• Question: In your time working as a scientist, what has surprised you the most about the job?

    Asked by Toby3 to Duncan, Sajid on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Duncan McNicholl

      Duncan McNicholl answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      I think I spend more time writing about the science that I’ve done than I thought I would. I though it would be a lot of doing experiments, and then a little bit of writing, but it’s actually a lot of both.

    • Photo: Sajid Javed

      Sajid Javed answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      The thing that surprised me most was the amount of time you spend actually doing experiments. i spend very little time at the laboratory bench most of the time i’m planning the experiment, incubating the reaction, analyzing the data, discussing results and writing reports. i’d say i spend 10-20% of time in the lab and the rest at a desk. another thing that surprised me was the cost of everything. i use machines that cost £250K and the materials i need to run the machines can cost £1000 at a time and i do about 5-6 tests a week. if you do the maths, that’s a lot of money spent i a year.

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