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Asked by ella on 23 Nov 2021.
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Craig Anderson answered on 23 Nov 2021:
When things go wrong and I don’t know why. Really, it’s an opportunity to become a real expert in what I’m doing but in the first instance I feel very defeated. If I expect something to work and it does something completely different, then that might even be an opportunity to find out something really interesting!
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Frank Schubert answered on 23 Nov 2021:
Experimental science can be frustrating, since often experiments don’t work. This is not only a sobering experience for students in the lab (it is soo different from their practical classes), but also for us as established scientists. They usually start working (a little…), though, just when you are about to give up.
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Yasmin Dickinson answered on 23 Nov 2021:
When you do an experiment, and it goes wrong but you have no idea why! This can happen a lot in science and it becomes frustrating. Imagine, you carried out a very long experiment and after all that you realise it didn’t work! But moments like this just teach us patience and how to better troubleshoot our work. The good thing is however that we have our colleagues for support when these sort of things happen. My lab is lovely and are always there for guidance or advice 🙂
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Joaquin de Navascues answered on 24 Nov 2021:
The blessing of science – discovering new things – is also its curse: you are in uncharted territory and nobody can give you the solutions to your problems, and in a way you are a bit ‘on your own’, which can be frustrating when things do not make progress. This sometimes requires a lot of persistence.
A downside of being a scientist is that for a long time you need to be on short-term contracts (1, 2, 3 years, 5 if you are lucky) before you can settle, and often requires moving around the world or the country (this can be really interesting too). On the whole, this makes it a very hard career for people with family ties or other constrains, who may be just as talented but may have to opt for alternative careers at some point.
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Julia Spindel answered on 26 Nov 2021:
Some of the experiments that we do involve doing very repetitive tasks. Sometimes I don’t mind this, it can feel quite meditative, or if I don’t need to concentrate too much I can listen to music at the same time. But sometimes you need to concentrate very hard on the repetitive task and this can be quite boring or tiring! Also, as others said, many experiments sadly don’t work and it can be challenging to work out why.
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