• Question: what is your favorite memory of being a scientist?

    Asked by meekymouse06 to Suzanne, Sophie, Nadine, Ioannis, Freya, Daniel, Alyssa on 12 Jan 2018. This question was also asked by graceandacacia.
    • Photo: Nadine Lavan

      Nadine Lavan answered on 12 Jan 2018:

      I was planning an experiment and just scribbled down lots of things that I thought I would find in my data. I ran the experiment, looked at the data and with no exception all of these things had worked out! That was a really nice moment because usually you have all these sensible predictions of what’s supposed to happen but then you look at the data and it’s a bit messy: some things may have worked, others may not have worked, some things have gone in exactly the opposite way of what you predicted. In these cases – and this is what happens for most experiments – you then really have to sit down and think about how to explain your results and why they didn’t pop up as planned. This is sometimes easy because hindsight is a beautiful thing but sometimes there’s just no way to explain everything thing you found in a way that makes sense…

    • Photo: Alyssa Alcorn

      Alyssa Alcorn answered on 12 Jan 2018:

      This is a moment that isn’t directly about science but was made possible by my doing science: I was presenting my research on touch-screen games for autism at a children’s technology conference in New York. The conference was co-sponsored by Sesame Workshop, which of course makes Sesame Street. At the conference dinner I got to meet COOKIE MONSTER!!! Someone took a photo of it so fortunately the greatest moment of my life was immortalised forever.

    • Photo: Daniel Mills

      Daniel Mills answered on 12 Jan 2018:

      someone liked my work so much they named their dog after me, Professor Spaniel Mills – I have the Kennel Club registration and a picture of the puppy on my wall at work!

Comments