• Question: whats the worst thing about being a scientist

    Asked by anon-177553 to Nicola, Helen, Daniel, Becky, Andrew on 11 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-177691, anon-177603.
    • Photo: Becky Thomas

      Becky Thomas answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      It can be really tricky to get money for research. We spent lots of time writing grants, which often are not successful. There can also be other types of ‘rejection’ – we write papers about our work, and get them published in journals so other people can read them… but sometimes these are rejected, and it can be hard to brush yourself off and try again. Thankfully though there are lots of other high moments which keep you going!

    • Photo: Daniel Marsh

      Daniel Marsh answered on 11 Jun 2018:

      As scientists we really struggle to get people to believe in the importance of the work that we do and the benefits that it will bring to many people so getting research funding can be really difficult.. When we are successful and deliver new scientific understanding we get very little recognition even though it may benefit thousands of people…. I guess we all want to be rock stars really!

    • Photo: Helen Littler

      Helen Littler answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      People don’t understand what we do and assume we are all super intelligent geeks.

Comments