what do as you are a scientists like do you do chemistry ?

Question: what do as you are a scientists like do you do chemistry ?

Asked by sburnett to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 15 Mar 2010 in Categories: About.
- Chris Cooper answered on 15 Mar 2010:
  
  This question has come out a bit garbled. I assume you mean “why do scientists like you do chemistry?”.
  
  Put simply chemistry is the building block of all sciences that involve molecules. As this includes biological sciences, it is important to know some chemistry, even if you don’t specialise in it. For me, as a biochemist, it is the language I work in. So where a mathematician might use numbers a biochemist will use chemistry. And a lot of us find chemistry fun – if taught right it can be very interesting
- Emily Cook answered on 15 Mar 2010:
  
  At school, chemistry was my least favourite science. The practicals were the most fun as you got to burn things and blow stuff up, but it always seemed like the hardest to me. I do need to know it though, as the periodic table comes into all kinds of things and chemical reactions and bonds are what make every single material and object – so there’s no getting away from it.
- Tamsin Gray answered on 15 Mar 2010:
  
  Yes, I do a bit of chemistry, but more physics and maths and geography. I use stuff I learned in all of those subjects at school, even though I quit chemistry and geography after GCSE. I never liked chemistry at school, it always seemed a bit pointless unless you wanted to go and earn lots of money working in the oil industry or something (I care too much about the environment and not enough about money to do that).
  
  I liked chemistry a lot more later on when I realized being a chemist is a bit like being a detective. You can use the different atoms and molecules as clues to tell you things like where how hot it was 10, 000 years ago when a snowflake fell or where some air has been on its journey to Antarctica. Sometimes the air here carries ash from volcanoes that have erupted in South America, or soot from forest fires in Australia and you need chemistry to figure it all out.
- Martin Coath answered on 15 Mar 2010:
  
  I have done chemistry in the past – it is fun and it was the subject I first chose to study at university.
  
  Then I got into computers and the chemistry got left behind which I am sort of sad about. I would go back to it in a flash if the opportunity came up.
  
  Chris also makes the point that almost any science involves some chemistrty. I deal with models of brain cells for example. To make an accurate description of brain cell you need to know about brain-cell-chemistry which is a fascinating subject by itself.
  
  I am very glad I did study chemistry.
- Natalie Stanford answered on 17 Mar 2010:
  
  In my work I do a mixture of biology, chemistry, maths and computing. I’m studying chemical reactions in biological cells using computers and maths equations. A lot of science is quite difficult to pigeon-hole into a specific category, especially in biology, because all living systems have to obey chemical and physical laws that affect our planet and the universe.

Comments

sburnett commented on 17 Mar 2010:

yh thats what i meant chris.

Question: what do as you are a scientists like do you do chemistry ?