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Asked by anon-346492 on 6 Jan 2023.
Question: did u always want to go into science?
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Rachel Armitage answered on 6 Jan 2023:
Not at first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I liked the idea of being a photographer or a teacher. I wanted to teach PE at one point! I became interested in become a physiotherapist and really enjoyed the work experience I did, however I wasn’t on track to get the grades for it, so looked at what I else I enjoyed. I had applied to do physiotherapy at university, I got rejected and offered a place on their medicinal chemistry and biology course and I haven’t looked back. I never thought I would work in a university, but love the challenges and how I get to analyse forensic samples and work with forensic students.
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Jessica Liu answered on 6 Jan 2023: last edited 9 Jan 2023 9:58 am
My favourite subjects were art and biology. I wanted to learn about the human body as a career. So forensic anthropology was something I thought I would enjoy! Focusing on faces also allows me to use my artistic skills.
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David Bryson answered on 6 Jan 2023:
Yes, I did though I had to chose between History and Biology at O level and chose History. I eventually went back to Biology at University and studied anatomy. I still like history especially history of medicine and published a paper about Mr Punch, acromegaly and caricature.
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Alex Bytheway answered on 6 Jan 2023:
When I was much younger I wanted to be a chef, however, since high-school I’ve always wanted a career in science
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Amy Rattenbury answered on 6 Jan 2023:
As a little kid I always wanted to be a mermaid but I’ve wanted to be a forensic scientist science I was about 10 when I first watched an episode of CSI while on holiday with my family (it probably wasn’t age appropriate but the only channel in English!). That was my first insight in to forensics (albeit not the most accurate one) but it set me off on researching and persuing that trajectory.
When deciding what A-Levels to take was when I really secured the idea to work in science as I chose subjects that aligned with this (Maths, Biology) rather than my other option which was musical theatre. Briefly after graduating my BSc I considered retraining to be a chef but I think I had just got too hooked on the Great British Bake Off at the time.
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Katy Bruce answered on 6 Jan 2023:
Short answer: no.
Long answer: I was really good at Chemistry in year 7 (not so much Physics and Biology) but as the subject matter got harder and I got older and turned into a delinquent teenager, I stopped trying and my grades suffered. I found French and Spanish so much easier and didn’t need to put much effort in to get good grades so I chose to study both at A-level and then only AS-levels for the 3 sciences. I wish I’d tried harder (big regret) and done better but that’s hindsight…
I was a class clown and just wanted to make my friends laugh. I did some fab impressions of my teachers (hope they’re not reading this!) so I was going to go into comedy or impersonation or something. Either that or linguistics, with my language A-levels.
To be honest I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do at uni (or even go to uni at all!) and both my parents are solicitors so I guessed “why not law?”. Funnily enough, forensic science is science in service of the law (from Latin in case you were interested) so I’m not that far off!
It was only because of a quick decision I made at uni while studying for a business degree, to take a “wild” module in forensics that I discovered what a fascinating topic it is. So I switched degree courses and haven’t looked back since!
Best advice = follow your heart and study what truly interests you, not what you think you should.
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Bryan Williams answered on 6 Jan 2023:
No; at school, I wanted to be an interpreter and travel the world. But I loved solving equations and the fundamental logic that underpins mathematics. After uni, I worked as an IT manager but I missed tackling really complex problems in an academic environment, so I went back to uni to undertake a PhD and now I’m an academic who travels the world to talk about my research and work with my collaborators at different universities and hospitals in lots of different countries 🙂
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Ray Evans answered on 6 Jan 2023:
Looking back, No. I had for a while, thought I might do dentistry but I was rubbish at chemistry which at the time was a requirement. But I was very good at art and really enjoyed that. When I found out I was able to combine art with medicine, I was sold on science from then on.
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Lorna Dawson answered on 6 Jan 2023:
Not always, when I was younger I thought I wanted to make maps. Cartography! Now I use maps in my work with plotting scientific data. There are so many different forensic sciences…..
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Caroline Wilkinson answered on 9 Jan 2023:
I started in science, then studied art, then returned to apply those art skills in the science world. I don’t find the barriers between art and science very helpful though – subjects do not easily stay in those silos.
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Richard Case answered on 11 Jan 2023:
Not particularly. I didn’t really enjoy Chemistry, Physics and Biology… but enjoyed Maths and IT which are STEM.
I will stick to the application of the science and let cleverer people deal with chemicals
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Kate Barnes answered on 11 Jan 2023:
No, but I think everything I thought about needed me to study science to get there! When I was at school I wanted to be a vet, nurse, pathologist, paramedic, psychologist or forensic scientist. It wasn’t until I did my Masters degree in Bioinformatics that I discovered forensic entomology and knew that is what I wanted to do.
Comments
Sue commented on :
I was inspired by my biology teacher to keep asking questions that science could help to answer. That there was real world benefit to what I wanted to achieve was hugely important for me. I was always drawn to the world of legal argument and so perhaps moving into forensic anthropology was a natural step for a human anatomist.
Wolfram commented on :
Yes. Ever since I got my first microscope and my first Chemistry Set at the age of 10.