Question: What is it like to be a scientist?

Susan Cartwright answered on 16 Jun 2015:

I agree with Josh – but that freedom to do what you want is mostly for scientists working in universities or research labs. We shouldn’t forget that a lot of scientists work in industry – my father was an industrial chemist – and they don’t generally have the same sort of freedom. My dad’s job was to develop new analytical methods so that ICI could test the chemicals they made and make sure, before sending them out of the factory, that they did not contain unwanted impurities and that they did contain what the spec sheet said they were supposed to contain. The quicker and more accurate the method, and the simpler it was to perform, the better, because these tests have to be done on every batch of chemicals before they leave the factory – so even if a test existed already, there was usually some motive to improve it. (Sometimes my dad was better at his job than they really wanted – once the American Food & Drugs Administration wanted ICI to show that some drug they were making was not contaminated with some other stuff that was made in the same part of the factory, and the test my dad came up with was so sensitive that it showed there WAS contamination, even though only at the level of less than one part per million. The boss wasn’t best pleased!)

I think the main advantages of being a scientist, whether in research or in industry, is that the work you do is challenging and interesting – even if you don’t necessarily get to choose exactly what it is.