• Question: why do you consider yourself to be a scientist?

    Asked by ailhep123 to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 18 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lucysmith.
    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @ailhep123

      I have a quite a simple answer as to why I consider myself a scientist. I consider myself a scientist because I try to answer questions using a scientific method. I’m sure you know quite a bit about scientific method from your science classes, but there is a good introduction to scientific method on wikipedia.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

      Of course this means that anyone can be a scientist, if they use scientific method to answer a question. You are just very lucky if you manage to get a job being a scientist 🙂

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @ailhep123
      I agree with Tim’s answer, it’s how you conduct your research that makes you a scientist. If you have a research question, you design and run an experiment to prove it, and you statistically check your results, that is my definition of ‘science’. But it can be different for different people. You don’t have to be employed by a University to be a scientist. But it is fun if you are 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Hi ailhep123 –

      This is a great question – as a language scientist, it’s one I get asked a lot. Actually, even last night, when I told my Mum I was in I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here!, she said, “Are you a scientist, then?”!

      I think I’m a scientist because my research is based on evidence, not personal feelings – I do experiments and get numbers out of them, and so I can show that, if you did what I did, you would get the same result (hopefully – though another thing about science is that people are welcome to do your experiments again and see whether they do get the same result, to give further weight to it). I like language science in particular, though, because it’s right on the edge of being an art and being a science – so I can enjoy the cultural side of working on French and in France, but I can be precise about it too!

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