• Question: have you done a experiment that is challenging for you?

    Asked by 789cmtm32 to Aileen, Christopher, Rehemat, Stephanie, Stephen on 6 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by ameliab.
    • Photo: Aileen Baird

      Aileen Baird answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      Yes!! All the time! Science can be challenging because the whole idea is to find out new things- things that no-one has ever done before.

      All of my experiments are new to me when I start, so whenever I start a new experiment it is always quite difficult- sometimes this makes me nervous!
      What I try to do is make sure I have learnt as much as I can about the experiment before I start- this might mean I speak to other people that have done it before, or I do some research about it online. I also give myself lots and lots of time when I’m about to do the experiment for the first time so that I know if it takes me ages it doesn’t matter.

    • Photo: Stephanie Mann

      Stephanie Mann answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Yes sometimes experiments are challenging. I do most of my experiments on a computer and you have to make sure you have though of everything before you start the experiment: are all my inputs right? Is all my programming right? Is there anything that could go wrong?
      Usually it does go wrong, certainly at first! But when it goes right it’s the best feeling ever!

    • Photo: Christopher Nankervis

      Christopher Nankervis answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Yes. I am always trying out very challenging experiments to forecast the weather. At the moment I am looking at predicting the

    • Photo: Stephen Twomlow

      Stephen Twomlow answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      Yes, about 15 years ago we were doing some work on soil fertility management in southern Zimbabwe – we were getting some good results from 30 or so farmers we were working with. we presented the results to the UK Govts development agency – two weeks later they said we like this can you please support us with training and demonstrations across the whole of southern Zimbabwe as we want to give out 4000 tonnes of fertilizer based on your ideas – after feeling very scared we swallowed hard and made a plan. In three weeks we had put in 1000 demonstration plots on farmers fields to monitor the impacts of the fertilizer……The rest is history and we got an additional 2 million pounds from the UK Govt to continue our work

Comments

  • Photo: Stephen

    Stephen commented on :

    Yes, once when we were trying to demonstrate the benefits of nitrogen fertilizer to smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe – the UK govt asked if we could work at scale – we said off course, and in the space of 3 weeks we established 1000 farmer managed experiments! my team and I have never worked so hard, but we succeeded and provided the information for the UK government to fund a 50 million pound project to help smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe

  • Photo: Christopher

    Christopher commented on :

    Yes. I am always trying out very challenging experiments to forecast the weather. At the moment I am looking at predicting the rainfall and flooding in the UK up to four months in advance using satellite measurements of the surface temperature of the Earth’s oceans.