• Question: What are you most fasonated by?

    Asked by rider491 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 14 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by rhiannonwelham.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 14 Jun 2013:

      Long answer (short answer at the bottom!): The fact that we exist at all is incredible and fascinating. Matter has to collapse into galaxies, then into dense clouds of gas and dust, then into stars like the Sun, which have to explode to make some of the elements that we need to exist, then into planets, all of which is stupidly complicated and which people still don’t understand properly. Then the planet has to be in the right conditions for life to form, which is even more stupidly complicated, and all of this takes billions of years. Trees begin to shoot up out of the ground, birds take flight, and eventually people build rockets and explore the solar system, or develop art and music and philosophy, or appreciate the beauty of the world. So the fact that intelligent life exists is really amazing. I was at a talk today where the speaker was talking about how people now think that water used to cover Mars. As she was talking it made me kind of sad that there are things I’ll never know in my lifetime – maybe I’ll never meet an alien, or see another planet for myself. But the fact that we know so much about the universe and have all these amazing pictures right on this planet, and that we even exist at all, is amazing and really special, and I’m grateful that I exist right now to see it all and be part of the scientific process that uncovers these secrets of the universe.

      Short answer: I’m fascinated by everything in the universe.

    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 15 Jun 2013:

      Life, the universe and everything. One of the reasons I became a scientist was that I was incredibly curious as a kid and science was a good place for me to put that to good use without getting myself in trouble. As I started to get more into science I got more and more fascinated by it. Now, I find pretty much all of science interesting.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 15 Jun 2013:

      How variable the universe is, and how it’s full of contradictions. It’s so big, so complicated and yet so simple. It’s full of colour and shape and warmth and cold. It’s got nice bits to be in, it’s got awful places to be in. It’s changing all the time. And, if we ever understand it all, would that mean the universe would also exist inside our minds….?!

      Also, my 1 year old is pretty fascinating… I can’t understand how one little person can like yoghurt THAT much.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I’ve been thinking about this for the whole weekend because I really wasn’t sure. There are a lot of things that fascinate me – how things work, why the universe is the way it is… Even how steam trains work! (My son is 3 and is obsessed with steam trains, and I just realised that I have no idea how to build one.)

      No seriously – despite working on the world’s biggest experiment, if somehow I was thrown back in time a couple of hundred years, I really don’t know how much I could contribute to change the world. I couldn’t build a computer from scratch – I doubt I could create electricity. I couldn’t even build a steam train that works! It’s amazing how much we take for granted. I gotta learn how to do these things, you know, just in case I’m sent back to 1600 or something.

      Anyway, that wasn’t the question (sorry for the detour – but seriously!? What could you do?). What fascinates me most (at least right now) is PEOPLE. The way people think, and feel, and most specifically the way they learn. Children and adults learn in completely different ways – did you know that? I have a 3 year old son and it has been amazing watching him grow, what he finds interesting at different points in his life (what IS it with kids and yoghurt, Matt?). I’ve also taught first-year physics students, and they are completely different. The human brain is an amazing thing.

      And memes. Memes! I am just totally amazed at how something completely random can develop into a sort of internet cult, and something equally random just gets passed over. I love memes.

      When I was young one thing I really wanted was to see a “working” human brain. I thought that it would be pretty cool to watch – turns out that it’s not interesting at all (I don’t know this from personal experience though). I think that probably makes me weird. Maybe I shouldn’t have written that. Hmm…. Well, anyway, the human brain! That’s what fascinates me, and has for ages!

    • Photo: Kate Husband

      Kate Husband answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I’ve been thinking about this a while and I have to say I’m not sure! There are loads of things I’m interested in (space, galaxy formation and evolution, other bits of physics, how your brain works…) and I think it depends a bit on my mood or what I’m doing as to what is the most fascinating.

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