• Question: How did you get into science?

    Asked by anon-274106 to Ben, Jonathan, Jess, Rosie on 3 Dec 2020. This question was also asked by anon-274094, anon-273591, anon-273575, anon-273573.
    • Photo: Ben Pritchard

      Ben Pritchard answered on 3 Dec 2020:

      I applied for an engineering degree at university, and this opened so many doors.
      I’ve been able to work in Japan and in Formula 1 and to explore Plasma Physics with my PhD studies.
      It all starts by being interested in sciences and maybe talking to your teachers at the start or end of your class. It can be about anything you have questions on that your textbooks don’t really answer, or something you have a question on that you’ve read about in your spare time!

    • Photo: Jonathan Lewis

      Jonathan Lewis answered on 7 Dec 2020:

      Back in School I was very interested during my science lessons, particularly the ones on how the human body worked. I therefore applied to study biomedical science (which is all about looking at the body and how it functions) at university. I really, really enjoyed this as it allowed to explore everything in much more detail, which is where I first learnt that when astronauts travel into space they lose a lot of bone (which we currently do not have a treatment for). I decided this is what I wanted to look into further, so applied and got a PhD, which is what I am doing now.

Comments

  • Photo: Hugh

    Hugh commented on :

    I was always good at science at school; chemistry was my best subject when I sat my Highers (roughly the same as English A-Levels) and I enjoyed it, so I looked at doing it for a career. I applied for university degrees and got onto one I really liked doing Forensic and Analytical Chemistry.
    Nowadays, I work with a lot of other scientists; some of them also came through the university route, but now we have quite a few who are coming through apprenticeships. Even if uni isn’t for you, you can still pursue a career in science.

  • Photo: Jess

    Jess commented on :

    I enjoyed Biology at school/A-levels but never felt like I was very good at Maths or Chemistry. I just got quite scared of anything to do with numbers! I really wanted to do a degree in ‘Zoology’ but a lot of the university prospectuses said that having an A-level in Chemistry or Maths would be beneficial. This scared me away from applying for these degrees so I applied for a course called ‘Conservation Biology and Ecology’. After my first year I found I wasn’t all that interested in what I was studying and so investigated swapping over to a Zoology course as it was offered on the same campus. Luckily I was able to switch and am so glad I did. Without transferring to a degree in Zoology I would never have gained the experience in the lab that I did in my third year and would never have been doing my postgraduate degree now! I still get a bit scared of things when it comes to maths and molecular biology but I know that I can work through any problem and that there is always someone around to help you understand things a bit better.