• Question: what is your insperation for ideas?

    Asked by anon-200943 to Rosemary, Oliver, Leigh, Jordan, Hannah, David on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Oliver Gordon

      Oliver Gordon answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      It’s a bit of a myth that scientists go “EUREKA” and invent a cure for cancer.

      I like to think of problems in lots of different ways. Sometimes I’ll ask people questions, sometimes I’ll just tell them what I’m doing, and find that the way I’m talking makes me realise something quite obvious. Other times I’ll take a walk and get some fresh air. Other times I just go home and come back the next day when I’m not so tired.

      The reality is that science is a lot of just trying random stuff and whatever comes into your head, learning what went wrong and then making very slow improvements to it. Not too different to when you do a hard homework question.

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