What is it like being a scientist?
Science is an incredible adventure. I feel like a Victorian Explorer cutting my way through a jungle of calculations, confusing ideas and confusing data. Then, after a while, you see something incredible that no-one else has seen before. Making a discovery or coming up with an invention is a fantastic feeling.
What inspired you to become a scientist?
As a child, my grandfather, who was a village teacher, took me on long walks where he liked to explain what we see around us. I loved to listen to his explanations, but unfortunately, being a teacher, he examined me afterwards whether I remembered what he said. Of course I did, but often I refused to answer, because I did not like exams – I still don’t like them. Nevertheless, these long walks with explanations made me love science.
What is the best thing about being a scientist/ your job?
Freedom. The freedom to do what I am most passionate about, the freedom to think and the freedom to chose my time (within limits, of course).
If you could go back in time which scientist would you like to meet and what would you ask them?
I would love to have endless walks with Einstein and Bohr just listening to their arguments about quantum physics. I would love to meet Maxwell as well, because he was such an inspiration and a most delightful man.
What do you do in your free time?
Reading novels or, more often, detective stories, swimming, spending time with my family.
What is the first science you remember doing?
Inventing useless things as a child such as model propeller airplanes that could wind themselves up while they were flying and so could fly forever, and then understanding why they could not work.
What advice would you give a school child who is interested in science?
Be curious, ask questions and insist on understanding the explanations given to you. Every person has a natural curiosity about the world, so I would try to appeal to curiosity and imagination for showing how interesting the science I love is.
What’s the funniest/strangest/most surprising experience you have had in your career?
Living a novel (some day, I write it up).
What discovery or invention could you really not live without?
The laser. Eye operations saved me from blindness.
What do you think is the most important thing yet to be discovered/invented?
A better form to settle human conflict than politics and war. Telepathy would help.