Question: what attracted you to theoretical physics instead of experimental?

Steven Thomson answered on 18 Jun 2015:

I tried both and decided I preferred theory. I did a few experimental research projects and I was reasonably good at it, but I was always frustrated by equipment breaking when it wasn’t my fault. Laser labs, for example, need the temperature to stay the same all the time – if the air conditioning breaks (and ours often did), we’d lose all that day’s data.

In theoretical physics, the maths is really difficult but if I can’t solve an equation, I just need to learn more maths or be smarter about it. If the air conditioning breaks, I can still do my research, and I like that independence.

Also, I’m just amazed that theoretical physics even works at all. Scribbling equations onto a sheet of paper somehow tells us about the hearts of atoms, or the structure of galaxies? I think that’s incredible!