• Question: Which one of you does the coolest tingz?

    Asked by anon-175273 to Thomas, hayleypincott, Ella, David, Alison on 20 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Thomas Perriment

      Thomas Perriment answered on 20 Jun 2018:

      Haha I think this will be a different answer for each of us!

      I think that one of the reasons each of us went into the area of science that we did, is because we were most interested in that particular area! So I would think that my area is the coolest because I love most of my job, and no doubt the others feel the same way 😀

    • Photo: Hayley Pincott

      Hayley Pincott answered on 20 Jun 2018:

      Like Thomas I think I have a pretty awesome job. We get biopsies from doctors and dentists and then that get described and dissected, this biopsy then goes on a machine overnight to remove the free water and it gets replaced by wax. We put the biopsy in a wax block and cut really thin sections from it on a piece of equipment called a microtome. These sections are cut at 4microns which is thinner than your hair. The thin section gets put onto a slide and stained and handed to the pathologist who help to diagnose a patient. We get small biopsies like cysts and teeth come in but we can also see some bigger specimens that are removed during surgery. We get specimens like tongues, necks, larynx and jaws. Before we can do any lab work on the jaws they have to be decalcified by putting it in a bucket of acid for about 2-3 weeks. So I see some pretty gross things but I love it and wouldn’t change anything about what I do.

    • Photo: David Mills

      David Mills answered on 21 Jun 2018:

      We will all have different definitions of cool here. I doubt any of us would change our jobs significantly, we love what we do and think it’s cool. Then we come here and try to convince you of the same!

    • Photo: Ella Mercer

      Ella Mercer answered on 22 Jun 2018:

      I think studying the brain is the coolest because it controls almost everything we do! From talking to thinking to walking – we couldn’t do any of that without the brain! And it’s very important we understand how our brain works because there are a lot of brain diseases with no cure at the moment … when we understand how it works and what goes wrong then we can work to fix it!

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