• Question: What have you seen in your job or experienced?

    Asked by anon-244170 to Pan-ngum, Natalia, Mick, Filipe on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Michael Schubert

      Michael Schubert answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      I have seen some really cool things in my work. I have been at a dig site where we were excavating (digging out) the fossil of a huge, meat-eating dinosaur called a Gorgosaurus. You can find out more about Gorgosaurus here:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgosaurus

      I have been in laboratories where we looked at the DNA of people with genetic diseases to see if we could find the cause of the disease. We even looked at our own DNA to learn more about ourselves!

      I have been SCUBA diving in the ocean around Hawaii, where I checked green sea turtles for cancer. I got to meet a lot of gentle, friendly turtles. I also met a baby octopus who stuck himself to my face mask and didn’t want to leave. I got a face full of ink when I tried to peel him off!

      I have used a big laser to practice doing surgery on people’s eyes. I got to use a fake “practice eye” filled with jelly. It’s a good thing I am not an ophthalmologist (eye doctor), because I was not very good at eye surgery.

      I have invented aliens who can live on fictional planets in books and films. The writers tell me what the planet is like and I help them come up with ideas for aliens that would be comfortable living on those planets. It’s very cool to read a book or a comic and see your own invented aliens on the page!

    • Photo: Natalia Brodaczewska

      Natalia Brodaczewska answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      I have seen quite a few different things and I now realise that the ones I found the most interesting can also a bit gross for normal people. So I’ll try to not go into too much detail! Before starting my current job I was a PhD student and I worked on a project about sea cucumbers. I got to go to the North of Scotland and see how the sea cucumbers grow and then how we obtain sugars from them. To do that we actually had to use an enzyme which cuts the molecules in the sea cucumber body so that in the end all that was left of them was a big bucket of black water. Very creepy, I know!

      I also worked on a project at Australian Museum where we were developing tests to help to stop wildlife crime. There were a few cool things about working there. One of course was living in Australia for a few months and enjoying the sun (scientists do get to travel quite a bit!). But I also helped to design some tests to be used in the labs in Vietnam and I saw these little insects that feed on dead bodies and are used to clean the bones. Gross and creepy again!

      In my current job I also get to see and experience cool things. One cool thing is that I get to read other people’s DNA every day – how many people can say they do that for living? But I also get to go to clinics and speak to patients, once the doctor even let me examine somebody. And once – so sorry again! – I got to see a whole human stomach being cut up for testing! So there are many interesting things to see in science and I promise that they are not all as gruesome as the ones I described!

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