• Question: what is the most interesting thing you have ever done

    Asked by anon-317376 on 9 Mar 2022.
    • Photo: Jamie Smith

      Jamie Smith answered on 9 Mar 2022:

      Hi! Thanks for your question.

      For me it was tracking down a fault with our power system.

      The system was designed to control the Voltage at a fixed number, but we noticed that the Voltage would go down whenever we tried to use power from it.

      This was a really interesting problem to solve as it involved going through the drawings and working out how it worked. Then going to on to the actual system and running tests whilst looking at different parts until we noticed something odd.

      We tracked it down to 1 potentiometer (a small electronics piece about the size of a raisin) needing to be turned a bit to the right. It was cool seeing how small a thing could affect the much larger system.

    • Photo: Alex Headspith

      Alex Headspith answered on 9 Mar 2022:

      Hi,

      I’ve had the opportunity to work on loads of cool projects in many interesting places. This makes it really difficult to pick! Working at CERN in 2019 with the Beam Instrumentation Group was really fulfilling, especially getting to work up close with their accelerator complex. There’s beam instrumentation on every accelerator they have so I got to see behind the scenes everywhere.

      I’ve worked on loads of cool big science projects, from a heavy ion detector, through to a tuneable permanent magnet and many different accelerators. More recently I visited PIP-II at Fermilab in Chicago, which was a great collaboration and a big learning opportunity for me. I’m pretty lucky that my apprenticeship allowed me to gain the experience that led me to these opportunities!

    • Photo: Daisy Shearer

      Daisy Shearer answered on 9 Mar 2022: last edited 9 Mar 2022 8:31 pm

      In terms of my work: visiting the Netherlands to use their ginormous 45T superconducting electromagnet (some of the strongest magnets in the world) to do some measurements for my research.

      Outside of work: It’s a tie between going scuba diving in the Red Sea with my dad and (safely) setting fire to my hand as part of a science show!

      Here’s a photo of one of the huge magnets:
      HFML_1

      Demonstrating the propane bubbles experiment:

    • Photo: Alistair McShee

      Alistair McShee answered on 10 Mar 2022:

      For me it was starting work on the largest experiment at my company (the JET fusion reactor) when they were just about to start a series of experiments which last time (before I was born) broke a world record for nuclear fusion, and then it broke the world record again while I was working on it!

      I thought when I was at university it would take me most of my career to get to that level of involvement with the absolute “cutting edge” of science, but I’ve been here under two years!

    • Photo: Victoria Fawcett

      Victoria Fawcett answered on 10 Mar 2022:

      Great question!

      For me, it would be traveling to India in Feb 2020 to visit and use a massive radio telescope!
      I got to walk around some of the 30, 30 meter telescope dishes that were there which was amazing. I also got to eat curry 3 times a day for 10 days which was also amazing 🙂

    • Photo: Lucy Lawrence

      Lucy Lawrence answered on 15 Mar 2022:

      This is a great question!

      One of the most interesting things I’ve ever done is save a persons life when I worked as a scientist at the Royal Derby Hospital.

      More recently I have been speaking with NASA… and I’ll tell you a story!

      Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, started out as a normal day for Fiona Turett but at 3:30 p.m she made history when she took her seat at Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration 100th flight director since the position was established in 1960!

      Four days later, in honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022, I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Fiona.

      My interview has been included in an incredible free eBook by Technology Networks where I have interviewed inspiring female scientists working across numerous fields, to learn about their experiences.

      I’ve left the link below if you want to have a read 👇❤

      https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/ebooks/women-in-science-2022-358443

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