• Question: what is your favorite science experience?

    Asked by senara to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 17 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by boundy.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      My favourite science experience was probably the first international conference I went to in the first year of my PhD degree. The conference was in America – I’d never been there before, and it was a huge event with almost 10,000 other physicists at the conference. I was there to give a small talk (to around 50-60 people) and present some of my work.

      It was the first time I’d given a big, important international talk. I was pretty nervous before it started, but in the end I really enjoyed it – the rest of the conference was great too, and it was nice to see America for the first time. I’ve been back quite a few times since, but that conference was one of the most fun ones I’ve been to.

    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      @sen#science some time ago I took part in a competition to take an aerial photograph. We were in team and were given a disposable camera. We had to buy everything else from a shop (this was a sunday in the middle of nowhere in the countryside a long time ago – no shops open). Anyway, all the other groups made a mechanical hammer attached to the camera which they sent up in a helium balloon – they then yanked the string to pull the hammer down to hit the shutter-release. I had the idea of using an electromagnet with a long piece of wire acting as the string of a kite to which was attached the camera. This meant that the hammer would fall down with the flick of a switch, not the mechanical yanking of string. We took by far the best picture and won the competition!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      It’s hard to find a single best science experience I’ve had, but one of my more recent favorites was realizing that I am actually an expert in what I do! This tends to hit me at conferences, when I’m chatting to other people (who are experts in what they do!) and they’re interested in what I have to say on a specific topic. That’s really fulfilling.

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