• Question: What is the weirdest thing u have found out about your job

    Asked by mariobalotelli45 to Ciarán, Eoin, Lydia on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Lydia Bach

      Lydia Bach answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Hey!

      in Australia I worked on fish in one of the reefs there. To observe their behaviour we used some waterproof cameras with bait in front of them, to film how fish behave!

      We would drop the cameras down to the sea floor and then pick them up after and hour to watch them in the lab and make notes about fish behaviour near the bait.

      I did not believe my eyes: a large octopus was sitting near the bait and when a small shark approached the octopus attacked the shark (they have strong beaks) and ate it. – That was weird (and cool).

    • Photo: Ciarán O'Brien

      Ciarán O'Brien answered on 21 Nov 2014:

      The weirdest thing is when some scientists in the building are running what they call “faecal fermentation” experiments. They build a model of the digestive system and subject food to the same thing that happens in our gut. They use it to see how well new foods they develop break down, or how antibiotics affect the bacterial section of the gut, things like that.

      That’s odd enough, but the WEIRDEST thing is that they need bacteria for the intestines part of the model. And every now and then we’ll get an email from one of the scientists looking for donors. They need healthy people to give them a poo sample to to get the bacteria they need, and the easiest place to get it is from their colleagues. Ew. Just… Ew.

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