• Question: Do you have competences between each other

    Asked by Hugobt11 to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 8 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Hi Hugobt11 – I’m not sure I totally understand your question so sorry if I don’t answer it well. We all have key skills as scientists that we probably share like writing scientific papers and doing data analysis. Then we’ll have competencies that are really specialised to the research we’re interested in. So Rupert can analyse a sonagram which I can’t do but maybe he can’t score the indicators of pain in a horse’s face (maybe he can!). Hope that makes sense and answers your question.

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Do you mean if we compete? Like we do here in I’m a Scientist? I suppose we do compete but not usually directly like this. We all try to get our articles published and try to do studies before others think of them. We also write grant applications for research funding that directly compete with other researcher’s applications. But we’re generally all nice people who share and celebrate each other’s successes.

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      I am a little bit confused by your question Hugobt11 so am struggling to answer, sorry! Have done my best though 🙂

      I agree with Carrie that there are lots of general skills that scientists share – or skills that all scientists should have (maybe they don’t always have). These include: the ability to communicate your research (both written and in person at conferences and things), the ability to write grant applications, the ability to design and conduct a good scientific experiment, and the ability to collect and analyse data effectively and reliably.

      There are then what I would maybe call subject or project specific skills that you develop in order to carry out your work – you often become the expert in your really specific field so you develop lots of skills that others probably don’t have!

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      We all share similar knowledge and skills – despite being specialists in different areas, we are all animal behaviour scientists at the end of the day.
      If you mean competitions then Imascientist is the first comptition I have been in. Science does sometimes feel like a competition – in a good way. If you know other people are trying to find out the same answer then you want to get there first. Being first means you are the first to publish your results for everyone to read.

    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      haha yes we do compete, but its healthy and positive competition, where we strive to do our best in asking the most important question, designing the best experiment and communicating our research in the most efficient manner, just like what we are doing now 😛

Comments

  • Photo: Nachistico

    Nachistico commented on :

    And you would like learning about any one elses work/studies and how they do it?

    • Photo: Ellen

      Ellen commented on :

      Yes I always love to learn about the work of other people. Even if it isn’t necessarily my particular specialism it is always fantastic to know what others are doing and what techniques they are using. You can usually learn a lot from the work of others. For example in this competition, I have done a bit of internet searching to try and help me answer some of the questions and I have found out so much information that I wouldn’t have known otherwise – it has been really interesting!