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Asked by Harmony on 16 May 2024.
Question: Are there any misconceptions about your field that you would like to clarify?
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Martin McCoustra answered on 16 May 2024:
There a lots of misconceptions especially in interdisciplinary science where different scientists speak different scientific languages. Often therefore doing interdisciplinary science is about removing those misconceptions due to differences in underpinning scientific knowledge. You basically have to learn the language of the other science to some extent.
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Ruth Pegington answered on 17 May 2024:
I think a misconception is that you have to be super brainy, top of the class to make any impact in science and that simply isn’t true.
You can be a very clever person and still unable to explain your work to others, so they can understand. Everyone has their own particular set of skills and there is a place for everyone in science.
Comments
georgiacanton commented on :
That working as a scientist means being holed up inside a laboratory all day. A huge part of my job is patient interaction and I spend a lot of time talking to patients and helping them in their treatment, which is a great benefit that not many people think of.
Tina-Jaine H commented on :
There is a common idea that nuclear stuff is dangerous. It really isn’t. Or that it gives you 2 heads or makes you glow in the dark. That’s just silly nonesense. I understand why people are frightened of radiation, because it’s something that COULD harm you, that you can’t see. And most people don’t understand it, so that makes people more afraid. But radiation can only harm you if you come in close contact with radioactive material. In a nuclear power station, we have many many safety systems to make sure the radioactive material stays in it’s proper safe place. We have strict rules and laws about proving that all these safety systems work, and proving that they can keep the radioactive material away from people. So there is no danger of people encountering it without knowing. Nuclear power is safer than most other ways of generating electricity because of all the strict rules.
DrBecks commented on :
Besides the ones alreadt mentioned here, I would like to say that marine biologists dont all love being on boats or in the ocean. You would not believe how many of my colleagues get seasick! There is a niece for everyone, and if you dont like boats, you can do loads of cool lab work. You are not fond of lab work? We have cool computer models for big and small scale research too!