• Question: Who is your idle?

    Asked by anon-282400 on 2 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Karen Burstow

      Karen Burstow answered on 2 Mar 2021:

      My idol is my mum – she is the loveliest person in the world (though I may be slightly biased!) She is so kind, caring and clever. I wouldn’t be where I am now without all her support.

    • Photo: Chris Waller

      Chris Waller answered on 2 Mar 2021:

      There are a few people I look up to but the person who has had the biggest impact on my career as a scientist is my PhD supervisor. I joined his team as a young university student who didn’t really feel like they knew anything, but he took the time to coach me through everything when I was struggling and made sure I learnt what I needed to know.

    • Photo: Tim Burrow

      Tim Burrow answered on 2 Mar 2021: last edited 2 Mar 2021 9:29 pm

      From a scientist perspective it would have to be my undergraduate inorganic chemistry lecturer, Dr A. Marr, who without his encouragement I may have continued down a career in football but would have missed out on so much you experience as a scientist. The I have to mention my current supervisor, Dr M. Baker, who everyday continues to provide me support.

      From more general viewpoint, I was always a massive fan of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the explorer. His sense of wanting to explore then unknown in every sense of the word was inspiring for me. Especially as someone who grew up in Snowdonia and was typically packing a backpack and spontaneously going on an adventure to wherever!

      And the one and only Richard Feynman, his passion for science was contagious! He was phenomenal and can only recommend everyone to look back at his public talks and his lectures!

    • Photo: Anna Westland

      Anna Westland answered on 2 Mar 2021: last edited 2 Mar 2021 11:22 am

      Classic answer for biologists – Charles Darwin! He’s famous for the theory of evolution by natural selection (how species change over time).*

      He was creative (coming up with this new idea), objective (he just looked at the evidence, rather than relying on his beliefs), and he collected loads and loads of evidence to support his idea. He was a model scientist!

      (*he wasn’t the only person who came up with this idea – but he was the first to write about it in lots of detail and with good evidence)

    • Photo: Jo Brodie

      Jo Brodie answered on 3 Mar 2021:

      I admire activist scientists & science writers like Edzard Ernst, Simon Singh and Britt Marie Hermes who stand up to people who sell fake miracle cures for diseases – and who also stand up for people who are being ripped off by them.
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      People who sell these fake cures make money from people who are worried about their health. The ‘cures’ don’t do anything, so they’ve just wasted their money, and their time when they could have got proper help from a real doctor. Activist scientists investigate what the cure-sellers say about their products and see if there’s any evidence for them. If there isn’t, they speak out.
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      Not surprisingly, some miracle-cure sellers get pretty angry when scientists point out that their products aren’t safe or don’t work and that people shouldn’t buy them. They might get lawyers to send scary-sounding letters to try and frighten scientists into staying quiet, or threaten to take them to court (which can be very expensive – even if you win the court case!).
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      It takes a lot of courage not to back down. The scientists above (and there are plenty of others) have all been threatened in this way but stood their ground and won their case (or the case was dropped).
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      Jo

    • Photo: Jonathan Willis

      Jonathan Willis answered on 3 Mar 2021:

      I can’t say for sure that I’ve got any idols as such but there are a number of people who I have admired and respected over the years. Probably starting with my grandfather (not a scientist) to people like Prof Stephen Hawking & Brian Cox (I’m pretty keen on space and physics although I’m hopeless at maths) and many people in between. Many of my lecturers I admired for the passion in their science which came across in lectures, when you have people like that who make you feel engaged and connected to what they believe in, you cannot help but admire and respect that.

    • Photo: Callum Thomas

      Callum Thomas answered on 3 Mar 2021:

      One of my idols is David Attenborough. Even though he never started out as a scientist he has done such an amazing job at getting people interested in biology and conserving nature throughout his life. He is really amazing at communicating science and making it accessible to everyone which I think is fantastic.

    • Photo: Lizzie Pendlington

      Lizzie Pendlington answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      I have so many but I mostly look to my family. My Mum and Dad always had passion for their jobs and that’s what I wanted. My Nan has always been very determined and achieved things that were not always accepted at the time!

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