• Question: Who are you favourte scientists?

    Asked by CARRIE to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Lucy and Meg.
    • Photo: Hephzi Tagoe

      Hephzi Tagoe answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      @Carrie, I’ve never actually thought of this before.
      I’m not sure I’ve got a favorite scientist but over the years I’ve come across some scientist and colleagues I really admire because of their ethic, attitude to science, willingness to impact knowledge etc.
      One will be my current supervisor (Dr Ryan O’shaughnessy), he just seems to have all the answers. An amazing science teacher comes to mind by name Ian Harvey at Hills Road College in Cambridge, I’ve never met anyone so passionate about science and engaging others with it. A more famous one will be Prof Athene Donald whom I interviewed once for an article. She was very inspirational. Here it is http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/review/careers-2/hightable-professor-athene-donald-women-science/

    • Photo: Imogen Napper

      Imogen Napper answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Hi Carrie!

      Tough question, although I probably would say Alexander Fleming.

      Alexander Fleming was a scientist who discovered penicillin, a very commonly used antibiotic, in 1928. This was the first antibiotic to be discovered!

      Have you even been ill and taken penicillin or another antibiotic? I have taken penicillin when I was younger and had a chest infection, and it made me better!

      Penicillin has saved the lives of millions of people, making them better when they are ill.

      The best way is how he discovered it. He discovered it by accident! He went on holiday and left his laboratory dirty, with lots of dirty Petri dishes. When he came back, he noticed a Petri dish was mistakenly left open which contained Staphlococcous (a bacteria that can cause a lot of infections). However, he also noticed a blue/green mould also was growing in the petri dish that wasn’t there before, and this mould was shown to kill the bacteria.
      This mould was penicillin!

      I love how sometimes the best breakthroughs in science are from mistakes!

    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Hey.

      Well can I have a list?

      I think top of that list is Stephen Hawking (now with his own film documenting his life ‘The theory of everything’). He is an inspirational story about being able to achieve so much despite his ALS (which Drs. didn’t give him long with before). He has fundamentally changed how we look at the universe and our place within it. I also like that he has a keen sense of humor – throwing a party for time travelers at Cambridge and other such things.

      He is active in trying better humanity through other means as well. It would be a dream of mine to tick off meeting him.

    • Photo: Jennifer Rudd

      Jennifer Rudd answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I actually really like stories about the early greek philosophers who did thought experiments and so many of them turned out to be correct, or at least have a good grasp on the universe. I love the alchemists from the 14-1600s who used to try and turn base metals into gold.
      My PhD supervisor was pretty awesome too. He was a little bit stereotypical as he would jump from topic to topic and have lots of energy and ideas!

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