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Asked by Mugglewumpf to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 7 Nov 2014.
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Rebecca Ingle answered on 7 Nov 2014:
When I was doing my A levels, I was torn between applying for physics or for a chemistry degree. I ended up choosing chemistry because I thought overall, that was the subject I preferred.
I also really enjoy maths and when I was studying at university, physical chemistry, which is the crossover between physics and chemistry, was always my favourite part of the degree (that includes topics like spectroscopy.)
I knew that I didn’t want to be a fully theoretical chemist (they do most of their work on computers) but a lot of people in my field do a combination of laser experiments and computational work so you get the fun of doing both. I did my masters project in laser spectroscopy with computational chemistry and loved it so much that I’m now doing a PhD in it too!
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Laura Schofield answered on 7 Nov 2014:
I’ve liked science since I was in school and fell in love with chemistry when I was in Year 12. I knew I wanted to do chemistry at Uni and met Martyn Poliakoff (my supervisor now) on my first day. He asked me to do a PhD with him after I’d finished my degree and I jumped at the chance.
I work on a synthetic project (that means I make something new rather than investigating a chemical without reacting it) and spectroscopy is one of the best ways to look at what molecule it is that I’ve made.
The molecules we make as chemists are far too small to look at under a microscope and so we have to find other ways to “see” them. Spectroscopy is perfect because it’s super quick and easy to run and gives us definite answers. -
Francesca Palombo answered on 8 Nov 2014:
You can do a lot of stuff with it – many applications are noninvasive and therefore have advantages towards clinical tests
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Matthew Camilleri answered on 9 Nov 2014:
In my field of work I can determine whether my experiment worked simply by sight, and therefore I have to use other means to determine what is happening in my reactions. The answer to my conundrum to see what was happening in my flasks was spectroscopy.
Considering all of this I can actually say that spectroscopy is simply one of the many tools I’ve got to be able to do my work correctly.
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Andrew McKinley answered on 10 Nov 2014:
Colours! I seem to be saying that a lot, but really, I find colour amazing. If you’ve ever looked inside a visible light optical spectrometer, it is truly beautiful – splitting the light up into a rainbow, redirecting it to your sample, looking at the changes within…. I think it really is amazing 🙂
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