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Asked by bradfiler to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 18 Mar 2011 in Categories: Scientist.
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Sharon Sneddon answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Hello and thanks for your question!
My job is really varied and no two days are the same. I like it that way as I never get bored! I spend most of my mornings in the lab, I normally start by looking at my cells under the microscope, then decide what I need to do to them! Then I will decide what kind of experiments I am going to do, and will get all the things I need together. Sometimes this involves making up chemicals and drugs or solutions. Some experiments take a short time, but others can take weeks or even months. Sometimes I work in a hospital lab where I collect samples from patients, this can be eggs or embryos or sometimes biopsies. I like this part of my job as I often get to talk to the patients and explain what I am doing. The rest of my time is spent recording my results in my lab- book, or telling my boss or the others in the lab what I have been doing and if I’m having any problems.
Working in my lab is great fun, there is always someone to talk to, and we have the radio on so I’m often found singing (badly) to my cells!
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Kara Cerveny answered on 12 Mar 2011:
Up until a few months ago, my answer to this question would have been something like this:
Everyday I ride my bike to the lab (when I say every day, that includes most weekends too). I use microscopes to observe fish embryos and fish eyes; I use small glass needles and super-fine forceps to manipulate fish embryos to tease apart how retinal progenitor cells (stem cells) interact with each other their cellular neighbors, hoping to gain some insight into the genes and molecules that influence how and when retinal stem cells proliferate and differentiate. Experiments take weeks (and sometimes months) to complete and then analyze. Most of the data I collect is in the form of micrographs (pictures from the microscope). I interact with other scientists on a daily basis, including other post-docs, as well as professors and students, and I spend a good bit of time thinking about and talking about experiments and questions related to my research.
In mid-November, I decided to take a break from bench science and moved to the US to be a scientific editor at one of the top bioscience journals, Cell, which is based in Cambridge/Boston, MA. Now my day begins with me walking to the office, reading manuscripts, talking about science with authors and other editors, deciding to send papers to other scientists for review, and ultimately deciding which of the top papers we will actually publish in our journal. Another part of my job involves writing short pieces for the front section of the journal as well as editing pieces that other scientists write, to make the language more clear and concise.
Hopefully this answer gives you an idea about two different types of science-related jobs. If you have other questions about either job, I would be happy to tell you more. -
Jayne Charnock answered on 16 Mar 2011:
Hi bradfiler,
Its a real mix of things- it changes day to day.
Basically i spend time in the lab doing experiments, i give presentations to my department and other people at the university to explain my findings, I visit conferences in the UK and abroad to do the same, I write scientific papers so that other people can read about our research and i drink alot of coffee!!
I work with DNA (molecular biology) and cells (cell biology) and mice (in vivo experimentation)- so i get a real mix of different sorts of experiments each week. I also supervise students who come to experience life in the lab and manage my technician who’s job it is to support our research.
I love the variety i have, for example last week i spent the whole time in the lab doing experiments, this week Ive spent alot of time at my computer writing and answering these questions 🙂
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James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:
Hi Brad,
my research is on how to speed up healing of broken bones, and there are various aspects to my job.
I do experiments on stem cells to find out what makes them move from one place to another, and also how to turn them into different types of cells. We have worked out how to turn these cells into bone for example. These can be done in a lab that looks like your school one.
In order to see if we have something that could work in people and help them, you have to test them first, and so we test them on mice. So I operate on mice to give them a fracture of the leg and fix it again, and then inject the chemical at the fracture site and see if it heals quicker. To do this, I put them to sleep before the operation and then also given them a strong painkiller injection so they never feel any pain, even after they wake up – in fact they run around straight after waking up like nothing’s happened.
I also get involved in human operations so I can extract human stem cells and do experiments on them in the lab.
so there’re lots of different things and it’s never boring as a result! -
Emma King answered on 18 Mar 2011:
Hi bradfiller. I’m a PhD student at the moment so I get paid to carry out a three year research project. My project looks at stem cells and how the research is regulated to make sure that we develop safe and effective therapies. I look to see whether these regulations work in practice as well as on paper – by talking to scientists and regulators about how the regulations affect their work.
I’m also interested in the ethical, legal and social implications of how we get human tissue to research on, and I really enjoy doing outreach work and talking to schools and the general public.
I’m about to start being a research assistant on another project as well – so that’s all on top of doing my own PhD research – it can get very busy!
I don’t work in a lab but I have an office at the university or I can work from home if I want to – or anywhere really. I also visit labs to talk to scientists and go to lots of conferences and talks.
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