• Question: How fun is it being a scientist and is it tiring?

    Asked by 893rgah46 to Craig, Devon, Marta, Natalie, Nicholas on 8 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Marta Varela

      Marta Varela answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi!

      There are lots of different types of scientists, of course, and the daily life of each one of us can be very different. Some scientists go on expeditions to remote parts of the world looking for unusual animals, plants, rocks, etc. Others, like me, just sit at a desk, programming their computers and reading and writing a lot!

      Sometimes you want your research to move faster and do spend a lot of time at work and it can be tiring. But those are the times in which you also made discoveries the fastest, so they are also the most exciting!

      I find being a scientist a lot of fun. I love learning new things, both from books and other people and from making my own discoveries. Having said that, you do spend a lot of time investigating a topic that very few people know about and I sometimes wish I could change topics and do research on a different question for a change!

    • Photo: Nicholas Younger

      Nicholas Younger answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      It’s very varied and flexible, each day is different and brings new challenges, which can be both tiring and fun.

      I’ve worked every day (including weekends) for 35 days! So I’m very tired…but in that time I’ve made so much progress and get a free trip to Amsterdam to talk to a bunch of other scientists about all the progress I’ve made so it’s worth it…then I get 2 weeks off.

      So yeah, it’s fun and tiring!

    • Photo: Craig O'Hare

      Craig O'Hare answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      Being a scientist is really fun and pretty much every day is different as often, you are in charge of your own schedule.

      There are always deadlines though so sometimes you’ll have to stay late and come in early and it can feel really busy. Once I worked for 7 weeks without a day off! Other times I started work at 7am and then stayed in the lab until 2am only to start work the next day at 9am again. Those days are tough 🙁 But there are lots of days when you can decide to put your experiments on hold too so go enjoy the sunny day and get ice cream

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