Question: What would you define a scientist to be?

Lucien Heurtier answered on 23 Mar 2023:

To me, a scientist is someone who questions common sense to achieve something highly challenging.

The questioning part is important because without questioning things, there is no way to achieve something valuable. To build a house, one needs to question whether the ground over which the house is built is stable enough, question what’s the best choice of material for building its walls, etc.

But then science is meant to achieve something. It can be building something, designing a new technology, drawing plans for a nuclear reactor, a new rocket, doing maths to understand better the equations that are behind physical processes, come up with a new theory to describe the Universe, or even more simply do analysis to see if a machine is performant enough, etc. There is no science which does not achieve something, because even a simple calculation, as long as it is correct, can be an achievement: It takes some ingredients (numbers, equations, measurements) and gives a result.

To me, what makes a good scientist is to always think outside the box. There are scientists who always apply the same techniques to build something and who stop thinking about why they are doing it this way. There are scientists who don’t even know anymore why they like what they do. Then, one day, it turns out the technique they use is not the best to be used, and mistakes are made. That’s bad, in my opinion. So my advice is to always keep the ‘why’ question inside your head when you do or study something. That can even help you in your career, as you will constantly wonder, ‘why am I taking this class?’, ‘Why am I doing this job?’, or ‘Why am I spending time doing this calculation, or programming this thing?’ and if you find yourself in the wrong position, you will find a way to make it better. It will save you time, believe me!

Good luck with everything!