I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Some of the hardest things that I’ve done have been hard because of geography. Working in remote regions, especially in places like Australia, brings challenges. You have to guarantee your safety, and the safety of your team first. Then you have to make sure that you are prepared for working in harsh conditions. And you have to get the people that live in the area onside! That’s not always easy. I’ve eaten my share of goanna and bush oven cooked kangaroo while chatting with local people about what I’m doing. I find that getting the kids interested in what I’m doing helps to bring the adults along!
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I think the project that i am working on right now is the hardest! We don’t really have the right tools to do the experiments (not because we can’t afford them, but because they don’t exist yet), so we have to be very creative and really think outside of the things we might normally do.
But for that reason, it makes it one of the more challenging and exciting things i’ve ever worked on!
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The project I’m working on right now is pretty difficult. I am trying to make sense of mouse language. Mice communicate with each other in frequencies that are too high for us to hear and use speedy phrases of complicated chirps, harmonics and bleeps. We have specialised equipment that can transform mouse language to a form that humans can listen to. In 5 mins of conversation I can record over 1000 different types of calls. Some calls go up in pitch, some down, some sound like a trill, others are very quick and to the point. Do the order of these different calls matter like in our language? How do I go about deciphering this code when there are so many calls to listen to? I have my thinking cap on now and will keep you posted.
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Each project I have worked on has been hard in some way. As the others have mentioned, it may be because of limits to the time, resources and technology available to allow you to best answer the question!
A very important part of the research (and life skill!) is problem solving and working through hard questions- that’s how you develop your expertise in your field of scientific research and can also help apply it to other things as well!
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I’m doing a PhD at the moment, and that is hard!!!
LOL
Taking it a day at a time, and trying to overcome any problems. There are just too many sometimes to name!
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