• Question: Which subjects in school help you the most to become a scientist {Except Science}?

    Asked by anon-220356 on 20 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Marianne King

      Marianne King answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      Maths has been very helpful – not necessarily really difficult maths – because we have to calculate concentrations of things a lot, count and plate specific densities of cells and also have some knowledge of statistics. It also helps you think through problems logically. I also find art has helped in that I like to draw diagrams of things I struggle to understand or remember. I find it so much easier to visualise and remember things in that way rather than try and memorise text.

    • Photo: Kate Timms

      Kate Timms answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      I would say that maths was really helpful. But I also think that anything that engages your problem solving or imagination is really important to. So probably things like history (I did archaeology at a-level) and creative things like art. English is also really important as we write and publish our writing a lot!

    • Photo: Shobhana Nagraj

      Shobhana Nagraj answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      I think Art has helped me a lot…it has helped me be creative and look at something ordinary and see in a different way, and also helped me be able to communicate what I am trying to do to others, who might not see it in the same way as I do. In science, we often have to look at the same thing others have seen, in a different way in order to find a solution. Art helped me see things from various perspectives, and helped me be able to communicate my perspective to others.

    • Photo: Matthew Bareford

      Matthew Bareford answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      Maths most certainly is important, along with things like I.T. and I think something like English/languages

    • Photo: David Wilson

      David Wilson answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      English
      .
      If you choose to become a scientist you will do a ton of writing. Communicating your ideas and understanding of science is really important. Being comfortable writing and being able to convince others with only your written word is an essential skill in my opinion and one I’ve not practised nearly enough

    • Photo: Kaitlin Wade

      Kaitlin Wade answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      Maths is usually good for scientific careers.

    • Photo: Nina Rzechorzek

      Nina Rzechorzek answered on 21 Jun 2019:

      English, Maths, IT and Art. To communicate, calculate, compute and create!

    • Photo: Rebecca Moon

      Rebecca Moon answered on 21 Jun 2019:

      This is a really great question, and I actually think all of them are pretty helpful. The obvious ones are biology and chemistry as they are directly related to medical science. Maths is also super useful, particularly statistics, but as a doctor I also use maths a lot to calculate drug dosages. Scientists do a surprising amount of writing too – applications for grants or approvals for projects, writing up our findings, so being able to write well is really helpful. And we do loads of reading, so if you can ready quickly that is definitely a bonus.
      I learnt Latin as school. A lot of anatomical names and even some disease names are derived from Latin so that helped me remember them, although clearly most doctors survive having never learnt Latin.
      I also learnt French and German. Today I’m off to Salzburg for a conference. Although the conference is all conducted in English, I’m sure a bit of German will help me in Salzburg too.

    • Photo: Rebecca Moon

      Rebecca Moon answered on 21 Jun 2019:

      This is a really great question, and I actually think all of them are pretty helpful. The obvious ones are biology and chemistry as they are directly related to medical science. Maths is also super useful, particularly statistics, but as a doctor I also use maths a lot to calculate drug dosages. Scientists do a surprising amount of writing too – applications for grants or approvals for projects, writing up our findings, so being able to write well is really helpful. And we do loads of reading, so if you can ready quickly that is definitely a bonus.
      I learnt Latin as school. A lot of anatomical names and even some disease names are derived from Latin so that helped me remember them, although clearly most doctors survive having never learnt Latin.
      I also learnt French and German. Today I’m off to Salzburg for a conference. Although the conference is all conducted in English, I’m sure a bit of German will help me in Salzburg too.

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