What sort of scientist are you?

Question: What sort of scientist are you?
- Keywords:
  scientist
Asked by anon-193093 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Emma, Carl on 2 Nov 2018.
- Carl Heron answered on 2 Nov 2018:
  
  I am an Archaeological Scientist.
  
  I work in a museum (The British Museum). The team of scientists here help to preserve the Museum’s collection for everyone to enjoy and to learn from. We also undertake new research into the collection and then we make our findings available to everyone.
  
  Here’s a link to a recent story in the media where two scientists used imaging and analysis to study a child’s multi-coloured sock from Ancient Egypt. It helped us to understand how the sock was made and then coloured with natural dyes.
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/04/imaging-tool-unravels-secrets-of-childs-sock-from-ancient-egypt
- Emma Crawford answered on 2 Nov 2018: last edited 2 Nov 2018 4:04 pm
  
  I’m a statistician! More specifically a biostatistician, as I am working in drug development/ clinical trials. Here’s a short video about the role of statisticians in clinical trials: https://youtu.be/YDFPK_SR9ks
  
  Sometimes I might also be called a medical statistician too as I did my Masters degree in Medical Statistics. Click here to find out more about Medical Statisticians: https://www.psiweb.org/careers-homepage/job-roles
  
  Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with data collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation. Statistics is also thought as the science of learning from data, and of measuring, controlling, and communicating uncertainty.
  
  Bet you didn’t realise Maths was a science subject like Chemistry, Physics or Biology are at school? 😉 If you still don’t believe me, check out this link: https://www.britannica.com/science/statistics
- Heidi Gardner answered on 2 Nov 2018:
  
  I’m a Clinical Trials Methodologist!
  
  Clinical trials are the best way for us to find out if a medical intervention (this could be a type of medication, but also a surgical technique, or a lifestyle intervention, like diet change or exercise), works. It’s my job to figure out how to design those trials well enough so that we can get results more effectively – whether that’s more cheaply, more quickly, or just by putting less stress on staff and patients. I find it really exciting because the work that I’m doing isn’t very far away from patients, so it’s quite easy to see how the work I’m doing could impact people.
  This is a good video to explain what clinical trials are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz94pcvHJ3k
- Iain Staniland answered on 2 Nov 2018:
  
  My official job title says “Vertebrate Ecologist” which suggests that I am a socks and sandal wearing bearded oddball with a spine. Whilst I do have a beard in my profile picture (it is hard to shave when camping in below freezing temperatures) I am normally clean shaven and prefer shoes and I am usually not completely spineless. No comment on the oddball bit.
  Basically I study how marine predators, seals, penguins and whales behave, particularly how they find and catch their prey.
  Finding food in the open ocean can be very difficult for a number of reasons:
  i) Prey often clump together in patches such as fish shoals or krill swarms.
  ii) These patches can move horizontally and vertically and often quite quickly.
  iii) Mammals (whales and seals) and birds (penguins) need to come to the surface to breathe limiting their hunting and searching time.
  iv) In the breeding season penguins and some seals regularly need to return to land to feed their young again limiting the time they can hunt.
  I study how these animals overcome such complex problems. This can help us, not only to conserve the species in question, but also can tell us a great deal about their prey. This is important if we are to balance the often competing needs of humans and animals
- Jamal Kinsella answered on 2 Nov 2018:
  
  I am a Psychologist, but I am called a ‘Human Factors Engineer’ at work. This means I’m interested in how humans work with technology, specifically for me I look at how drivers act in their cars in order to look at how to help them stay safe on the road.
  
  With anything made by humans in our society, they need to be fit for our use. How can we design cars, aeroplanes, boats, smartphones, and video games to be intuitive, safe, fun, and easy to use? These are the questions the Human Factors in Engineering Team in Southampton try to solve with me. I personally am very interested in the psychology behind ‘expertise’ – how do we go from a learner driver, into an expert? I use psychological questionnaires and a Driving Simulator (a simulation of driving in a real car in a huge room, with four projectors and speakers to feel as realistic as possible) to test and improve how people drive.
  
  Here’s a video of our driving sim in action while my work-bestie Jed explains the future of driverless cars! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ra1LA5s_RI

Question: What sort of scientist are you?

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