Question: If you guys were not into science, what will you be doing now?

Chris Cooper answered on 20 Mar 2010:

I had a crack at this in answer to a previous question. See my answer below. In fact I wonder if the reality wasn’t that I would have gone into some other profession requiring logical thinking such as law. Of course if I was not into science and allowed to pick my new abilities I would like to have been playing centre forward for England in the World Cup or directing an Oscar winning movie. Sadly I don’t have these talents at present.

Here’s what I wrote before in a more serious tone!

“As you can see from my profile I worked with kids in summer camps. They were actually quite emotionally disturbed children and it was challenging but rewarding. So I had to choose between a more outwardly “caring” touchy-feely profession or science. In the end I decided that I could do social work-type activities by volunteering in my spare time, so I chose science as a full time job. I don’t regret this decision as science exercises my brain every day.

I can’t imaging not having a scientific view of the world, but I can certainly imagine doing a non-science job. In fact many scientists change jobs and go into management later in life for a new challenge.

So if I didn’t have an interest in science I would have led a different life that I hope would have been as rewarding. In fact I would be curious to see what would have happened. Could you arrange a bit of time travel for me to make it happen?”