• Question: What do you think is the most important quality you need to go into science?

    Asked by anon-187142 to Stewart, Miriam, Laura, David on 15 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Miriam Hogg

      Miriam Hogg answered on 15 Nov 2018:


      I think its to be interested in it! If you are interested in your work it makes you more likely to put in extra effort, read around the subject, want to think of extra things or new ways to do them.

      I’m actually not that good at maths but I make up for it by reading a lot of the research that’s currently going on and being able to think about where my work might be useful.

      You can learn maths and physics given time but if you aren’t interested it will feel like work and make you less motivated. If you genuinely enjoy what you are doing the other stuff will come with time.

    • Photo: David Ho

      David Ho answered on 15 Nov 2018:


      I agree with Miriam’s answer — if you are genuinely interested in something than learning more about it is easy, because you’re just doing what you enjoy!

      As a related quality, curiosity is very important too. Science is about asking questions about the universe around us, and working on these questions until (hopefully) we get to the bottom of them. But normally on the way, more and more questions pop up, so we learn more about them too! Each little question is a building block to a bigger question, and to me it’s all very fascinating.

    • Photo: Laura Kent

      Laura Kent answered on 15 Nov 2018:


      I think you have to be curious to be a scientist. We’re always asking why things happen! And trying new things to see if they work!

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