• Question: With what famous scientist would you prefer working?

    Asked by VladimirT to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 15 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      Mmmm, well I prefer working as part of a team, I’m not sure I’d want to work with one famous superstar and be in their shadow.

      But I would love to have a chat with Ignaz Semmelweis – in the 17th century he found out about the importance of hand washing in hospitals. Nobody believed him, because doctors thought they were gentlemen, and too posh to spread diseases. Poor Semmelweis got very depressed and died in an asylum, and never found out how important his work would become.

      More about him here: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/ignazsemmelweis.aspx

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Frederick Sanger invented a method for sequencing DNA and figured out the chemical structure of proteins (specifically insulin) winning two Nobel Prizes for Chemistry along the way (only the fourth person to do this).

      However, he didn’t seem to become arrogant with his success. There are many talkes of his good humour though I cannot confirm their truth.

      There is one tale of him I remember when he was at a posh dinner. A man on the table had recently been on TV and was boasting about his exposure. The man, not knowing who Sanger was, turned to Sanger and is said to have talked about himself for a full 20 mins, before asking Sanger what he had been doing recently. Sanger said “Well, I think I was on TV recently too”. The man, quite surprised by this, asked “Oh, what for?” To which Sanger replied “Oh it wasn’t too exciting”. The man pressed him more “Go on, what was it for?” to which Sanger replied “I was collecting my Nobel prize”.

      He sounds like a pretty cool guy!

    • Photo: Marikka Beecroft

      Marikka Beecroft answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Watson and Crick! They found the structure of DNA and apparently when they did they ran into a pub and shouted “We discovered the secret of life!”. They sound like so much fun!

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