• Question: Is it hard working as a scientist and do you enjoy it? What kind of things do you do? :)

    Asked by ehsy97 to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 25 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Hi there

      It is hard work but no harder than a lot of peoples jobs. And we find it interesting so it doesn’t seem so hard.

      Yes we enjoy it most of the time but like all jobs it has SOME dull moments. If you want the details of what we all do then check out the profile pages! 🙂

    • Photo: Chris Cooper

      Chris Cooper answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      I enjoy it for sure. My job can be hard, but that is not really down to the science bit. Every job has good bits, bad bits and boring bits. The good bits are playing with science. Mind you it can be frustrating when experiment’s don’t work – sometimes you need patience in science too.

      I do a lot of supervision of scientists. I have three research students and three post-doctoral fellows (other doctors like me!). We talk about what we should do and they go away and do it. After they have done the hard work, we talk about the data and try to understand it (the fun part!). Most of our work involves looking at blood proteins to see what happens when they react with oxygen gas.

      I have to do my hard work when they are all beavering away in the lab. I have to persuade people that what I am doing is important enough to pay their salary. This means writing begging letters (called grants) to charities, government and businesses. This is the not glamorous part of my day!

      Oh and I am writing a book on “Drugs in Sport” as well. Hopefully I’ll finish it before 2012!

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