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Asked by anon-232577 to Mark, Liam, Laura, Kasia, Gina, Felix on 18 Nov 2019.
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Kasia Clarke answered on 18 Nov 2019:
Science and maths are very important if you decide to go into a science subject. I chose to take geography as an A level because I wanted to study climate change which is not considered a science subject, but was helpful in my degree in Earth Sciences. I also did Product Design, and it’s funny how often I use those skills in my sample preparation at work now as I study material science at the moment. Using a saw, and a drill, a sanding machine and being able to be practical and mend pieces of laboratory kit were all skills I picked up during my Product Design A level and use weekly now. I never did much computing before university, but every science subject will expect you to learn to code, and use certain software so that is a really important skill – coding. My colleagues have spent a lot of time overseas running their experiments in particle accelerators called synchrotrons, particularly in France, so don’t underestimate the need for learning foreign languages, it always helps to be able to communicate your work to others.
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Mark Johnson answered on 19 Nov 2019:
My current job (trapping subatomic particles) sounds as close to ‘pure’ physics as you can get, but I use skills from my other GCSE subjects every day. These days, most scientists will use a lot of maths and computer programming to try and make sense of their data. Apart from physics, chemistry and biology, these subjects are definitely the most important for a scientists in their everyday life.
At A-level, I took English language and literature as well as my science subjects. This seemed like a strange choice at the time, but I think it taught me to organise my thoughts, and made me better at presenting my ideas to other people. These are really important skills for a modern scientist.
I took a GCSE in Spanish when I was 15-16, but I really regret not studying French instead. Since 2016, I’ve been living and working at a lab on the French-Swiss border. I’m always trying to learn more of the local language, but it gets harder as you get older! 🙂
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Liam Gaffney answered on 20 Nov 2019:
The biggest link you have between science subjects and everything else you are taught at school has to be maths. In our experiments, we always have to work out what the final answer to the problem is and find a way to estimate how good our answer is. For that we have to use lots of number crunching and mathematical techniques.
Other subjects that we use all the time are ICT, working on complex equipment and analysing large sets of data mean that you will become and expert with computers and technology. We also write a lot of our own software and computer programs to do data analysis, so computer coding is a great skill to have.
Finally, when setting up experiments we find ourselves plumbing pipes together, making electronics circuits, building up vacuum chambers, etc; therefore good skills in technology subjects or at least that you find it interesting is useful. I loved technology subjects at school, like resistant materials and electronics workshops. Turns out that it’s really useful to stay interested in all of that too.
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Laura Sinclair answered on 21 Nov 2019:
Science is such an intrinsic part of life. First of we need to be able to communicate it. Whether it’s written or spoken language or using mathematics!
It’s a big part of history, and at some points in history religion and science were not always in agreement. Science can help inform government policies. Science advances medicine and technology.
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