• Question: What has been the greatest revelation of your career so far?:P

    Asked by hcollier to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      My greatest revelation isn’t something you can publish in a prestigious journal. It’s more of a life lesson. It is, essentially, that science, more specifically nanoscience is not an exact science!

      You make your device and you do everything right. It looks really good under the microscope and it’s a nice, uniform, large piece of graphene and you’ve been really careful not to drop it. Then you try to pass a current through it and…nothing. It’s dead. For no earthly reason it just doesn’t work. You did exactly the same as you did for the last sample and that worked!

      Sometimes in science, as in life, things just don’t work out inexplicably. I believe The Shins put it best in their song for Yo Gabba Gabba – “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But it’s OK, you try again.” And I do. Everytime I try again and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And I can never predict when I will be lucky. C’est la vie.

    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      My greatest revelation has probably come from stuff like this!

      It’s how much I love talking about science, especially to people who want to learn, and not just for an exam.

      It makes me so passionate about Science, I’m have such a good Science Week!

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi,

      So I think the greatest revelation anyone doing a PhD will have is how much you learn about yourself. It teaches you very valuable life skills that will be very helpful in your future career. It is hard to pinpoint one thing that I have learned about myself because I have learned so much. A PhD as well as being very educational in a scientific manner if it also very educational in life skills.
      It has also thought me to be more confident, and for me that was always something I struggled with in school, but taking part in amazing competitions like this is helping me to build me confidence.

      I also have learned the impact the that education and outreach has on Science and I am passionate about it and want to continue to spread my passion and encourage young people to get involved in Science 🙂

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