• Question: what is this website actually about?

    Asked by charlottelouise to Cesar, Emily, Jamie, Kate, Philippa on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Philippa Demonte

      Philippa Demonte answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      @charlottelouise What is this website actually about? It is an opportunity for you to chat directly to those of us who study or work in science.

      If you mention the word ‘scientist’ to someone, they immediately think of the stereotype generated by the media of a geek wearing glasses and a lab coat, but we want to show you that actually this is not the case. Some of us wear Converse shoes and go to rock gigs and like to bake cakes in our spare time. We don’t all work in laboratories (I’m on the island of Montserrat at the moment, and about to spend 2 months working outdoors on a volcano. The world is my ‘laboratory’!).

      There are more branches of science to explore than there are flavours of jelly beans! Hopefully you’ll find something or someone on the I’m A Scientist website that interests you 🙂

    • Photo: Emily Robinson

      Emily Robinson answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      The main thing is just keep on asking questions!! I wish ‘I’m a scientist’ existed when I was thinking about going to university to study science, as I felt I didn’t have anyone to answer my questions.

      We also don’t expect you all to become scientists but I would like to think everyone is the general public should have a relationship with science. As science is all around us. When you turn on the news and hear a story about science you shouldn’t think ‘thats not related to me’ or ‘I can’t have an opinion about that’. So hopefully by having this amazing website it will show you that us scientist aren’t all bad and that if you give us half a chance we might be able to explain our science to you in simple terms so you can have an opinion about it (even if you disagree with us!!). A lot of science funding comes from the general public, so sometimes it is important to ask scientist what they are doing with it. 😀

    • Photo: Cesar Lopez-Monsalvo

      Cesar Lopez-Monsalvo answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      This website is a great opportunity to show how science is not just about blowing things up in a lab. That is not made by boring people. That we do not know all the answers about nature. That even if you do not want to become a scientist, there is something science can offer you. All of this by allowing you to interact directly with “us”, the people doing science.

    • Photo: Kate Clancy

      Kate Clancy answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      This website is a chance for us to wow you with how clever we are. No, wait, that’s not it.

      Okay, this website is for you to wow us with how clever YOU are. Well, getting closer…

      This website is a chance to build some relationships. This is the chance for scientists to learn a thing or two about the science questions people REALLY want to know about, and the chance for students and non-scientists to figure out why scientists seem to be so obsessed with what they do. Science funding and science appreciation are under attack right now, right when we need more people to learn, and enjoy science. My hope is that we will have some fun together, learn from each other, and give some money to a worthy outreach project.

    • Photo: Jamie Gallagher

      Jamie Gallagher answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      To get you thinkinging about science and us thinking about what people want to know, to help us develop too.

      That or helping with homework.

      (we’re not here to help with homework, not too much anyway 😛 )

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