• Question: Do you think that there is a slight gap between Biologists, Chemists and Physists. as you all focus on different aspects and viewpoints of your work or others work.

    Asked by anon-182322 on 18 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Claudia Bonfio

      Claudia Bonfio answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      Definitely yes! I am a chemist, but I am exploring how small simple molecules can react to give more complicated molecules like DNA and proteins… So my work is at the interface between Chemistry and Biology, and I love it! The same is true for many other subjects, but interests overlap doesn’t mean that we would only need one of them… Physicists, chemists and biologists could have very different viewpoints on the same topic and all together can provide a more complete explanation to natural phenomena =)

    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 22 Jun 2018:

      Yes! I believe that we could make more progress in all of our research if we looked outside of our own area of expertise and worked with scientists in other areas. For example, sometimes physicists can think about a biological problem in a completely different way which could actually provide a new way to go about solving it that biologists would never think of!

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 26 Jun 2018:

      That is one of the many beauties of science; there is so much cross-over! Yes, the physicists and biologists and chemists may have a solid foundation of knowledge for their field, but they must have at least a basic understanding of the others to really know how it works and this is the same across all the sciences. For example, in Psychology, you have to have an understanding of the biology of the brain. To see images of the brain, or test the brain’s function, you have to have an understanding of how the different scanning or stimulating techniques work – such as MRI, EEG, tDCS etc. which were all created by physicists. Then chemistry, each neuron inside the brain activates by a chemical reaction – so to really understand how different medical treatments work, an understanding of chemistry is necessary. I think this is so fascinating and definitely a great question!!

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