• Question: what don't you like about science

    Asked by anon-185532 to William, Rebecca, Martyna, Callum, Alice, Adam on 6 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Callum McHugh

      Callum McHugh answered on 6 Nov 2018:


      There’s not much I don’t like about science. Sometimes the people working in science or the organisations that control funding can be a bit annoying, but that’s no more than any other type of job

    • Photo: Adam Berlie

      Adam Berlie answered on 7 Nov 2018:


      If you go back 20-30 years the landscape of science was a very different place, where one of the main focuses was the pursuit of knowledge. In my opinion, this is the best way to make large scientific strides as it gives the scientists freedom to explore. With the larger emphisis on funding bodies that is now emerging, scientists are being pushed to “justify” thier research as having some sort of global and economic impact. This then forces an even greater divide between blue-skies (exploratory) reserach and the more applied research. Funding bodies and the government are pushing particular topics that THEY think are important and this creates “spin words” that plauge the science world. This is slowly hacking away at the scientific freedom of most academic research and is something I don’t like.

    • Photo: Rebecca Roddan

      Rebecca Roddan answered on 7 Nov 2018:


      I think it can be frustrating when experiments don’t work and you have to do the same thing over and over again to get it to work. But it’s worth it in the end when you get exciting results 🙂

    • Photo: William Glass

      William Glass answered on 8 Nov 2018:


      It can be annoying if you work very hard for something and it keeps not working but it’s always important to try and stay positive, it’s not a reflection of you as a scientist. Sometimes the bureaucracy as Adam highlighted can get very annoying but at the heart of science are people doing what they’re interested in and trying to find out how something works. It’s worth remembering that when things do get tough!

    • Photo: Martyna Pastok

      Martyna Pastok answered on 8 Nov 2018:


      In general I love science but I do not like certain aspects of your life as a scientist. I do not like that sometimes it is too competitive and not collaborative enough. Unfortunately also some scientists are cheating to get better results and I think it is really shocking and very sad. And that is what I hate in scientific community.

Comments