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Asked by to Thomas, Simon, Daniel, Clara, Becky on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Simon Albright answered on 13 Mar 2014:
Yes and no. My aims in life are to be a good researcher (amongst others), I believe that science can answer some of the big questions and help people. Because of these I try my best to be good at what I do and to help people with my work.
It’s important as a scientist to try and look at the data honestly and simply conclude the most likely explanation. But sometimes we let our personal preferred ideas take precedent even if they may not be the best option (we are still human). The most important thing for a scientist is to know, and accept, when you’re wrong and move forwards knowing you’ve benefited by learning something new.
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Becky Martin answered on 13 Mar 2014:
Good question!
Firstly I’m an atheist so I am not religious personally, but I do believe in having a positive impact where I can! I think that I chose emergency planning as a career, and as my research area because I wanted to do something that’s good that helps people. My work has quite a few ethical implications, because I model the potential impacts of radiation upon people.
I don’t think that my personal beliefs affect my research findings though, because the aim of good science is to be as impartial as you possibly can, and to use the information that is available to you to tell the world what is happening, without adding your own voice or personal views!
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Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 13 Mar 2014:
In a way, they do. I do not believe, I do not have faith. In anything. Well, maybe in myself. As such, I seek to know things through experiment, rather than accept them as they are. I therefore focus on questions that I can address in my laboratory, which means that it limits directly my areas of research.
As such, I am very glad to be studying nuclear physics. Although it is a field in the very small (if not already infinitely small), it is one where you can still grasp the concepts and experiment with. I very like the fact that when a puzzle tickles my brain, I can plan an experiment to address that question and solve it, without to start from suppositions and speculations.
At the same time, I do respect very much people who work on the much more metaphysical questions such as cosmology and the big bang, but it is not my cup of tea!
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Clara Nellist answered on 13 Mar 2014:
The others are right that being a good scientist means not letting your aims or beliefs effect your research. When we find something out we write a paper about it to tell other scientists what we’ve found. The first thing they’ll say is “prove it!” and we have to show them the evidence. This doesn’t leave much room for personal beliefs since you have to have data that backs up your conclusions.
Although, I’m doing science because I believe that it’s really important that we find out as much as we can about our universe and how it works, so I guess you could say that my personal beliefs have affected my career choice.
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Daniel Roach answered on 14 Mar 2014:
We are all human, and the activity of ‘doing science’ is a human activity. This makes your question a very important one, and I think it has as many answers as there are scientists!.
My personal aims are centred around being able to continue to ask questions (and get paid to do it!), and I believe that whilst there might be a definitive answer to every question out there – truths, if you prefer – I will never possess even a small fraction of them, and neither will anyone else! But as my life and my work are all about the process of looking for these answers, I try to focus on this process rather than the answers themselves. After all, we all make mistakes and we can all get it wrong; even if we have been really careful, we can miss things.
So, for me the point is to enter an investigation with a relatively open mind, and see what surprising things we can find rather than aiming to find what I expect to see. That way, it’s more fun and I don’t inject too much of my expectations into my exploration of the system I’m studying.
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