• Question: what do you do as a scientest

    Asked by anon-280678 on 5 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Karen Burstow

      Karen Burstow answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      I use lots of different analytical techniques to work out what samples are made from or information about their structure. I work on samples of unknown material, which I can identify using chemical and elemental analysis – often as fragments of glass, plastic, metal, bone, hair etc! I also work on different Mondelez products (including Cadburys, Oreos, Philadelphia cream cheese) to find out about the different ingredients, how they’ve combined and troubleshooting for issues. I find my job is really varied and interesting!

    • Photo: Chris Waller

      Chris Waller answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      Similar to Karen I’m an analytical chemist but in my job I work to stop people cheating in sport. After every high profile sporting competition (eg. the Olympics) samples of blood, hair and urine are taken from the athletes and I help test them to make sure they haven’t been using any drugs to give themselve an unfair advantage (eg. steroids). This helps to make sure everyone is on a level playing field and the games are fair for everyone else who hasn’t cheated to win.

    • Photo: Claire Price

      Claire Price answered on 6 Mar 2021:

      My job is very different every day. Somedays I work in the lab doing experiments, other days I read about science. In the lab, I grow up litres and litres of microorganisms to produce something called enzymes, and then I kill the microorganisms to get the enzymes out. I then use the enzymes to make new chemicals or to test new drugs!

    • Photo: Felicity Hunter

      Felicity Hunter answered on 8 Mar 2021: last edited 8 Mar 2021 10:50 am

      Hi Theo! Thanks for the question. I study the friendly community of bacteria that live inside our guts and their importance for our health (especially our immune systems!). So what exactly is my job? As a scientist, my job is to figure things out nobody knows yet. I am trying to figure out exactly how our gut bacteria are good for our immune systems and how having lots of friendly gut bacteria can prevent us from getting many illnesses including autoimmune diseases. For example, people who are sick with autoimmune diseases tend to have lots of unfriendly bacteria living in their guts. Now, you might be thinking: “how do we know about the gut bacteria if they live inside our guts?!” which is a great question! In order to study the gut microbes, I have to measure the bacteria that are in poo! Looking at cleaned up poo samples tells me all about what is going on inside our guts. I know that sounds very messy (and a bit smelly) but I promise it is actually very interesting!

    • Photo: Jess Buddle

      Jess Buddle answered on 8 Mar 2021:

      Hey! Great question!
      Im a microbiologist – i work in an area of biology which looks at germs (bacteria). I Work a bit on the computer but mostly in the lab, designing experiments using cool equipment! I want to find out how specific drugs (antibioitcs) kill bacteria, and what the bacteria do to stop themselves being killed. This means eventually we can put this knowledge into practice in hospitals to save peoples lives!

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