have noticed from the “Have you ever injured yourself?” question, that is rarely the best approach!

    • Photo: Thibaut Deviese

      Thibaut Deviese answered on 18 Nov 2019:

      For me it is when you need to try soooooooooooooooo many times before you make a new procedure work in the lab. Method development, as we call it, is very exciting when it works but can be quite frustrating when it does not work…

    • Photo: Emily Sparkes

      Emily Sparkes answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      I agree with Thibaut- method development is super challenging because often you’re starting totally blind!

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