What is it like being a scientist?
Fun, exciting, frustrating, fascinating and hard-work.
What inspired you to become a scientist?
One word: curiosity. I remember one occasion when my Uncle Sam, a digger-driver in a Cotswold quarry, gave me some weirdly shaped fossil shells to play with that he called 'devils toenails'. As a kid this sounded very exciting and intriguing. I wanted to know more. I still have those petrified toenails and years later learnt to call them Gryphaea.
What is the best thing about your job?
I do research which allows me to explore past life on earth and make new discoveries- this certainly gives me a buzz. But also, I love teaching our undergraduate students about the history and evolution of life– how many people have an audience of young people interested in what they do in their day-to-day job?
What do you do in your free time?
I play squash a few times a week. I love it because for the 40 minutes on court I think only about the game and nothing else, plus it is great fun. At weekends I mostly go cycling or walking in the countryside, and generally a pub is involved.
What is the first science you remember doing?
The first vivid memory I have of science involved a Bunsen burner and a lot of spit ! We had to measure the boiling point of water, and (unbelievably) of saliva. It took several of us to provide sufficient saliva to boil up- it was disgusting as it went all frothy. Be warned science is not always the most glamorous of careers!
How would you inspire a child/non-scientist to be interested in the work you do?
Palaeontology requires curiosity and imagination; it is a bit like detective work as we cannot directly observe how animals, which have been dead for millions of years, actually lived. So we marshal all the evidence we can and then use this to reconstruct how stony fossils would have swam, creeped, crawled, slithered, flew, ran, eaten, and bred during their life.
What’s the funniest/strangest/most surprising experience you have had in your career?
I undertake fieldwork collecting fossils in China. Once I was all ready to go into the field (rucksack, hammer, chisel etc.) but when my Chinese collaborators came to get me they took me instead to a karaoke bar- a bit unexpected! Refusing to participate was not an option- so instead of searching for fossils I ended out singing Careless Whisper by George Michael.
What discovery or invention could you really not live without?
Electricity.
What do you think is the most important thing yet to be discovered?
Life beyond Earth (I can’t wait !).