• Question: is science fun or is it hard work

    Asked by holster2003 to Susan, Rob, Rebecca, Josh, Chris on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by RoRo, 514hafc29, Nat (:.
    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      100% both.

      There are days when it feels far more on the side of hardwork, and then there are days when I get to go to the science museum and blow up balloons with a laser. #truestory.

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      It’s both. Sometimes it is fun: your experiment is working perfectly, your data analysis is showing exciting new results, you are at an interesting conference in a nice place with lots of fellow scientists to discuss results with. Sometimes it is hard work: a key bit of the experimental apparatus has just given up the ghost for no readily apparent reason, your analysis code won’t compile and you can’t find the mistake, or it is producing nonsense despite apparently working perfectly, you have to produce an infinite amount of tedious paperwork for a routine safety inspection or an interim report on your project demanded by the funding body, you are stuck in an endless committee meeting listening to an argument that has been going round in circles for the last hour and seems set to continue for another hour. Sometimes it’s even both: you are working 18 hours a day trying to get a piece of kit working in time for the beam to turn on, but it’s all coming together and you know it’s going to work, or you are trying desperately to tie up the last loose ends in an analysis but you can already see that the result is going to be exciting.

    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Definitely both.

      There are some days where everything works, and I present my findings to my supervisor and he says ‘wow! thats great’.

      There are other days when I feel like someone has whisked my brain.

      But Its definitely worth it. If something is difficult, it makes it all the more satisfying when you succeed.

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      It’s definitely both – but it’s not like hard work revising for some exam in a subject that you have no interest in. I chose my subject because I love it and it really interests me, so it’s like hard work doing something I really enjoy. It’s like sitting back after building an entire city in minecraft and thinking, “wow, that took me ages!” – it doesn’t really feel like hard work all the time, because it is stuff that I’m good at and I enjoy.

    • Photo: Rob Temperton

      Rob Temperton answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      I agree with everyone else. Definitely both. Sometimes it is both at the same time. Sometimes it is one or the other.

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