• Question: What is the best scientist thing you have ever done?

    Asked by maryamkapila to Emma, Jen, Joseph, Michael, Mona on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Michael Taggart

      Michael Taggart answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hmm. There are a few things that I look back on and they still give me a thrill because you remember the excitement at finding out something really new (most of the time you add a little bit of knowledge to a theory, a small step if you like, but every so often you might be lucky enough to take a leap). Maybe the first really new thing I did was during my PhD when a lot of labs were performing experiments in solutions in test tubes that suggested one particular protein could control muscle function in a way they hadn’t realised before. However, no one had yet tested it on real muscle so it could have remained a quirk or an artefact of making protiens in a test tube solution. So when my supervisor and I managed to design experiments to show that the protein controlled real muscle function then it was a bit of a scoop.

    • Photo: Mona Gharaie

      Mona Gharaie answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think the best thing is the time when you develope some part of knowledge and the results show that actually you did something right.

    • Photo: Jen Gupta

      Jen Gupta answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think the best scientist thing I’ve done so far was when I was given time to use a radio telescope in India called the GMRT. If an astronomer wants to use a telescope, you normally have to write a report saying what you want to look at with the telescope and why it’s important. Lots of people apply to use telescopes and there are only so many hours that telescopes can be used for so not everyone is successful. 2 years ago I applied to use the GMRT and was successful. I got to go to India and sit in the control room while the telescope was looking at my galaxies. I think this is the best thing I’ve done because it was the first time that someone else thought that my research was important! I’m still working on the observations from the telescope and hopefully will have some images soon.

    • Photo: Emma Bennett

      Emma Bennett answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      To be honest getting to travel to America for a science conference was amazing; not many people get to do that in their first year of a PhD but by boss is so lovely that she let the lab group go. The idea of conferences is that you can see what other people in your field are doing and “network” to make contacts that you might work with in the future. We did get to do a lot of this –especially over activities such as canoeing and playing ping pong – it was serious networking, honest…….

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