Re: what is it like to be a scientist whats your favourite area of science

Hi Alexandra

You ask a wonderful and difficult question. Most scientists would want to 
write pages and pages to answer it, but would they manage to tell you what 
they truly feel? I will try, without writing a novel.

There is this expression "still confused, but on a higher level", which, 
in a humorous way, summarises both the hard sides and the fun sides of 
being a scientist. I think you become a scientist because you are very 
curious about how the world REALLY functions. There is also a sense of awe 
and reverence in the face of our universe and its intricate details, 
which, in my case, were there from an early age. But a scientific 
curiosity can show up at any time. However, once you start to ask 
questions, there is no stopping! In a sense, you become a scientist 
because you never grow out of asking questions. As a child might ask why 
clouds fly, if angels exist, why fish don't drown or why old socks smell, 
a scientist goes on asking about why some disease develops, how a flower 
forms, if there is life on other planets or indeed why old socks smell! 
Can you remember when you last asked such a question? Can you remember a 
feeling of great joy when you understood the answer? When you're a 
scientist, there isn't anyone to tell you, because nobody knows the 
answers to the questions you ask. Your job is to find those answers, but 
the joy when you find them is the same as when you were 6 or 10 or 15 and 
that sense of "AHAAAA!" spreads in your mind.

A microscope that I inherited from my grand-mother - when I was about your 
age actually - played a central role in developing my scientific 
curiosity. If  I had got my hands on – say – a telescope, I'm sure my life 
would have looked different today. So I explored the content of old flower 
pots, the beautiful lace of crystals, the strange forms of pollen grains… 
The odd dead insect also found its way under my lens. To me, the mystery 
of life was the big question: what makes a flower like an elephant, but 
different from a rock? In asking this, I got involved in trying to 
understand the chemistry of life. To answer your second question, I would 
say that my favourite topic is this chemistry of life, or biochemistry as 
it's called: how chemicals that you can describe can make a bacterium or 
an oak tree tick in a way that is very difficult or maybe even impossible 
to put in words.

I hope this answers your questions. Good luck with the assignment!

Erik von Stedingk