• Question: Share a turning point or defining moment in your work as a scientist?

    Asked by anon-186936 to Stewart, Miriam, Marton, Laura, David on 10 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: David Ho

      David Ho answered on 10 Nov 2018:

      I think the first time I genuinely came up with an idea that (as far as I know) nobody else had thought of before was a pretty defining point. It made me realise that after many years of study I was finally starting to become an expert, even if it was only in a very, very specific area. It was also the first time my supervisor said “that’s truly remarkable” to me, and I think I’ll remember that for a long time.

    • Photo: Stewart Martin-Haugh

      Stewart Martin-Haugh answered on 10 Nov 2018:

      For me it was when the computer code I wrote started being used to detect particles. I’d spent two years writing it, checking it would work, and then we turned on the Large Hadron Collider and then it was being used on 40,000 computers at once. It’s been running for 4 years now: we’re going to turn the collider off soon, shut it down and upgrade it. In the meantime I am writing better code so we can find particles better.

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