• Question: when you find the answer to a question does it always lead you to a bigger and harder question that you try to find the answer to?

    Asked by sarahi to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hi sarahi. Not always is the simple answer.

      Sometimes the answer you find is the end of a long series of questions. Sometimes it’s the first question in that long series. But they’re always exciting to find.

    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Will, sometimes the answer is the end of a very long series of questions or sometimes the answer doesn’t get you anywhere. There are often times when things don’t work, the answer isn’t what you expect, but you just think of new and better questions. That’s why science is fun

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The best kind of question to ask, is sometimes one that creates new questions.

      That’s a principle I try to use when designing an experiment. You need to have an idea of what result (or possible results) you expect, and what the consequences of these different results might be. It’s best not to do an experiment where you don’t have some idea of the possible result – you can waste a lot of time that way!

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The hardest question in the world, for scientists, parents of small kids, teachers, everyone, is ‘Why?’. And ‘why’ will always be there. Makes me quite happy actually, as it means that there’s always more to explore, more experiments to do, and more answers to find, to then ask even more questions!

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