What is it like being a scientist?
Fantastic! My job involves finding out how things work, and exploring topics and problems that really intrigue me. Having the flexibility to move between different areas and learn new things is great, and is the reason why science is becoming more interdisciplinary. It’s just great fun.
What inspired you to become a scientist?
I was always interested in animals and plants, and read all the books on ocean life by Jacques Cousteau, as well as his stories of inventing SCUBA diving gear. I was inspired by the way he combined biology with physics and engineering to explore the world.
What is the best thing about being a scientist/ your job?
Finding out how things work. Every day I come to work I learn something about the world that nobody has ever known before – in how many other jobs can you say that?! Sometimes it’s only a very small thing, but when those small things come together and show you a new way of looking at the world it’s really thrilling.
If you could go back in time which scientist would you like to meet and what would you ask them?
I would like to talk to Jacques Cousteau, to find out what it was really like developing ways to explore a world nobody had seen before. There are lots of serious questions to ask him about biology and climate change, but actually I’d ask him if I could borrow his famous red woolly hat!
What do you do in your free time?
Answer questions about how the world works from a 2 year old and a 5 year old. They have some really great questions! But also reading , gardening, cooking.
What is the first science you remember doing?
I remember at primary school filtering garden soil mixed with water through paper filters with different pore sizes, and being amazed at all the different stuff that came out. If only we’d had a microscope to look at things with, I bet it would have been even more amazing. The first time I really felt genuinely hooked on a scientific problem was my PhD, when I got the chance to work out how the shape of petal cells affect how light interacts with the coloured pigment in petals.
What advice would you give a school child who is interested in science?
Being interested in science is wonderful – it means you can have fun all the time. Go to the museums in the nearest towns to you and you’ll find lots of great information about the natural world and about human invention. And it’s usually free. And the internet is a great way to find out about science – why not look up great scientists like Darwin and Einstein and find out what they really did?
What’s the funniest/strangest/most surprising experience you have had in your career?
The most surprising result I’ve ever had in the lab was when we discovered that the gene that plants use to make special lens-shaped cells that absorb light in the petal can also make hairs on the leaf! That was unexpected, and led to lots of new ideas about how attracting pollinators and deterring herbivores (which is what hairs do – would you like to eat hairy lettuce?) are linked together during evolution.
What discovery or invention could you really not live without?
Coca-cola. Sad but true. And I am very fond of my iPhone, having resisted buying one for a long time.
What do you think is the most important thing yet to be discovered/invented?
The rules which underpin the relationships between plants and their pollinators. As climate changes, we don’t know how the ranges of plants and animals might move, and we don’t know how the networks of their interactions are set up. That means we can’t at the moment make the models and predictions that we need to protect biodiversity and to ensure food crops get enough pollination – and that’s quite scary.