• Question: what do other scientists think about your work?

    Asked by ehab2k11 to Steve, Julian, Jemma, Eoin, Charlie on 21 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi ehab2k11,
      Those that have seen my work (I’ve spken about it at various meetings) have been positive and think that it is some good work. That’s very important because science relies on a thing called Peer-Review to make sure it is all working correctly.
      When I finish an experiment, I publish my results in a magazine, but before it can be published it must be checked and reviewed by other scientists in the area to make sure I have done it correctly! That makes sure that only well conducted science gets published.

      Eoin

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I’m not really sure yet. The scientists in my lab group think my work is worthwhile, but I’ve not published my results in any scientific journals so I don’t know what the wider scientific community think of my work.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I collaborate with scientists all over the world, so I certainly hope they think it’s OK! In general though, as scientists we should try to think objectively about each other’s work – it is not who did it, but whether the data is any good or not, and whether it informs our next experiments. It’s important when we design experiments to think that other scientists might well wind up replicating the experiments some time in the future, so whatever we do needs to be well-designed and well-controlled, and not over-interpreted!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi Ehab

      I know that some scientists find my work interesting and useful because they refer to it in their own studies. But there are far more who don’t even know about my work. It is impossible to keep up with all the work in every area, so most scientists develop a deep knowledge only about their own special subject.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      hi ehab again!
      i don’t really know what other scientists think of my work – it would be interesting to find out! Also slightly scary – i’d imagine that some of the comments i would get wouldn’t be all positive!!

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