• Question: Who was you inspiration that started you off on your way to becoming scientists?

    Asked by xanushkax to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 14 Mar 2011. This question was also asked by ruyaa, hannahbanana, georginaalice14.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 12 Mar 2011:

      A great question!
      I think there are two broad groups of people that inspired me to be a scientist:
      First, there are great science teachers that I’ve had through the years – it really makes all the difference when teachers do their best to make the subjects exciting.
      Secondly, there are inspiring scientists whose stories are inspiring. People like Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin have great life stories, as well as doing some great science.
      Who inspires you?

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 13 Mar 2011:

      hi xanushkax (if thats your real name then that’s one cool name!).
      From people i know i guess it is probably my science teachers at school, Mr Griffin and Mr Trevithick. Altho they could be quite strict (Mr Griffin had a habit of whacking a ruler very hard down on peoples desks) and they weren’t perfect teachers (Mr Trevithick used to bore us with stories about his ancestor who had invented the steam train (which may have been true but still)). What came across though was that they had a genuine interest in science and really wanted you to be interested too. They were good teachers because in the end they were enthusiastic about the subject, and (at some level!) enjoyed the teaching.

      Apart from that can i say jean luc picard??

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 13 Mar 2011:

      I’ve been thinking about your question for a while and I can’t think of a single person. My parents were very keen for me to be a scientist (they had both been chemistry students), but in all honesty, I wasn’t so enthusiastic. I liked science, but I was 100% committed to being a musician/song-writer. Even when I went to Uni and started my Biochemistry degree, my main goal was still to play in a band. It was only after Uni, when I was first working as a technician in a lab, that I went to a conference and heard a Canadian scientist called Harry Schachter, who was really the first to inspire me into thinking that science might be quite interesting after all.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      A whole range of inspirations really, most of them teachers. There was a great biology teacher at my high school who had a huge impact, and then various university lecturers, including my PhD supervisor, were also inspirational.

      Reading about the lives of other scientists was also a big source of inspiration. Darwin in particular is really inspirational. His idea, of evolution by natural selection, has one of the biggest impacts on our understanding of the way the world works, but he was also a fantastic scientist, testing theories in his back garden about everything from the way that worms decompose plants, to how long seeds can survive in salt water. Focusing on the details as well as keeping the big picture in mind – a good role model for any scientist. I would definitely recommend reading a biography of him if you get the chance.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      Luckily enough, when I was in year 9 at school and trying to figure out what GCSE’s I would take, there was a really amazing series on TV called The Human Body by Robert Winston which highlighted just how amazing your body is, and how little we understand it (I’ve tried to find a link to one of the episodes but youtube doesn’t appear to have it, but do google the series, it’s really worth a watch). This got me thinking about a career in science and in particular biomedical science which is where I am now.

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