• Question: do you get to make anything you want

    Asked by FUTURE GAMER to Ellen, Elliot, Hazel, Rupesh, Thomas on 23 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 23 Jun 2016:


      Sadly, no!

      Firstly, we have limited budgets – I get to spend about £5000 a year to run my experiments, which might sound like a lot of money, but equipment and chemicals can be pretty expensive so it gets used up very easily!

      Secondly, we have rules about health and safety, so we have to be sure that what we are doing is not unnecessarily dangerous and isn’t a risk to ourselves and other people.

      Thirdly, there are also ethical rules that we follow, which are very important. For some experiments, you have to send you plans to a committee of people who think about whether your experiment is a good idea from a moral/ethical standpoint. This is particularly common when it comes to experiments involving people and animals. They will want to make sure you have a legitimate scientific question and that the results that you get will be useful!

      So, sadly, science in the lab is quite far away from the mad scientist chaos of my childhood dreams, but it is still very fun and the rules that are in place help protect everyone, so they are probably a good idea. Probably.

    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 23 Jun 2016:


      If it doesn’t cost any money I can but unfortunately making things usually does cost money and when there’s a cost the thing I’m making has to have some value to the department.

      I usually make test objects called phantoms with a specific purpose in mind. Alot of the time we re-cycle parts from old phantoms to make new ones or use other materials we have in the department to put something together that will do the job. You’ll be surprised how often a medical physicist has to use masking tape.

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