• Question: what has been the most common question asked in group chats?

    Asked by E_kelleher to Laura, Matthew, Andrew on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      I think the most common question has been “how long have you been a scientist” or “How will your work affect the future”

      These aren’t of course the exact wordings, but they are essentially the questions we’ve been asked the most!

      The answers to them are not easy – I would say for me there is no definite answer to “how long”. Of course there is an upper limit (32 years for me…shocking to see it written down – I still don’t feel my age!) , but the only thing I can say really is that I have been doing independent research since my final year of undergraduate study, so have been a practising scientist for 12 years I guess.

      I have however been ‘scientific’ for much longer; “testing things” and “taking things apart” as a child!

      How my work will affect the future is also difficult to answer, although the most obvious effect my current work as a lecturer is all about inspiring the next generation of scientists – so my job is to generate more scientists – and some of them will definitely do research that will change the world. It’s perhaps more indirect than my immediate research, but it’s reasonably certain at least a few of my students will invent something to change the world.

    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      I think the most common question for me was: Why did you want to become a scientist. There always seem to be a couple of guys who ask that question all the time. Apart from that there were a number of really cool questions and I just loved taking part in I’m a scientist 🙂 It has been an amazing experience.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      The most common question I got that wasn’t one of the ones the boys has mentioned would be “how do you make plastic out of fruit peel?” I’m thrilled that so many people were interested enough to ask about my research! It shows people are really thinking like scientists and want to find answers to the questions they don’t understand! That’s how all the best scientists start!

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