• Question: Did you thought of working together and helping each other to find solutions? Good Luck with your work! Please reply.

    Asked by to Jo, Loren, Lucy, Sam, Toby on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Loren Macdonald

      Loren Macdonald answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Talking to other scientists is always really useful- even if they aren’t in your area of research because they will be able to look at things from a different point of view. Scientists often get together at conferences which are usually based on a broad topic and then everyone gets together and discusses their work and often people get together and collaborate to produce joint research projects.

      It’s been really interesting seeing what the other scientists here do because as a scientist, I love science! If I had a problem, I would ask other scientists about it, for sure!

    • Photo: Sam Lear

      Sam Lear answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      We do have to work together! For example last year I worked on trying to make a protein that would help biomedical researchers understand the processes underlying inflammation.

      Science is often very competitive, so sometimes you want to keep your research secret so other research groups don’t copy it and get the credit. Working together is definitely beneficial however, as there is often more interest/money available for collaborations between researchers, and projects that span lots of different areas.

      Drug development is a really good example – you need chemistry to make the drugs and biology to understand how the drugs work. Lots of problems are pretty much impossible to solve without a range scientists working in different areas with a broad range of knowledge/skills.

    • Photo: Lucy Remnant

      Lucy Remnant answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Working together is a really big part of science. Working together and talking to each other we can get an idea for an experiment which we would never have got by ourselves.
      With the help of things like video chats we can work with people from across the world by sending them samples that they can test ion their experiments and receiving things from them to do that same in our labs.

      If you want to do a specific experiment sometimes it’s possible to go and work in a lab that already knows how to do it so you can learn it and then use it in your own work.

    • Photo: Tobias Warnecke

      Tobias Warnecke answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      As the other guys said – it’s often necessary to work with others because they have some specialist skills that you don’t have – like builders and electricians and carpenters working together to finish a house. It can also be lots of fun to do things together rather than do everything by yourself. On the other hand, not everybody can work together. Some people just don’t get on, or are not productive, and if you find yourself in the same team, that can be really frustrating. It’s the same as at school, in a sports team, or in any other job, really.

    • Photo: Jo Nettleship

      Jo Nettleship answered on 21 Jun 2014:

      Hi crazycoolgirl12
      In my lab, we help a lot of scientists from all over the UK and Europe to make their proteins. This is what our lab was set up to do. The scientists often come and visit our lab to do these experiments. It is really exciting as I get to work with lots of different people with different ideas. This helps my work as well as their work.
      It’s great to meet the scientists on I’m a Scientist and it would be good to work with them in the future!
      @ the scientists – if you want to clone 48 constructs and test in E. coli, mammalian and insect cells, talk to me – reagents and time are free!
      Jo

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