• Question: doesn't science bore you?

    Asked by anon-184882 to William, Rebecca, Martyna, Callum, Alice, Adam on 3 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Alice Loasby

      Alice Loasby answered on 3 Nov 2018:

      I absolutely love working as a research scientist. It’s challenging but when I’m working on something I find exciting and things are going well, it drives me to work even harder. There are times though where things are not working, and it’s difficult to keep going when that happens. It’s helpful then to take a small break and come back to the problem with a fresh mind. I guess some people like science and some don’t! I’m just one of those people that does!

    • Photo: Adam Berlie

      Adam Berlie answered on 3 Nov 2018:

      Some days I am bored out of my tiny skull, and I feel like I should just sit there and bang my head against my desk. Other days are great and you can do some really great work. When I was at school, all I wanted to do was blow stuff up, and you know what? Nobody let me. To me, this made science classes boring, because they lacked danger and excitement. What nobody tells you is that science at school is as bland as a watching BBC parliament for a whole afternoon. But you need this, it lays the foundations down for what is an immensely vast and complicated subject. Once you hit degree level, things get more interesting and you start to be able to explore and question more intricate subject matter. This is really where you start growing up and become more involved. If you are mad enough to go further and onto a PhD, you get even more involved and things get even more exciting.

      Ultimately, I’ve done a lot of cool things in my scientific career. I can’t stand people saying that they “get to travel” is a perk, because you should be engaging in science despite this. I’ve made things happen and I’ve answered questions that I have/had and to me that is incredibly satisfying.

    • Photo: Rebecca Roddan

      Rebecca Roddan answered on 4 Nov 2018:

      I think with every job, you have things that are boring and repetitive. What you have with science, that I don’t think you get with many other careers, is the excitement of learning something new about the world. Even though its such a tiny thing, its really amazing to learn something that no-one else has ever known before. How many other people can say that about their job?

    • Photo: Martyna Pastok

      Martyna Pastok answered on 4 Nov 2018:

      Science is exciting. There is still so many things about the world around us which we do not understand, diseases which we cannot cure, ways we build things and equipment and machines, which can be improved. There is loads to discover and understand. No time for boredom. You just need to find part of science which excites you and makes you curious and you would like to understand better then we do now, and follow it.

    • Photo: Callum McHugh

      Callum McHugh answered on 5 Nov 2018:

      Science isn’t boring at all, quite the opposite really…

      Think about all of the things you use in daily life…your phones, computers, cosmetics, cars, food, clothing, pharmaceuticals….these were all created and developed based on science…

      New discoveries through science are really exciting and being part of that is a privilege…

    • Photo: William Glass

      William Glass answered on 5 Nov 2018: last edited 5 Nov 2018 9:37 am

      I don’t think science is boring! Science underpins all of modern technology, lifestyles and society. It can be tough but that’s all part of the fun, working as a PhD student you’re trying to answer questions that people don’t have the answers to yet – that doesn’t seem boring at all! I think that finding out why something reacts or behaves in a certain way makes your everyday life richer – you’re not just saying, for example, “oh I don’t know why the sky is blue”, instead you can say “I know exactly why the sky is blue and I can describe it using science and maths”.

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