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Asked by to Ben, Emily, Hattie, Jemma, Veronica on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Harriet Aitken answered on 18 Jun 2014:
Hi Rockstarzahra,
There are lots of different parts to my job, I spend a lot of my time in the lab running experiments – at the moment I am running electrochemical experiments to try and figure out how fast metals corrode in different chemicals (like sodium chloride). In between experiments I look over my data and try to puzzle it out, then once a week I usually go to a meeting with my boss and some other students to discuss what I’ve found.
There are also lots of other things I do, like help with teaching the younger students. I also spend some time each month helping to organise and run science events around my area. Sometimes I get to do really unusual things too, in March I went down to the House of Commons in London and presented my research to a whole heap of MPs and got taken for tea in the MPs dining room which was awesome!
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Ben Butler answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Hi Rockstarzahra,
Like Harriet said, there are loads of different things scientists have to do. I spend quite a lot of my time in the lab with my experiments, but when they don’t need my attention I do lots of other stuff like teaching, reading, writing, and going to conferences around the world to meet other scientists.
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Jemma Rowlandson answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Hey!
My job involves many different things. I spend a lot of my time in a lab taking measurements of my samples. I also do a lot of work on my computer, trying to create my material on the computer using software. I can then do experiments on the computer to tell me how my material behaves in experiments I can’t do in the lab, like at really high pressure or temperature.
Reading science papers is another important part of my job, I have to keep up with what other scientists in the world are doing in my area. There’s no point researching something another scientist has already done (unless you think they’re wrong of course). If there’s a big science festival or something coming up then I also spend a lot of time with my friends making stands and activities to bring!
Going out and showing my work to other scientists is also important. Occasionally we all meet up at a conference and show our work. This is great as you get lots of new ideas, and you get to see what everyone else in your area is doing.
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Emily Hayward answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Hi Rockstarzahra,
Great question! Like the others who have answered it my job also involves a lot of variety. For example this week on Monday I did some of the experiments in the lab I often do, on tuesday I tested out a new piece of equipment which was great fun as we didnt know if it would work and it did, yesterday I went to Birmingham and took part in a dragons den style competition where a group of us asked for money for a fictional business we’d set up based on the science we do, today I am running an experiment in the lab and tomorrow I will analyse data. As well as these sorts of things I often have meetings where I present my research, and I have the opportunity to find out what other people are doing in science, I read papers, I get to travel – last year I went to Canada and got to see the Niagra falls, and this year I may go to China or Finland to do some work….so there are a lot of options. Its kinda nice as in many ways I get to choose what I do and when I do it. sometimes I’ll decide I want to do something different so might go and help out at a science festival, and sometimes I’m really really intrested in what my results mean so spend lots of time trying to understand them! I also visit companies to see the problems they have, and how they do things……sorry its not a very simple answer, I guess I dont do a very simple job – but I like it that way as I dont get bored!
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