• Question: Do you prefer the practical element of your job over the theory side?

    Asked by anon-238468 to James, Hannah, Claire, Chris, binuraj, Alice on 11 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Binuraj Menon

      Binuraj Menon answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      HI Ellie,

      I like both practical (we call it wet lab) and theory (dry lab) elements. All the science experiments are based on some sort of hypothesis or theory. The experiments are there to prove whether you can reach to any agreement with the theory or is it completely wrong. Scientists use different approaches. Computational biologists often work in computer labs, but they do understand or learned biology for their studies. They also have advantage of working from home 🙂 This is the advantage of current scientific research. With the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, the human involvement in doing the actual wet lab experiments are getting less day by day.

    • Photo: Hannah Blyth

      Hannah Blyth answered on 11 Mar 2020: last edited 11 Mar 2020 5:22 pm

      Hello Ellie, this is a really fantastic question. I really enjoy the practical element of what I do taking care of my wheat, growing my fungus and all the molecular biology, but the theory side is important to understand otherwise you don’t really know what your experiments are for/what they tell you!

    • Photo: Chris Carlton

      Chris Carlton answered on 24 Mar 2020:

      Both are needed, however I have always struggled with pure theory. The best things combine the theory and the empirical!

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