• Question: if you could be any scientist who would you be

    Asked by col12 to Shannon, Matt, Katherine, James, Hugh on 6 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Katherine Benson

      Katherine Benson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      One of my favourite stories about a scientist is the unfortunately often overlooked Rosalind Franklin. I’m a geneticist, so I’m interested in her story because she helped Watson and Crick to discover the structure of DNA. She took special pictures using X-rays and her pictures helped Watson and Crick to figure out the mystery of what DNA looks like. However, Rosalind was very unlucky because she died before the Nobel Prize was awarded for this discovery and so she was not given the credit she likely deserved for her role in this huge scientific breakthrough. She was an extremely intelligent lady though and a great scientist so I hope to be able to produce work as good as hers!

    • Photo: James Brown

      James Brown answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I would be me! I love my job- if you were asking about music that would be different (Dave Grohl)…

      If you mean who do I look up to, it would have to be Dr Elena Boder (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataxia-telangiectasia) a woman who first described a rare disease leading to cancer- this discovery allowed much of what we know about how DNA damage leads to cancer to be discovered.

    • Photo: Hugh J. Byrne

      Hugh J. Byrne answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      Whoever is the next Nobel Prize winner 🙂

    • Photo: Matthew Flood

      Matthew Flood answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      It’s a toss up between Einstein and Edison.

      Einstein – because I would love to be able to see the universe the way he did. He was one of a kind, and without him we wouldn’t have some of the great sci-fi films we do today.

      Edison – because he was fundamental to the development of the modern electrical world as we know it. One of my favourite stories about Tommy Edison is about his invention of the graphophone, the original record player. Edison invented a device with a cylindrical iron tube that could play sounds with a needle – he called it a phonograph.
      At the same time, Edison was asked to develop and install the New York city grid which would send electricity to peoples homes and provide streetlights. While working in NY, Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor of the telephone) stole Edison’s phonograph idea, tweaked it slightly and then began to sell it under the name, American Graphophone company. This company later became the Columbia Phonograph company, which we know today as Columbia Records (one of the biggest music producers for Sony Records).

      So, if it wasn’t for Edison, not only would we not have the music devices we have today, we wouldn’t have some of the best Columbia Records music artists like Adele, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen or Pharrell!

    • Photo: Shannon Fullbrook

      Shannon Fullbrook answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      I dont really have a science idol.. I just want to do the best I can and keep doing things i’m excited about. Though it would be kinda cool to be Neil deGrasse Tyson, simply cos hes a legend !

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