• Question: Do you prefer practical or theory in science?

    Asked by danielbarrett to Dalya, Sarah on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by catherinea.
    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Oh theory, definitely. I really like doing the experiments even though they can be annoying sometimes when they don’t work well. But I love coming up with hypotheses the most and thinking about what can be going on….and there is never enough time for just me to do all the experiments I would want to. That’s why one day I hope to have my own lab with maybe 5-8 people in it, then I could hopefully see 5-8 times more results of experiments than I do now.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I prefer the practical side of things. I like working in the lab, working with my hands. And seeing the results of all the hard work! But I do really like thinking up new ideas too. That’s how I came up with the idea for the diagnostic blood test for testing patients for cancer. But you have to put the theory into practice otherwise science doesn’t get anywhere. That’s what I’m doing just now, I’m testing all the aspects of the blood test, improving it and seeing what problems happen in reality. Sometimes things look great on paper but can have problems that you don’t expect in reality. One of the problems I came up against was the natural fluorescence of blood (that’s how they detect blood at crimescenes). But I overcame this by using dyes that fluoresce at a different wavelength than blood.

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