• Question: What do you do for fun / do you ever have fun as a scientist is it a boring job..?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Simon Redfern

      Simon Redfern answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      It’s most certainly not a boring job. My work is almost all done in collaboration with other people, who are all great fun! We go off on field trips together and do science together at laboratories across the world. I have worked in labs in Australia, Taiwan, China, California, New York, Chicago, Switzerland, Germany and France as part of my work, and often my family come with me. I have three teenage children, so we have lots of fun! When I’m not working on Science I enjoy cycling, running and rowing, as well as climbing mountains and (when I get the chance) skiing down them.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I don’t think any of us would do our jobs if we didn’t have fun doing it! We are very lucky to have jobs where we can think up a question and then spend our time trying to answer it! We work in teams and often become good friends with our colleagues and we get to travel around the world to either attend meetings, work in another research lab or do experiments at international facilities where they have equipment that can only be afforded if lots of countries build one together (like Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire). Last year I went to Stockholm, San Antonio (Texas, USA), Sicily (Italy) and Hawaii for meetings! I also got to go to San Francisco and Grenoble (France) to do experiments. This year I am hoping to go to South Africa to work with another research group and I am going to Montreal (Canada) for a meeting in August. These are places that I wouldn’t necessarily have had on my list of places to visit but I’ve always enjoyed looking around!
      In my free time I do lots of normal things like walking in the countryside, cooking, going to the theatre and cinema, visiting friends all over the country. I’m a big Welsh rugby fan too and I love going to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to watch them!

    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Being a scientist is a very tough job that requires a lot of dedication, long hours and hard work but I’d never call it boring. Luckily, most scientists enjoy what they do and find it rewarding and fun! Scientists get to do exciting experiments every day and travel around the world to present their work.

      That said, it is important to have hobbies and interests outside of work. I like to play guitar and ukulele and go to see live music as often as possible.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      There’s always things that are a bit boring in every job and of course we all have thing we don’t like to do! Most days are quite fun though. I’ve got lots of friends in my lab and we occasionally do fun experiments like turning 2ps gold when nobody is looking!

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      My job is splendid fun and very varies. I have taken two holidays in the past 10 years…as my work is such fun, I tend not to take vacations!

Comments