• Question: What has been the most challenging thing u have faced during ur job and the most intersting thing that you have learnt??? :) :D :) :D

    Asked by deboraheg to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Having to think about this one for a while!

      I guess I could take a step back, and say that the most challenging thing that I’ve done is my PhD. A PhD is really just one (long!) piece of work that can take years (4 of them, in my case) to finish. By the end of it, you know more about that narrow subject than pretty much anyone else around, so it can be difficult to talk about it, or to ask for help if you get stuck. There’s also times when working on a single thing for so long can make it hard to stay motivated, however much you know that, really, you love what you’re doing. It’s a great feeling when you finally finish it, though!

      The most interesting thing I’ve learnt (bit of an old one this, but amazed me about 4 years ago): You can calculate the strength and the direction of the wind over the ocean from a satellite, just by looking at the way a radar beam bounces off the surface of the sea!

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      One of the most difficult things was getting three fridges sent to India for a reserach cruise. Getting the correct visa for that trip was difficult too.

      Otherwise, probably working out a new method for doing chemical analysis on my samples.

    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Since science is a new field for me – I’m constantly having to study! I’d say the hardest thing I’ve faced was overcoming my fear of looking completely and utterly stupid. I made so many mistakes when I first started that could have been avoided if I had just asked questions. Once I started asking questions, life was a lot easier. My thinking now is – yes – someone may go, “What are you – stupid? That you don’t know that!” But, really, is that the kind of person I’d want to work around? Not really. So – makes the situation really clear really quickly. 🙂 The most interesting thing that I have learned? I love parasites – so – when I found out that there is a parasite that invades ants and turns them into suicidal zombies – I fell in love.

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Personally the most challenging thing was writing up my PhD thesis, basically you ned to write a book! with all the results you’ve obtained during your project and put it in contaxt etc…it was a very stressfull time for me. The most interesting thing I’ve learnt hmmm that you can make fluorecent zebrafish maybe …

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