• Question: Are you good at chemicals and expirements

    Asked by anon-319775 on 10 Mar 2022.
    • Photo: Mary Clarke

      Mary Clarke answered on 10 Mar 2022:

      Biology uses a lot of chemistry. We rely on making up solutions, that are dependant on knowing a bit about chemistry. Without these chemicals we couldn’t isolate DNA or proteins from cells for analysis. All of the experiments we use rely on chemistry and some of them rely on knowing some physics, especially when looking at properties of materials for cells to grow on etc.

    • Photo: Amy Worrall

      Amy Worrall answered on 10 Mar 2022:

      I like to think so! My specialism contains a lot of analytical chemistry- that in my case is the science of determining what compounds are produced by cells and how they interact. I was never good at chemistry in school but I’ve learned as I’ve gone along and am pretty comfortable with it now!

    • Photo: Emily Clarke

      Emily Clarke answered on 11 Mar 2022:

      That’s a really good question! When your in the lab your always doing experiments and working with chemicals, some can be more dangerous than others so we always have to make sure we have risk assessments for them. Like anything we all have to learn how to do certain experiments, and some have alot more steps and calculations than others. So we have to learn from people that have done it before practice lots until we are comfortable with what we are doing and can then teach someone else.

    • Photo: Elpida Vounzoulaki

      Elpida Vounzoulaki answered on 11 Mar 2022:

      I work with data and code now, but back at school I used to love chemicals and experiments. If I wasn’t an Epidemiologist, I would have studied chemistry and would have been doing that! 🙂

    • Photo: Sophie Langdon

      Sophie Langdon answered on 11 Mar 2022:

      We do lots of different experiments in the labs where I work and when I first start out doing them I am usually not very good and it takes me a lot longer than it does for people with more experience than me – practice makes perfect is true though!

      I use a mixture of chemicals and biological material in my experiments everyday so I am good at handling those! We also have risk assessments and training for the more dangerous things which we have to pass before we are allowed to handle them. For instance, I do some work with radioactivity and we have to be very careful about how much we expose ourselves to radioactivity as it can cause damage to your body so we go through several stages of training.

    • Photo: Chigozie Onuba

      Chigozie Onuba answered on 11 Mar 2022:

      Yes i do lots of experiments that require all sorts of chemicals etc.

    • Photo: Sara Luzzi

      Sara Luzzi answered on 12 Mar 2022:

      I think so! In the lab we often work with chemicals. We always have to try to do it at our best, for the experiment to work and if we use dangerous chemicals also to keep us safe .

    • Photo: Kerry Ann Brown

      Kerry Ann Brown answered on 14 Mar 2022:

      Sometimes! I have had a few accidents in the past – knocking over a urine sample was probably the most unpleasant.

      It is really imporant to follow a protocol when conducting any chemistry experiments or biological tests. If you can follow a set of clear instructions, take your time, and do things step by step then it makes things easier. Also practice makes perfect – everything is a bit of a surprise when it is new but we all become much more expert once we are familiar with a process.

    • Photo: Elmira Mohit

      Elmira Mohit answered on 14 Mar 2022:

      I’d like to think so but sometimes experiments don’t work, which is okay. Microbiology uses chemicals and media in order to allow certain bacteria to grow so understanding what works best for the bacteria is essential! 🙂

    • Photo: Rebecca Locke

      Rebecca Locke answered on 16 Mar 2022:

      I don’t use any chemicals or experiments anymore as I work on the computer, but in the past I’ve worked in labs where you have to use teeny tiny quantities of chemicals and you might have to do this all under a big ‘hood’ with gloves on where you can’t touch anything on anything else or it might get contaminated. I wasn’t too bad at it but definitely practice makes perfect, as others have said!

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