• Question: When did you realize that you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by anon-197685 to Sonal, Rosanna, Matthew, Marleen, Dan, Atreya on 2 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Marleen Wilde

      Marleen Wilde answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      After school I did a specialist training to work in a hospital. I always had a strong interest in science and during the time I was working in the hospital I developed in interest in studying something science and medicine related, and by chance there was a new degree offered at my university that combined both. So I started my undergraduate in Medical Biotechnology in the age of 24.

    • Photo: Matthew Selwood

      Matthew Selwood answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      For me, I have always been a bit of an annoying child who would ask “why, why, why” to everything. The defining moment was when I was 12, and I was with my granddad at a bonfire at the bottom of the garden – he was throwing some metal into the fire (probably not the best idea thinking back – don’t try it at home!!) and watching the flame change colour. I was fascinated, and knew I wanted to figure out how it worked and keep figuring things out! I didn’t know what branch of science then, and thought it would be Chemistry, but I knew it would be science of some sort.

    • Photo: Sonal Bhadane

      Sonal Bhadane answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      I was 10 when I asked my mom where is the water in the toilet bowl coming from everytime I flush it. And she said to me ” I have no idea, we will have to ask a scientist”. That got me thinking that scientists have all the answers and I wanted to become one. It was not until I was 15 ( we didn’t have internet readily available back then :P) that I figured out how the Toilet really works ( believe me its a magic bowl, its a masterpiece of science and technology that we use daily but don’t appreciate the science behind how it works.)
      So in the quest of finding out how the toilet really works, I ended up asking a lot more questions about the daily things we use like how does radio work, how can we talk on the phone without anything connecting them physically, why can’t we see the edge of the universe, is there an edge of the universe, So if the radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer can we use that radiation to cause cancer to cancer cells and so on .. And then I realized that I don’t want to become a scientist – I am a scientist already , I just need to get a higher education to hone my curiosity and access to resources to get answers to all the questions I had.
      The fact that you are asking questions is the proof that you already are a scientist, you just need to keep following your questions and let them lead you on the adventure

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