• Question: Are you doing this for money or to help people?

    Asked by anon-175278 to Alex, Alison, David, Ella, hayleypincott, Thomas on 12 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-175280.
    • Photo: David Mills

      David Mills answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      I do it for the interest, for finding out new things and to help people discover new things. Science isn’t particularly well paid.

    • Photo: Hayley Pincott

      Hayley Pincott answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      If you mean ‘I’m a Scientist’ I’m doing it for both. I’d obviously like to win because then I can put the money towards getting lab supplies so people can experience a pathology lab like dissection in cellular pathology, finding out a bit more about blood groups, looking at bugs and discussing the very relevant subject of antimicrobial resistance. However I’m doing all this because in a few years time there will be a shortage of pathologists and as we are involved in 70% of patients diagnoses then I feel this is a real issue that should be tackled and I’d like to show off the various sections of pathology so pupils and student are more aware of pathology as a possible career choice.

      However if you mean my actual job then it’s definitely to help people, as a department we discuss with other doctors the best way to treat a patient so at all times the patient is always the priority.

    • Photo: Alison Hughes

      Alison Hughes answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      I am doing it to expose different areas of science that I never knew existed when I was in school. I really liked certain parts of biology and other parts of chemistry, but there were topics in both that I really disliked too! I was really unsure if I wanted to study science because there was so much to learn about very diverse topics. Now I know that having a good foundation in chemistry is really useful for certain parts of biology, and my research is microbiology and chemistry combined, whilst also working with the marine environment. There are so many careers and paths out there that I do not think people are aware of, so that is why I am taking part.

    • Photo: Ella Mercer

      Ella Mercer answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      I do my job to help people. By researching poorly brains hopefully one day we can find a cure for them and make people better! Most scientists don’t get paid a lot! If you want to get rich there’s lots of other jobs!

    • Photo: Thomas Perriment

      Thomas Perriment answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      Both! A lot of the time it’s hard to show students how our planet evolves over time, it’s difficult to imagine what is now a desert or swamp, was once a jungle or ocean floor – bringing students out on site and getting scientists into classrooms is a great way of showing students how our planet was formed, and is forming! The next step is virtual reality, bringing those headsets into classrooms so students can zoom London around on a virtual jetpack, or fly through one of our sites that we have mapped and converted into a virtual world. It’s a great way to learn as it’s really interactive.

      The more we learn about the world, the better we can react to the risks it poses such as tsunamis, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions etc. So even though we all (all us 6!) do this for free in our spare time anyway, it’s great having the possibility of the bonus money at the end of it as we can really improve the work we do with students! I think I can speak for us all when I say that regardless of whomever actually gets the money at the end, we will all find another way of getting the funding to help students learn more and get excited about the world of science, it’ll just take a bit more work!

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