• Question: what other topic would you choose if you couldn't do he one your doing now?

    Asked by rachel4 to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      In terms of other science topics or another job? I’ll answer both 🙂
      If I was to study something different from the heart, it would be the brain. The control centre of your whole body. It amazes me the calculations it can do, in such a sort time, even when you are tired. Or how computers still can’t mirror the complexity of the human brain. The human brain has over 100 billion neurons, which carry your memory and information to do thousands of things like run. To put this into numbers, there are the same number of stars in the milky way (our galaxy) as are cells in your brain!

      If I wasn’t to be a scientist, I would be a photographer. I love taking pictures in my spare time of landscapes or animals. I would love to be a little more arty!

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think I’d have liked to do stuff with solar cells or nanotubes. There’s still time however – it’s important to realise that scientists can and do change their research fields. Some of the most interesting stuff happens when you bring different types of scientist together.

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I am crazily passionate about strange things. Volcanoes are one of them, and the Universe is the other. Keeping it simple then!

      The study of volcanoes and earthquakes, or tectonics, fascinates me. I’ve climbed to the crater of two volcanoes so far. One was dormant, but the other, Vesuvius, in Naples in Italy, is always smoking, and is an active volcano. It is long overdue a big eruption, which is scary, but amazing, because it’s all out of our control. We can monitor these things, but nothing can battle against the sheer force of our molten core of loveliness here on Earth. Saying that though, it did make me constantly worry when I was in Los Angeles and San Francisco a couple of months ago, because they are long overdue a huge earthquake that could have the power to destroy one of the cities entirely! This whole area was why I did Geograhy at A level. My other three subjects were Chemistry, Maths and Biology, but I couldn’t give up the physical geography!

      My other crazy interest is in stars and planets. I am lucky to live somewhere with lots of open space, and not very much light pollution from cities and towns. Whenever there is a meteor shower, we head up to a really high point on the North Downs, and watch the magical show above us. It is so confusing when you start reading about the universe, and it makes you feel really small, but it’s amazing! I really want to do a GCSE in Astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, for pure fun, but it’s really annoying because they teach the course on a Tuesday night, which is when I have ballet class. I’ve been doing that since I was two and a half, and had a break from it through A levels and Uni, but now I’m back and dancing in an Old Girls Ballet class, in the same ballet school that I went to when I was little! It’s all the ‘old girls’ that used to do ballet together, and it’s a great workout, but mainly a fab social point in the week, and I couldn’t give that up!

      Must try and persuade the Royal Observatory to change their timetable. Don’t the know that some of us need to pirouette on Tuesday nights?! 🙂

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