• Question: How has science affected your life? And would you change anything?

    Asked by Versity 六月 to Freddie, Jena, Kirsten, Kon, Zarah on 6 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Jennifer Bates

      Jennifer Bates answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      Science changed everything!

      I was going to be an British Iron Age hillfort specialist and my boss asked me to analyse some soil samples to look for phytoliths (glass fossils of plant cells) and everything changed. I found what I was looking for – a way to explore the big archaeological questions I wanted to think about. I switched from hillforts to my branch of archaeology (archaeobotany – the study of archaeological plants). Now I work all over the world, though mainly in South Asia on sites about 5000 years old, with an amazing team of people who are great friends as well as workmates.

      The only thing I would change is I would like to look at hillforts again, as there was one I worked on as my first ever proper dig when I was 13 years old. However, I recently talked with a friend who is a specialist and we are planning to go and re-excavate it, so I guess everything has worked out brilliantly: I get to be the ‘science geek’ (as she called me – I am claiming that title! LOVE IT!) and I get to dig my hillfort. Win-Win!

    • Photo: Konstantinos Drousiotis

      Konstantinos Drousiotis answered on 6 Nov 2016:

      Hi there,

      Science is a strange field and sometimes the problems you face may seem like they will never be solved. This makes you mature as a person, and stronger mentally to face many other challenges that your life could hold for you. Having said that, is not just bad things. You get the satisfaction of seeing the organisms you made being able to do what you wanted them to do. Also you can publish your work in different scientific magazines for other scientists to read and comment. That means you get to be a scientific author!

      Also, the fact that you sometimes find yourself tirelessly trying to think of new experiments to prove something means that you keep an open mind! An open mind is the way to go ahead.

      If I had to change something it’d probably be to decrease the time I spent into thinking what I could have done more in the labs. That’s a tiring habit, however you can control it and at the end you realise the past belongs in the past.

Comments