• Question: How far would you go to find out something? For example would you risk your life for it?

    Asked by sawyerbean to Mark, Matthew, Mike, Paul, Sabina on 18 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Malek

      Matthew Malek answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      This is a really nice question, and unlike any of the other questions I’ve had so far. (And there have been a lot of them!)

      I would go pretty far for my research. I’ve skipped my birthday, I’ve skipped Christmas, I’ve skipped New Years. You get the idea.

      I’ve also moved to many places — sometimes foreign countries where I didn’t know anyone and had to start my life from scratch. I even lived apart from my partner for a couple of years when it was needed for research. (Fortunately, she is very supportive!)

      Risking my life is probably where I draw the line. I only have one life, so I treat it carefully. Even then, though, there are situations where I would risk my life. My dream job would be to become an astronaut and go to the moon, or even Mars. Having a PhD in physics qualifies you to be a NASA mission specialist astronaut. In fact, I have applied before to be an astronaut candidate. I wasn’t accepted, but I plan to apply again.

      Obviously, being an astronaut involves risking your life. Of about 100 space shuttle missions, two ended in disaster, with all on board killed. So there is always a risk to your life when you go into space. Even so, I would consider this worth it and would indeed risk my life for that.

      Thanks again for this question! 🙂

    • Photo: Paul Coxon

      Paul Coxon answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      I get most of my data at big facilities called synchrotrons. These are massive electron accelerators which give off radiation that we use to study materials at an atomic level. The electrons go around the synchrotron storage ring in a circular part, and at various positions around the ring are a range of researchers from all over running experiments.

      To get access to use the radiation, you have to apply for ‘beamtime’. If successful you usually get a week or two with access to the radiation to do your experiment.

      These facilities run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so to get the most out of our beamtime we run in shifts. As a poor postgrad student during my PhD I spent around 6 weeks doing the night shift. It was the middle of winter and I hardly ever saw daylight. Also the lab canteen was closed at night so I mainly ate crisps.

      I was tired and always hungry – not a very healthy way to do science, but the results in the end were worth it! 🙂

    • Photo: Mike Lee

      Mike Lee answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      That’s a good and searching question. It would depend on how great a discovery it would be – for example if it would be a discovery that would lead to a new medicine that would save the lives of many people then I would go for it 100%.

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