• Question: when doing your job what is the hardest thing you have to face on a day to day basis and what was the most frightening thing you have done?

    Asked by calebjr2018 to Alan, Ciorsdaidh, Lauren, Leonie, Martin, Neil, Shuo on 9 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Lauren Webster

      Lauren Webster answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      Excellent question!!! The hardest thing I would say is admitting defeat. I work trying to find new medicines for diseases and sometimes either the chemistry is just not possible to do, or the target you are working on is not able to produce the hoped for results, the target you are working on does not show results when you move from individual protein, to cell, to animal. And then…your project is over and another route has to to found to do it all. Spending a long time and getting involved in a project like that and seeing it fail is the hardest thing any of us here at WCAIR have to deal with. Most frightening…I would guess and say if someone has an accident but these are not on a day to day basis, so a tough one to answer. Great question and I hope I have answered it 🙂

    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 11 Mar 2018:

      The hardest thing is understanding what the results of experiments actually mean. The most frightening thing I do is work with with hydrogen gas because under the wrong circumstances it can be very explosive. So in that case I have to be very careful and work in a safe manner.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 12 Mar 2018:

      Lauren is right… the hardest thing to admit is that you can’t crack a problem. But you often have to and so turn around and try something new. As to frightening, sometimes it depends on how you understand risk on what you find frightening. As an undergraduate student I had to make litres of liquid oxygen every day as part of my final year project and have no fear of making or using it. Most scientists fear it sufficient that they would avoid making liquid oxygen as it can be explosive when combined with other materials.

    • Photo: Neil Keddie

      Neil Keddie answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      I think the hardest thing in research is managing to keep your patience, especially when you have experiments that don’t work. That can be the most frustrating thing, and it’s so tempting just to walk away and abandon something that’s not working (I’ve sometimes been in the position of turning my back on 2-3 years of research where I still hadn’t got the results I needed). When you’re really really frustrated like this, you have to fight back, try harder, try new experiments, read more, try more new experiments, look carefully back over everything you did with fresh eyes, try more new experiments – and at the end of all of this, sometimes you spot something you’ve missed, or you finally get a breakthrough, then all of your failed results start to fall into place. Persistence pays off, but you have to be really patient too (I’m rubbish at that!).

      The most frightening things I’ve had to deal with in work are several fires. I didn’t start them, but people came to me to try and fight them. They spread so quickly (i’m talking seconds), you can feel out of control. I’m happy to say though, that apart from minor damage each time, everything worked out ok.

    • Photo: Ciorsdaidh Watts

      Ciorsdaidh Watts answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      The hardest thing, but also the most exciting is never knowing exactly what is going to happen. Sometimes science goes in a completely unexpected direction so you need to be able to adapt quickly…it’s tricky but well worth it!

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