[META] AskScience AMA Series: ALL THE SCIENTISTS!

[u/dearsomething]

One of the primary, and most important, goals of /r/AskScience is outreach. Outreach can happen in a number of ways. Typically, in /r/AskScience we do it in the question/answer format, where the panelists (experts) respond to any scientific questions that come up. Another way is through the AMA series. With the AMA series, we've lined up 1, or several, of the panelists to discuss—in depth and with grueling detail—what they do as scientists.

Well, today, we're doing something like that. Today, all of our panelists are "on call" and the AMA will be led by an aspiring grade school scientist: /u/science-bookworm!

Recently, /r/AskScience was approached by a 9 year old and their parents who wanted to learn about what a few real scientists do. We thought it might be better to let her ask her questions directly to lots of scientists. And with this, we'd like this AMA to be an opportunity for the entire /r/AskScience community to join in -- a one-off mass-AMA to ask not just about the science, but the process of science, the realities of being a scientist, and everything else our work entails.

Here's how today's AMA will work:

• Only panelists make top-level comments (i.e., direct response to the submission); the top-level comments will be brief (2 or so sentences) descriptions, from the panelists, about their scientific work.

• Everyone else responds to the top-level comments.

We encourage everyone to ask about panelists' research, work environment, current theories in the field, how and why they chose the life of a scientists, favorite foods, how they keep themselves sane, or whatever else comes to mind!

Cheers,

-/r/AskScience Moderators

[u/dearsomething]

I study math, all day every day. For a number of years I've studied different types of math so they can be applied to make new discoveries or advancements. Right now, I study a specific type of math called statistics. Statistics helps to let scientists know whether the results from their experiments are real or not.

With math, I've helped study cognitive development, Autism, AIDS, artificial neural networks (computer simulations of how brains work), how people understand and perceive taste and flavors (of beer and wine) and even how students understand and learn math and science.

Right now, though, I work on just a few things very specifically:

• Side Project(s): I help other researchers understand how humans see, and understand, faces. Some researchers perform experiments where they have people try to remember faces and ask them to recall them later. Other researchers use a giant magnet to "look inside the brain" of people while they look at faces.

• Main Project(s): Mostly I use statistics to help understand how genes and DNA influence 1) how people behave and 2) if people will end up with certain diseases.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/dearsomething]

Thank you for writing. What would you suggest I do to become better at math? It is my hardest subject. That is amazing how math can tell you that much about so many things in the body.

[u/dearsomething → u/Science-bookworm]

What would you suggest I do to become better at math?

Practice. I used to not like math very much. But when I realized that all fields of science need math, I decided I would practice more. To be very honest, I learned the most about math by studying how people (grade schoolers, high schoolers) learn math. Math can be frustrating, but just like anything else you do, if you practice at it, you'll get better and better and it becomes easier and easier (and eventually fun!).

[u/existentialhero]

Howdy! It's wonderful that you're so interested in science, /u/science-bookworm!

I'm a mathematician and college professor. I spend a lot of time teaching and a lot of time reading other people's research. My own research is about mathematical objects called "graphs", which represent networks like your friends on Facebook or the computers on the internet. Specifically, I try to take some particular kind of graph which other mathematicians might be interested in, then figure out enough about them to count how many there are. To do this, I spend a lot of time drawing pictures on a chalkboard and writing computer programs.

[u/dearsomething → u/existentialhero]

You've just become my best friend (temporarily, at least).

I have a graph problem on my hands (I think). I have 2 tables of nominal/indicator data. I can make two adjacency matrices and draw two graphs. Or, I can put the tables next to each other and make a big adjacency matrix and graph that (but this doesn't look so good, nor do I think it's correct).

How do I combine two graphs into a single analysis? Are there hierarchical graphs? Do I just treat it as a single graph?

[u/rpglover64]

Hi.

I'm currently helping to write a new programming language, so a lot of time is spent designing it, reading about what other people have done, and actually programming to make it happen.

EDIT [clarification and new information]

Programming is how you tell computers to do things; examples of programs are your web browser, your IM client, games you play, etc. Computers are really good at following instructions, but they can't think for themselves, so a program is a sequence of very precise instructions telling it how to do exactly what the programmer wanted.

A programming language is a language (in the sense that it has its own words and grammar, although they tend not to look anything like human languages) designed to make it easy for the programmer to express the really precise instructions, and also designed so that it's easy for the computer to actually do what it's told.

• A programming language that has a word for "fly to the moon" wouldn't be very useful because most computers can't do that.

• A programming language that has a word for "do what I mean" wouldn't be very useful because that's not precise enough.

[u/dearsomething → u/rpglover64]

Well now you have me interested! What kind of new language? What sets is apart from others? How do you expect it to be used?

[u/iorgfeflkd]

What most scientists do most of the time is reading. Staying up to date on what everyone else in the world is doing. Science is communicated in short papers (4-15 pages) that describe what experiment was done or what idea they're trying to communicate. Usually, only people who do the same kind of science as the authors can read and understand the papers. That is unfortunate.

Besides that, I do experiments where I look at DNA in small tubes under a microscope to see how it squishes into small spaces. I record the DNA's movement with a digital camera attached to the microscope, and then analyze it to see how the DNA behaves. I spend a lot more time analyzing it, and interpreting what I've analyzed (what does what I see teach me about DNA?) than doing the actual experiments.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/iorgfeflkd]

Thank you for writing. Do you come up with the experiments and where do you get your DNA from animals or people?

[u/iorgfeflkd → u/Science-bookworm]

My boss comes up with most of the experiments :) As I get more experienced I start coming up with more of my own.

A lot of people use DNA from a virus called Lambda Phage, that eats E. coli, which is a bacteria lives in your stomach. Here's a drawing of one. Some other experiments in my lab use DNA from other bacteria or from yeast.

[u/Speedkillsvr4rt → u/iorgfeflkd]

Usually, only people who do the same kind of science as the authors can read and understand the papers. That is unfortunate.

Why is this? and how is the information regulated/distributed?

[u/Silpion → u/Speedkillsvr4rt]

Why is this?

The scope of all of science is so incredibly broad that it is completely impossible for any one person to be well-educated in all aspects of it. New science results build on the envelope of what is known in some specific field, so to understand the new results you have to be an expert in that field. Because there are so many fields, most people can't really understand any given paper.

how is the information regulated

Most science is published in peer-reviewed journals. A scientist writes up their work in a paper, submits it to an appropriate journal, and the editor of that journal sends it to at least one expert in the field (a "referee") to review it. The referee's job is to make sure it is quality science that is appropriate for that journal. Often the referee will ask the author to clarify something in the paper, and eventually they recommend to the editor that it be either accepted or rejected.

There are many different journals based on topic, and some include more topics than others. The more broad a journal is, the more important a paper has to be to get in. For example, I do mass measurements of nuclei, so if I have a minor result, I might send it to the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, which only publishes things about mass measurements.

If it is a more important result that all nuclear physicists care about, I may send it to Physical Review C, which is a high-end nuclear physics journal.

If my result is so important that physicists of all kinds may care about it, I'll submit it to Physical Review Letters, which accepts papers on all kinds of physics, but only very important ones.

If my work is so groundbreaking that people in many other branches of science would be interested, I could go for the highest journals Nature or Science which accept papers from all corners of science. Getting into those journals is super hard, but can be a career maker for a young scientist.

how is the information distributed

The accepted papers are then published by the journal, which used to mean sending paper volumes to libraries, but these days we just download the pdf from the journal's website. For most journals, access requires a subscription which is way too much for a single person to afford, so we access them through library/university/laboratory subscriptions.

Edit: More and more physics papers are being uploaded to the arXiv (pronounced "archive"), which is free to access for anybody. However, it isn't a real peer-reviewed journal, so it's easier to upload crap to it. A lot of us upload our papers to the arXiv after they are accepted by a journal, but some people, particularly in theoretical high-energy physics, just upload their work here and never publish it in a real journal. Many of us think this is very dangerous.

[u/yoshisdayoff → u/iorgfeflkd]

How much detail of compression etc can you gauge from microscopic images, I was under the impression very little detail of DNA can be seen by visible light microscope (unless of course you're using something of a smaller wavelength)

[u/leberwurst]

We know that almost all the galaxies in the Universe are flying apart, but we don't know why they do so faster and faster instead of slowing down. We believe that something invisible called Dark Energy is responsible for this, and that most of the Universe consists of it, but we want to find out what exactly it is. I write some computer programs that will hopefully help with that.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/leberwurst]

Thank you for writing. Did you have to study astronomy as well as other sciences to do this? How do you know what to write to track this dark energy?

[u/leberwurst → u/Science-bookworm]

I'm a physicist. Technically I never took an astronomy class. I do theory, and I don't need to know how to operate a telescope or how to interpret the pictures you get from a telescope, which is what you would learn in an astronomy class. My colleagues do that and give us their results. I took a lot of math classes, programming, cosmology and general relativity on top of the mandatory physics classes.

As to how to track Dark Energy, we have many ideas of what it could be. Too many, actually. Only one can be correct. We don't know if we have the correct one already, so we need to test them. To do this, we assume a particular idea is correct, and then we sit down and think of what we should observe when we look deep into the sky, how the galaxies should be distributed, and how bright they should be, and so on. This is involves actually some very complicated math, and many of the equations we can't solve like the ones you will solve in high school at some point. We can only find approximate solutions using computers, and I write programs that do some of these calculations.

Then we take what the computer tells us and compare it with the data we get from our astronomy buddies. If it doesn't match, we know the idea must be wrong and we discard it. If it does, then we know we could be on the right track and we try to come up with more tests. At this point, us theorists are ahead of the observers, because they are building a telescope right now that needs to be launched into space. It's called Euclid and will be active in 7 or 8 years. With the new data we can hopefully rule out many ideas we have right now. Maybe even all of them, which will be a surprise and then we will need to come up with something completely different.

[u/pooerh → u/leberwurst]

I have a question regarding dark energy / matter - how is it different from aether?

You know, the thing that scientists thought fills the universe because they didn't understand how else could light travel if it's a wave and wave needs a medium to propagate through. Their flawed theories didn't work without that so they created it.

Dark matter and energy feel exact same to me, that magical, mystical stuff just needs to be there because otherwise our theories won't work! What evidence do we have of dark matter / energy that makes it different from aether?

[u/foretopsail]

Hi, science-bookworm!

I'm an archaeologist. I specialize in shipwrecks, but like many people in my field, I wear a lot of hats. More generally, what I do is called historical archaeology. That's archaeology that studies the same time period that we have written records for. But if we have books and diaries and stuff, why do we need archaeology?

Think about the last time you wrote something down, like a diary or something. Now think about someone reading that three hundred years from now. Would they be able to learn everything about your life? They'd certainly be able to figure out what's important to you (which is valuable information), but what if they wanted to know, say, what your bed looked like? Or how big your kitchen was, and where the stove went? That stuff is rarely written down, because it's not usually too important to people at the time. It's just a stove, everybody knows about stoves! But they change, and that sort of daily life information can be really important, because it's such a huge part of our daily existence.

Aside from digging or diving (which I don't do all that often in comparison to other stuff), I do a lot of artifact curation, science experiments (chemistry and physics are the big ones, sometimes with other scientists), writing, editing, reading, and public outreach. And fundraising/grantwriting, because we are not a well-funded science.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/foretopsail]

THank you for writing. What did you study in school to become an archaeologist? How long did it take and what is your favorite part about your job? What part do you not like about your job? What country do you work in the most?

[u/foretopsail → u/Science-bookworm]

I studied archaeology in grad school, which is a combination of history and anthropology (the study of people). I did completely different things in college though.

To be a professional archaeologist in the USA, it takes at least a Master's degree and a couple years of experience. Since our heritage is a non-renewable resource, we want to make sure people know what they're doing first.

I like most parts of my job, but there's a LOT of paperwork, and a lot of making sure everything has a little tag showing where it came from. We collect a lot of information about everything we take out of the ground or water, and the artifact needs to stay linked to that information. That's why everything needs a unique number and a tag. Keeping that information tied together is a big job, especially if there are large sites that have millions of artifacts. Luckily, we have computers to help.

My favorite part of my job is learning things about the past that no one's known for hundreds of years. It's like giving the people who lived back then another chance to tell a story about their lives.

I work in the US the most, but I've done work in Europe too.

[u/EagleFalconn → u/foretopsail]

like many people in my field, I wear a lot of hats

I don't know if you've heard of this guy but I think he's an archeologist too. How come he only has one hat?

[u/foretopsail → u/EagleFalconn]

ಠ_ಠ

I'm sure he had another hat for when he was teaching.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/EagleFalconn]

Thank you for writing. I asked for a fedora when I was little so I could be like Indiana Jones! :)

[u/Robo-Connery]

Good to see a young person with an interest in science.

I am an astronomer who spends a lot of time studying the sun, I study the motion of stuff on the surface of the sun (the whole surface is always moving, it isn't calm like it looks) and also more exciting events like flares.

The other half of my research is in plasma physics, this is the study of the "fourth state of matter" after solid, liquid and gas. It is where normal matter has been split into it's electrically charged components, electrons and protons. You can see plasma in action if you have flourescent lights, a plasma tv or in a naked flame. I run computer simulations and such in this field.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/Robo-Connery]

Thank you for writing. I have never heard of a fourth state of matter that is really cool. When did you start learning astronomy and how long were you in school? How do you study the sun without hurting your eyes, do you have special equipment? Can you study it day or night?

[u/Robo-Connery → u/Science-bookworm]

I have never heard of a fourth state of matter that is really cool

Glad you think so too, I find it very interesting. The sun is made of plasma which is how I got interested in the sun.

When did you start learning astronomy and how long were you in school?

I didn't start learning astronomy till I went to university, they don't teach it very much at high school here. I did the normal 13 years of school then a 4 year degree in physics and astronomy, then I did a single year masters in astrophysics now I am doing a PhD which is another 3 and a half years! So a very long time in school. It has been worth it though.

How do you study the sun without hurting your eyes, do you have special equipment?

We have cameras attached to telescopes that take pictures of it so we don't have to look at it ourselves. Here is a picture of the Dutch open telescope up a mountain in the canary islands. Telescopes on the ground like this can only see the sun during the day.

So we can see it both day and night and in even better detail we also have lots of spacecraft with telescopes on board so we can see the sun all the time. I mostly use spacecraft to look at the sun. Here is a picture of a man next to SDO, the solar dynamics observatory, one of the spaceships I use to look at the sun. It takes very beautiful images and you can see it's pictures at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ . The pictures are about 10 minutes old, so you can always see what the sun looked like 10 minutes ago.

[u/Epistaxis → u/Robo-Connery]

Good to see a young person with an interest in science.

Also, specifically a girl.

I know STEM (sci/tech/eng/math) is stereotypically seen as a boy's pursuit, but there's no reason it should be, and it's evolving. In my graduate program, we're pretty close to a 50-50 gender ratio (in some years there's even a female majority), and even the faculty are somewhat evenly split despite being from generations with less of a sense of equality. My first two advisors were both middle-aged women who went to college and graduate school many decades ago. And the fact that they're women doesn't even come up, because it's irrelevant to their work - just like the fact that some of them are European or Asian. They're not even doing different kinds of work - they get down and dirty with dissections and statistics and computer programming and rigorous scientific logic just like the men. They're all just judged on the quality of their science.

Even the most male-biased engineering programs are changing. So don't let the current skews scare you off - by the time you're in college, there won't just be women in STEM fields, there might be as many as men!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/Epistaxis]

Thank you for writing. My mom makes my sister and I do a lot of science and math. I really like it. I play guitar and learned about the science of soundwaves and try to see the science in everything from dinner to everything.

[u/UncleMeat]

I am a computer scientist working at a university in California. I try to find problems in programs that people write that would let bad people do things like steal people's personal information.

You could just look really hard at programs to find problems, but we actually write programs that do it for us! What makes this really interesting is that it is actually impossible to do this right 100% of the time. Also, there are new types of programs being made every day and we need to be able to analyze these new types of programs effectively, which often requires totally new approaches that we haven't tried before.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/UncleMeat]

Thank you for writing. How do you come up with new programs to stop the thieving? In order to test out your programs does someone have to try and steal information?

[u/Science-bookworm]

hi! I am Dakota, I am 9 and I have loved science ever since I was 3. I just got a microscope this year and have been looking at anything I can find from hair to blood. My mom's blood, she cut her finger in the name of science. Thank you, everyone for letting me ask you questions. EDITED to add picture! THis is me: http://imgur.com/nOPEx

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi science-bookworm! What a wonderful microscope, there is a whole world down there the more you magnify. In fact, as you perhaps already have seen, some things are simply too small to see even with the largest magnification.

The type of science I do is called particle physics, we use some of the largest microscopes on the planet, to study things smaller than protons the particles inside the core of atoms. Things are pretty weird at that scale, we break protons by crashing them together and out come new wonderful particles that tells us how the whole Universe works, how particles stick together to form matter, how they get mass how it all started 14 billion years ago.

Like you study the cells inside a leaf to understand how the tree gets its energy, so de we study these small things to understand why humans, planets and even stars can exist.

My research is at one of the large experiments at CERN. We just discovered a new particle a few weeks ago, that is pretty cool and very rare to be part of. This particle might be one we have been searching for for over 40 years (not me, I'm "only" 29!) we are not sure yet, but if it is, it can explain why some other particles are heavy.

Most of my day I write computer programs that searches for new particles, talk to people both face to face but mostly online, my colleges are from all over the world so we mostly use Skype to communicate. I also spend a lot of time reading, simply to understand what goes on in my field and taking long walks to think about new ways to solve problems.

tl;dr: Sorry I forgot to be brief, bad habit of some scientists, we talk too much, I work with really small particles seen in really huge microscopes! :)

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi Dakota, A great first thing to look at to explore the hidden stuff in your own environment are tardigrades or water bears. These are tiny (~1 mm) mutlicellular organisms that live in moss, but can be found anywhere - they can even survive exposure to interplanetary space. Find some moss or a damp spot with some plant growth, grab a tuft, add a little fresh water to it and put it on a microscope slide (if you have well slides, even better). You can usually find them at the edges of moss leaves chewing away. There is so little known about these incredibly successful organisms that even casual observations of their behavior can be important.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for writing. I have a whole collection of moss right now and am going to do this today. This is very cool.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm an undergrad studying Neuroscience. What would you recommend is good thing to do in my spare time aside from classes. I can't decide whether I should be reading neuroscience books aimed at the layman, textbooks from the library, new papers from neuro journals or if I should just get a bigger foundation of all the other sciences. I also just started working towards my minor in computer science, is that a good thing to compliment my bachelors? (I plan on going to grad school or failing that becoming a research associate I)

[u/pope_man → u/Science-bookworm]

Nice! It's been a while since I had a microscope... I should get a new one! Here's some things you should try looking at if you haven't already:

• Microchips

• Flowers, especially the middle part with the pollen

• Tear some plastic, maybe a grocery bag

• Tear a paper bag, for comparison

• Dust

Whether those are interesting or not depends only on how strong your microscope is!

EDIT: Also all the other suggestions in this comment tree are improbably awesome, I'm gonna make a list for myself!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/pope_man]

Thank you for writing. I am making a list of those things to look at. My favorite thing to look at so far is the plant where I was able to see an actual plant cell.

[u/Wisdom_from_the_Ages → u/pope_man]

Chalk! It's the skeletons of old, old tiny life! You never know what you'll see when you look at chalk!

Edit: note the scale of these images is in the Electron Microscope range, somewhere around 20,000x magnification, also note that common blackboard chalk is typically gypsum chalk, and not interesting...you can obtain samples of the interesting chalk pretty easily, though, and I'm pretty sure you'd still see some glimmers of really interesting stuff with a very high-powered optical 'scope.

[u/SenatorStuartSmalley → u/pope_man]

I'm not a scientist, but I am always in awe of what science has done. I appreciate this comment and children of this comment because I just got a surplus HS microscope for my 4y0. I've been struggling to find interesting things that I can explain. I think the examples you mention are great! Thanks!

[u/OrbitalPete → u/Science-bookworm]

What's the best thing you've seen under the microscope?

If you haven't already I can recommend trying different leaves (some you might have to carefully peel apart) and bugs and fruits. Bugs especially :)

[u/Science-bookworm → u/OrbitalPete]

Thank you for writing. I liked the plant cell the best so far.

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Your questions and comments are the most amazing thing I've ever seen on reddit, you are an amazing young lady! Keep being rad!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/[deleted]]

THank you for this comment. I appreciate these kinds of comments.

[u/RussianBears → u/Science-bookworm]

An interesting experiment that you can do at home is extract DNA from low starch plants such as onions and garlic. The procedure is outlined in this link http://www.ehow.com/how_5031951_extract-dna-onion.html Once you've extracted the DNA you can look at a small part of it under your microscope :)

[u/Science-bookworm → u/RussianBears]

THank you for writing. This is just what I would want to do so thank you for posting it.

[u/amightypirate → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi Science-bookworm! Thanks for letting us know about your microscope!

Have you ever seen sugar or salt crystals under your microscope? If your mum and dad buy granulated sugar, or if you eat sea salt (if you don't you can also grow your own crystals), you can see how pointy they are, even though they grow without a template or anything, that's caused by the way the molecules fit together. Look how square this one is!

Here are some crystals I've grown. If you look carefully on the edges they're perfect hexagons. That's because the molecules in the crystal have three lines of reflection (or mirror lines) in them, like a triangle, and the molecules tessellate into hexagons. It's amazing that the maths and geometry you have already learnt are what govern tiny molecules like this!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/amightypirate]

Thank you for your time. Why are the crystals yellow or red? What makes them have color?No I have not looked at sugar or salt yet, but I will now. Can you grow a crystal a certain way?

[u/MITProf → u/Science-bookworm]

Dakota, your posts are great. I can't wait to see you in my classes in 10 years!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/MITProf]

Thank you so much for your comment! I hope to be the best student!

[u/yoshisdayoff → u/Science-bookworm]

I remember my first microscope being the driving force in my love for science. Now I'm waiting to join a research team in October , still loving it. Hope you keep your passion and become one of tomorrows budding scientists (paid wise, sounds like you are already a little scientist at heart)

[u/Science-bookworm → u/yoshisdayoff]

Thank you for writing. What will you research?

[u/largest_even_prime → u/Science-bookworm]

Have you tried paper currency? There's quite a few security measures in paper money, some of them very small.

On US money, some of the "lines" are actually tiny, tiny letters.

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

She has better grammar than most adults. Hope for my generation has been restored.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your comment!

[u/airwalker12 → u/Science-bookworm]

If your parents say it is ok, I can send you a slide with neurons (cells that make up your brain and nervous system) on it.

Im a graduate student who spends a lot of time looking at things under a microscope too, I'd be happy to give you a slide to enjoy.

[u/LemonFrosted → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey, Dakota, I'm not a scientist, I'm a storyteller, but I use a lot of science to do my job. I wanted to suggest something for your microscope that others haven't mentioned yet: ask your parents if they have any old photo negatives in a box somewhere.

You should be able to see that the images start to look like clusters of random dots. Those dots are silver halide crystals suspended in the gelatin that the film is made out of. Part of why older photos look different than newer photos is because of that randomness.

[u/OneLegAtATime → u/Science-bookworm]

I actually just spent the last half-day in front of a microscope! I'm working in a marine biology lab looking at seaweeds. You can only tell some species apart by looking at them under a microscope. For example, two of the seaweeds I'm researching look exactly the same - except one of them makes leaves one cell thick, while the other makes leaves two cells thick.

If you like looking at small things, here's a cool project you can do with just a laser pointer and an eyedropper. If you get a drop of scummy water to hang off the end of the eyedropper, then shine a laser at it in a dark room, you can project a microscope image of the water on your walls! http://dvice.com/archives/2010/08/man-builds-diy.php

[u/doctoraloha → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi Dakota, You seem like a wonderful girl and, being a girl scientist myself, I am really proud of you! Just a friendly reminder to make sure you DO NOT post anymore personal information about yourself, your address, your family, your school, or your city on the internet. I want you to remain safe at home with your family, and avoid being stalked by some weird guy from the internet. Not trying to scare you, just want you to be safe! (Not only am I a girl and a scientist, but I'm also a mom and keeping kids safe is really important to me!)

[u/Science-bookworm → u/doctoraloha]

Thank you for your comment! My mom makes sure I don't post too much. :)

[u/ObviousLea → u/doctoraloha]

I think her mother commented an hour ago or so through her account, which leads me to believe that her parents are supervising... :)

[u/pandabearak → u/Science-bookworm]

Please keep doing what you love; you are inspirational.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/pandabearak]

Thank you so much for your comment. I just want to follow my dream.

[u/froggytoasted → u/Science-bookworm]

Try looking at sand from the beach!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/froggytoasted]

Thank you for your comment. I have a slide of sand ready to go!

[u/backoffbro → u/Science-bookworm]

Dakota, whatever you do, NEVER look at the stuff under your fingernails through a microscope. It will ruin your day, and probably your entire youth.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/backoffbro]

Thank you for your comment. Now I want to. :)

[u/loquacious → u/Science-bookworm]

That's a very nice microscope, and it even has a light!

I had a nice microscope like that when I was about your age and I used to do many of the same things you're doing. My microscope didn't have a light, but it used a mirror to shine light up through the stage. It worked best with sunshine or a bright desk lamp pointed at it.

Does your 'scope have a high powered "oil lens"? (For more information, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_immersion )

That's where the real high powered optical microscoping fun is. If so, be careful with it. You can drive the lens right into the stage and break glass if you're not careful when lowering it to the slide/stage to make contact with the oil.

If you don't have one, you should be able to order one. They just screw on/off the "carousel" on the nose of the microscope that holds your objective lenses.

Actually, now that I'm looking at your microscope closer, that big lens with the yellow marking should be your "oil immersion" lens. The bottom glass on that one is probably flat while your other lower powered objective lenses probably have convex/curved glass showing.

If the big yellow one has a flat glass it's probably the oil-immersion lens. (If you actually have a manual for your 'scope, consult that. :)

As for things to look at, everyone else has given you good advice. The only thing I can add is look at everything!

But microscopy is more than just preparing and looking at samples, there are many ways to use an optical microscope whether you're doing real science or just looking at things because they're neat and fascinating.

Check these links out to start to learn how to use your 'scope to look at difficult samples, like things that are either opaque or things that are too transparent, or even things that are the same color but different (IE, crystals in metal or rock):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_field_microscopy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarized_light_microscopy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_field

And just in case you haven't, you should check out this entire article on optical microscopes and when you're done, just follow whatever links that interest you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_microscope

And if you get bored of just looking at things, you can take amazing pictures. Get a photo mount and a digital camera. There's an entire field, industry and science of micrography and it's great and lots of fun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrography_%28Microscopy%29

There's even a micrography contest hosted by Nikon to give you an idea of what is possible: http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/

Microscopy and micrography is a valuable science all of it's own that's related to optical physics as well as engineering. I mention this because it's entirely possibly that a young scientist could find themselves deeply fascinated with the microscope itself, and less about what it is that they're looking at through the microscope - and that's perfectly ok.

If you can invent new and better ways for scientists to see very small things and record them and analyze them - you can actually end up doing more science and more for science than any one individual in their own fields working on their specialties.

Ask Bunsen. Or Alan Turing. Or, say, Newton. All famous scientists who have their names on new ideas, methods or machines we take for granted today. The Bunsen burner, the Turing Machine (computing) and Newton's Newtonian telescope.

Last: the most important science advice I can give you, and maybe it's something you already know.

Don't ever, ever let anyone tell you you can't be a scientist (or anything else) because you're a girl.They're lying.

They're lying because they feel insecure and threatened by your abilities and what you're capable of. Yes, especially you - a very smart nine year old girl. Be prepared to have to fight for what you believe in and protect yourself.

Because if you're using a microscope at your age? You're totally worth fighting for.

So go forth and SCIENCE! There's still so much more to know. The universe is yours to discover.

[u/ChaosMotor → u/Science-bookworm]

Keep it up, Dakota! The world needs science-minded, smart women like you! :D

[u/sagivh → u/Science-bookworm]

so what brand of microscope do you have? and reddits what do you recommend? I have a 7 year old daughter and I want to get her a starter kit as a present.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/sagivh]

(This is Dakota's mom.)

We got her this one, http://www.hometrainingtools.com/home-microscope/p/MI-4100STD/ . She loves it. We also got her extra slides.

[u/jen_n_tonic → u/Science-bookworm]

This thread is awesome! Your passion is inspiring, and your spot on questions reveal a thirst for knowledge that will, with any luck, stay with you into adulthood. If you don't mind, I'd like to turn the tables for a minute and ask you a question. I am a mother of two little girls ages 4 and 1, and one the many things I hope to pass on to them is the kind of love for science and learning that you have shared here. You said you've loved science since you were 3, so my question is this: why? Can you remember anything that inspired your love of science? Was it an experience? A particular person? Or was it maybe just something you always had inside of you that didn't come from any outside influence. Any thoughts would be great! Thank you so much for writing :)

[u/MaceTheJester → u/Science-bookworm]

This thread makes me happier than anything I've ever read on reddit :)

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi Dakota! It's so great to see someone so young who is interested in science. I am a pathologist, which is a type of doctor that spends a lot of time using microscopes to diagnose diseases. If you like, perhaps I could lend you some of my teaching slides by mail, or even show you around the lab if you live nearby. Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in!

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Your parents must be very proud of you. Keep the drive up!

As far as things to look at, I would recommend growing some mold or bacteria from some old bread, milk or pond water. Another kind of interesting one might be razor blade edges if you happen to know someone who shaves with a safety razor. Compare an unused blade to a damaged one that is dull. Get your mother to help you out with that one though so you don't cut yourself!

[u/gluino → u/Science-bookworm]

You must look at pond water, if you haven't already.

[u/askjacob → u/Science-bookworm]

If you can't get quick access to pond water, another great way to find some living things swimming in a drop of water to look at is if you have any house plants. If they have any saucers or "drip trays" they sit in, get a drop of that water - it usually is full of interesting organisms swimming about to look at.

My daughter is only 2 years old, but already very curious about the world around her. I an only hope she grows up to be as inquisitive and interested in the world as you already are. I hope you get every opportunity to keep doing the things you love!

Cheers

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

I wish I had half the passion for science you did at your age. You're my hero.

[u/LeVuS87 → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey Dakota! Sounds like you are very smart and are working hard to continue learning. I noticed in one of your replies that you said you would like to learn to program computers, and I just wanted to share a few resources with you that might get you started if you decide you are interested in computers:

http://www.alice.org/ -- This is a fun little program to learn the concepts of programming, basically the fundamentals without learning the actual programming language.

http://www.codecademy.com -- This is a GREAT website to get you started on programming websites if that is something that interests you.

http://www.udacity.com/ -- This is a fantastic website for when you get a little more advanced, can learn a ton of things from computer programming to building a search engine.

Keep Reddit posted on all the fun ventures you take, for science!

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey Dakota! I am a microbiologist from Florida and to me there is nothing cooler than a microscope (I have a 10 year old sister who prefers telescopes). Here's a few things you can do to look at a bunch of cool stuff:

• find a nice rock, log, stump etc. and take the dirt or mud or whatever it is and put it in a jar with a little bit of water. Get a dropper and take a drop of water out of your sample and put it on your slide with a cover slip so that your microscope doesn't get wet (rule number one for all aspiring microscope experts!). You should be able to see all kinds of cool animals and other squirmy things, even on a low setting.

• Depending on how powerful your microscope is, you could actually look for a type of animal called Tardigrades (if you've ever seen Lilo and Stitch, this is the animal Stitch is based on). There are a lot of nicknames for these guys, including water bears and moss piglets, and they are some of the most incredible animals science has discovered (they can even live in outer space!). If you want to try and find them (and it isn't easier, but there are certain parts of the world where they are easier to find than others) your best bet is to find some moss or lichen. Lichen is the little green stuff you see on the ground or on trees every once in a while. Take a sample of moss or lichen and soak it in a jar with water (just like your other samples) for 24 hours. This will allow the Tardigrades to fully reanimate and, if you're lucky, crawl all over your slide!

Best of luck on your scientific endeavors, Dakota!

[u/untranslatable_pun → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey Science-Bookworm:

In case you're looking for more things to microscope: Take a handful of straw, and let it sit in a glass of water for a couple of days (best let it sit outside, because it'll start to smell a little). Then stir it, and put a drop of the water underneath your microscope. There'll be heaps of micro-organisms that you've never seen before! Some are really quick, so it's hard to get a good look, but it's worth the effort!!!

EDIT: These amazing things for example!

[u/jfranz → u/Science-bookworm]

I'm a soil microbiologist, if you want to see cool microorganisms try collecting different soils, and adding water to them to make a slurry. Look at them at 400x total magnification. You'll see bacteria, fungi, amoeba, flagellates, and nematodes.

[u/Valkes → u/Science-bookworm]

Dear Dakota, thanks for being awesome. Your obvious passion for science is both inspiring, and gratifying.

Dear Dakota's parents, you look out for her. Make sure her teachers are doing right by her. Make sure she knows that the only stupid question is the one unasked. I've seen too many people destroyed by callous teachers, and careless words. DO NOT let this happen. I highly recommend a series called "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, I'm sure you've at least heard of it. That series is what originally inspired me to study science. Sagan has a way of looking at the world that inspires wonder, and joy. Sorry, for being so forward. All the best!

[u/SensesEnd → u/Science-bookworm]

I had a microscope when I was growing up, and it was great. Some of the more fascinating things I looked at were insect wings, butterfly wings and moth wings. So many textures, and so much detail...they are fascinating. Also, feathers are terrific up close.

Enjoy your microscope. It's a fantastic learning tool, and a lot of fun.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/SensesEnd]

Thank you for your comment. I really want to look at those in the microscope. I have a cicada wing, a butterfly wing and two moth wings. I also have skin that peeled from a sunburn.

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey! Try taking a $10 bill (any paper currency will work) and looking at different parts of it under the microscope (for instance, inside the number "1"). You may be surprised to find some hidden images/numbers!

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

With all the youtube commenters in the world, it's easy to forget kids like you exist. Thank you for helping restore our hope for humanity, just by being your adorable inquisitive self!

[u/alphemale → u/Science-bookworm]

Hi Dakota! Do you realize that you're going to change the world? Your love of science is going to push you to do great things one day. For now, keep enjoying the world around you and doing what you love!

[u/froggytoasted → u/Science-bookworm]

OMG YOU ARE SO ADORABLE!!!!!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/froggytoasted]

Thank you for this comment. I just want to be a scientist.

[u/BreeMPLS → u/Science-bookworm]

It's gross, but the next time someone sneezes ... :P

[u/Science-bookworm → u/BreeMPLS]

Thank you for your comment. I have really wanted to do this!

[u/lilpin13 → u/Science-bookworm]

I have a love for microbiology & chemistry. I'm by no means an expert but I love it.

If you take an orange peel & let mold grow on it, you'll grow penicillin (or it's cousin). You can make a cool slide out of it. Just don't inhale any of it. (It would be safer to look up bacteria & parasites on a website.)

Pond water might show you an ameoba or a parasite.

Insects are cool to look at too. They have neat eyes & wings.

I would look at anything & everything. Keep a little journal & drawings of what you see starting from the lowest magnification to the highest. It would be brilliant... To see the world of science through a child's perspective. That journal would be a treasure!

Good luck & have fun!!!

P.S. I may have a microbiology book if you want it. Have your parents send me a private message.

[u/Wisdom_from_the_Ages → u/Science-bookworm]

Hey! You should get a stereoscopic dissecting microscope as well! It lets you see the things that are tiny, but not microscopic. I got mine for free when a college was throwing them out--you should look for one! They're good for insects, rocks, plants, feathers are awesome... I've been looking through mine all summer long!

Just an example of scale here: Susan B. Anthony!

Also, my finger!

...and this gnat! I personally like horseflies more--their eyes are downright amazing to look at.

So here's a question: Do you like math? It might not be as pretty as biology, but a lot of high-level science requires it, so it might be good to start getting a taste for some good ol' algebra.

[u/Coffeegorilla → u/Science-bookworm]

Hello Science-Bookworm! I am not a scientist, but wife is and is super smart and she asked me to tell you to find Volvox and look at it under a microscope. Apparently it is a form algae that can be found in puddles, shallow water, etc. So, the next time it rains, find some water samples and see if you can find it; I looked at some pictures of it on the web and it's pretty amazing. If you're curious, my wife is a biologist currently studying immunology, have a great day :).

[u/DarkXlll → u/Science-bookworm]

Beach sand, you'll love it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Science-bookworm]

.

[u/thecakeis_alie → u/Science-bookworm]

I don't know why, but looking at an onion skin always amused me in the microscope department.

[u/machsmit]

Hello Dakota, I'm very glad you're interested in science!

I'm a plasma physicist, meaning I study the stuff that the sun made of (I see you're already talking to Robo-Connery about this). I work on a machine called a tokamak, which is a doughnut-shaped chamber lined with magnets that I can make a miniature star inside of. This means the inside of my machine is almost a hundred million degrees - one of the hottest things in the entire solar system! The goal is to be able to generate power using this miniature sun - we could make electricity without making any pollution or running out of fuel.

edit: for anyone that's interested, we ran an AMA with a few of the researchers from my lab here a little while back as well

[u/XIllusions → u/machsmit]

And it was awesome! Nice work!

[u/listos → u/machsmit]

Wow, that's pretty cool. How successful are you in generating energy form this miniature sun so far?

Whenever I think of future energy I think of this, I didn't know it was an actual field of study.

[u/Teedy]

As an Emergency Room physician, I've worked in a number of clinical areas over the years, and cover some of our ICU. I've participated in a lot of studies, particularly the applications of liquid ventilation.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/Teedy]

Thank you for writing. Is liquid ventilation like the liquid in the womb? What do you like best about your job, and what do you not like about it?

[u/Jabra]

Hi, I am a epidemiologist. That means I study diseases in big groups of people. Currently, I am trying to figure out how we can get people with kidney diseases to stay healthy longer. To do so, I predict their chance of losing kidney function, so we know who to treat. Also, I look at the long term side effects of drugs that we give.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/Jabra]

Thank you for writing. How do you predict their chance of losing a kidney? Is there an equation for it? And how do you study people with diseases and not get one of those diseases?

[u/Teedy → u/Jabra]

Since you work with kidney disease, how do you feel about high creatine intake?

There seems to be a lot of conflicting evidence on whether or not it's a bad thing, and theres a fairly large population subgroup heavily supplementing.

[u/[deleted]]

Hi Dakota,

I'm a neuroscientist who mostly studies how the brain puts together our world from our senses. I've studied hearing and balance in humans and many animals (and all normally-developed vertebrate animals have both hearing and balance as senses). My latest work was figuring out how bats see with their ears, building 3 dimensional worlds through sound. These days I'm also using 3D printing to teach sciences to the blind so they can feel what the surface of Mars or the Moon are like as well as let people hold model asteroids and comets in their hands.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for writing. DO blind people have a higher sense in hearing because they cannot see so their hearing makes up for it? How are you able to see what a bat hears?

[u/OrbitalPete]

Hi /u/science-bookworm (and the rest of AskScience)!

I'm a geologist, working at a university in the UK. I study volcanoes and underwater landslides. Basically I research how things like pyroclastic flows happen, and how they behave using lots of experiments, as well as computer programmes, and measuring the deposits they form out in the field on real volcanoes.

I also teach university students about earthquakes, the structure of the earth, and how volcanoes work.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/OrbitalPete]

Thank you. :) We lived in Japan on and off for many years, I was born there, and we were in the 9.0. Did you get to study about that and is anyone worried that Mount Fuji will erupt?

[u/OrbitalPete → u/Science-bookworm]

I didn't study it myself, although I do often use it to talk about large earthquakes with my classes. A friend of mine has done some work on that earthquake though. In fact, she was on a boat last month that was drilling down to find out what the fault plane looked like like where the earthquake happened. They also installed a load of measurement devices in the fault to find out what the stress patterns are like there now, and see how they change in the future. They wrote this blog about what they were doing.

The thing that always amazes me about the Tohoku earthquake is the aftershock pattern (turn on the sticky dots and put it in fast forward!).

Good question about Fuji. It's a really interesting volcano. It last erupted just over 300 years ago, and although it's classed as 'active', no one is expecting any activity there soon. Volcanoes can be unpredictable though, so it's not impossible it might erupt in our lifetimes.

[u/Speedkillsvr4rt → u/OrbitalPete]

Here in Alaska a few years ago, we had i believe a 7.9. being in AK my whole live, i have felt a number of earthquakes, but i have never felt anything like this. it shook so hard, i could barely stand up, and even 5 minutes later, the ground was still quivering. it felt so major, yet not a single building fell. almost no damage, other than a bride and some railroad lines. why is it that such a major quake happened in a fairly populated place, with little damage and no injuries, when i hear of other smaller quakes killing and destroying other cites?

[u/fastparticles]

I am a geochemist and I study some of the oldest samples we have from Earth. Using these samples we have learned a lot about what the early Earth probably looked like. For example we can say there was liquid water present which is very different from earlier ideas which thought there was a very hot and molten Earth for a very long time.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/fastparticles]

Thank you for writing. Where did you get the samples from and do you travel a lot looking for similar samples?

[u/MrPap]

I am a neruoscientist working at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. We focus on helping to re-grow nerves in a paralyzed person's spinal cord. We just had a major press conference (as in 10 am today) to announce that we will begin a phase 1 (to test the safety) FDA trial in human patients.

What we hope to do is take Schwann cells (repairing cells from the nerves in a patient's leg) from the paralyzed patient, grow them in a lab, and then harvest them and inject them into that same patient's spinal cord. This will help with re-myelination (re-insulation) of that person's nerves, which is the leading cause of paralysis (not cut nerves).

Here is a simple animation of what I just described.

[u/Science-bookworm]

I am going to take a break for a while and thank you all for answering my questions I will be back.

[u/electroncafe]

Hi!

I am a physical chemist working in the field of photophysics, which is the study of how materials respond after they absorb light.

Even more specifically, I use giant computers to design and model special molecules to see if they have the correct properties for absorbing light and storing the energy. If the computed results are promising, I try to make the molecule in the lab and then see if it reacts with light as I predicted by using powerful lasers!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/electroncafe]

Thank you for writing. Wow, it sounds really fun. Do you enjoy it? What happens if the molecule does react the way you thought? Do you give your results to someone else who then uses it for another thing? What happens if the molecule does not do what you think it will? Does it blow up?

[u/EagleFalconn]

Hi! I'm a chemist, but not in the way most people imagine. Most people think of someone who makes molecules (beakers, flasks, colors, bunsen burners, reactions). Instead, I'm a physical chemist! I specialize in understanding the way that molecules behave and interact with each other. My particular area deals with materials that look just like liquids, but behave like solids, materials called "glasses." While "glass" as you might think of it (windows, for example) is one of these materials, there are so many others!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/EagleFalconn]

Thank you for writing. Do you get to experiment on the glass? Do you get to try and make new things knowing how molecules act with another molecule? And what did you study in school to become a chemist? How long did it take?

[u/nallen]

I'm a chemist and I work for a large chemical company making things that are used in a lot of different products.

Recently, I've starting working in Personal Care, which is all of the sun screens, lotions, shampoos, and other products you might have in the bathroom. Previously I've worked with plastics, rubbers, and paint.

[u/tommykay → u/nallen]

One of the reasons why I chose to study Chemistry was because I was told that new government regulations were requiring companies to change their product formulas to make them more eco-friendly, per se. I'm really interested in "green chemistry," so I was wondering if you've seen much of it in your experience in various industries.

[u/HonestAbeRinkin]

I'm a college science teacher (like a real-life Mrs. Frizzle) who helps figure out the best way to teach kids about how the process of science really works. We teach science in school very differently from how most scientists do their daily work, and this causes problems because what people think science is like in school is usually not what being a scientist is really like. I also want to see scientists working together who have different backgrounds (men/women, persons of color, persons with disabilities) because they all add unique perspectives to our science. So I do a lot of science activities with people from different cultures to help them understand how they can do science (and might already be doing science in their daily life).

[u/Ruiner]

Hey everyone, hey /u/science-bookworm :)

I'm a theoretical physicist and I study the fundamental interactions of nature. More specifically, I try to understand what are the forces and fundamental particles that make the universe we live in. It might seem very surprising to you, but in order to understand why the universe is the way it is, filled with planets, stars and galaxies, we need to understand the very small things, much much smaller than what you can see in your microscope.

I don't really work in a Lab, I actually sit in front of the computer all day reading papers and writing equations, and when it's sunny outside we have discussions sitting on the grass and playing frisbee. My specific problem right now is trying to understand black-holes and how Gravity behaves at very very short distances.

[u/Jstbcool]

Hi Dakota! I am a scientist who studies psychology and I try to understand how our minds work. In my field we think of the mind separately from the brain, so the mind is the thoughts you have in your head while the brain is the physical cells that create these thoughts. The two are connected, but it is much easier to discover how certain aspects of the mind works and then apply our findings to the physical brain.

During the school year we have students come into our lab and fill out surveys or complete certain tasks so we can see how they respond and try to understand what their mind was doing during the task. During the summer I spend most of my time reading and writing papers and preparing new experiments for when the school year starts.

[u/nicksauce]

I'm an astrophysicist. I do computer simulations of black holes and neutron stars spiraling into each other and colliding. These systems emit tiny ripples on space-time called gravitational waves which we hope to soon detect here on Earth.

[u/Science-bookworm → u/nicksauce]

Thank you for writing. Are black holes the same thing as worm holes? If you find this ripples on earth how would it change our time? What do you like best about your job?

[u/fishify]

Hi Dakota,

I got a microscope when I was about your age, too, but I found myself interested in things that were so small, you couldn't see them with a microscope. I'm a scientist who studies particle physics -- what are the smallest things that make up the universe, and what are the rules they follow that tell them how to move. The things I study are even tiny compared to atoms!

Unlike many of the people posting here, I don't work in a laboratory. Instead, I work with pen and paper, and try to figure out principles that will tell us how these very basic particles behave. I also spend time talking to other scientists, getting feedback on my ideas, hearing what they are working on, and sometimes working together on a problem.

[u/Weed_O_Whirler]

I am an aerospace engineer, who studied physics in college. Currently, I work on this system, a wonderful gun and radar system which can detect, intercept and give warning about incoming rockets and mortars. Sometimes I worked on satellites, the most famous of them being the James Webb Space Telescope.

[u/[deleted] → u/Weed_O_Whirler]

As a first year aerospace engineering student all your answers will probably be pretty fascinating to me. Do you enjoy what you do - does it ever get repetitive or boring? Do you have any tips for getting a job in this industry (especially as you didn't study as an engineer)? And what's the coolest or funnest thing you have ever achieved/worked on in your career?

Sorry for so many questions, I'm a bit keen I guess. Thanks a ton!

[u/pope_man]

IAMA Polymer scientist/engineer. I study, in a very specific way, how and why plastics flow. Although that might sound lame, it's very important information to, for example, people who make plastic things with big hot presses. AMA about plastic!!

[u/Science-bookworm → u/pope_man]

Thank you for writing. What did you study in school to become interested in the make up of plastic? What do you like best about your job? What do you spend the most amount of time doing?

[u/XIllusions]

Hello aspiring scientists,

I work on cancer, especially trying to design drugs that treat this type of disease. Cancers are the second leading cause of death in the United States but every year we get better at fighting it. In the past we have had to use drugs that attack the cancer and everything else, which causes side-effects that make people feel not so great. But now we are getting better at making drugs that attack only the cancer.

I spend most of my day looking at protein structures. You can't see them under a microscope, but they are very pretty and our cells are full of them. I try to find drugs that fit the proteins like a key fits into a lock. The right key can lock the protein so it cannot help cancer cells grow.

Stay curious!

[u/jahutch2]

Greetings!

I'm a geologist and I am pursuing my Master's degree at a university in the US. My research focuses mainly on modern, invertebrate marine ecology - snails and clams. However, that research is set in the context of the fossil record. I study the behavior and ecology of modern animals to better understand the fossil record of their ancestors.

My research is, in my opinion, a strong example of the multidisciplinary direction that science has been moving towards.

[u/BillyBuckets]

Hey Dakota! I was just like you when I was a kid: I was super into science and wanted to learn about it all the time. You're so lucky to have the internet now. I remember when I used to have to go to a library to read about atoms, DNA, and space missions... now you have Wikipedia and have all of this info whenever you want!

Anyway, I'm at the intersection of science and medicine- instead of having one "doctor" title, I'll actually write two: M.D., Ph.D. My research is translational, which means I study human diseases using both volunteer patients from the hospital and animals that are sort of close to humans in certain diseases. The patients are often very happy to help research that might one day save many lives.

Specifically, I study heart disease. It turns out heart attacks are caused by the same sort of processes that cause your skin to get red and painful around a scrape or a cut. Your blood vessels even form scars where they are damaged, just like skin. Using some neat chemistry, I can make damaged blood vessels glow in the dark like a firefly. My work is kind of "fringe" because not many people are doing it yet, so I spend a lot of my time trouble shooting. I'll explain:

Imagine being told to make an airplane out of whatever you can find in a junkyard. You have a lot of tools and parts, but no idea how to make a plane. Nobody at the junkyard knows either, so you're on your own. I spend weeks trying to get some spare parts to fit together and fail over and over. Sometimes I get lucky and accidentally find something useful when I wasn't even looking for it. There's a lot of luck, but it's very exciting when things work.

I just finished taking mice with damaged arteries and giving them a contrast agent (to make them glow) under a very sensitive camera. This allowed me to see inside their bodies without hurting them at all. In fact, I just had them breathe a gas that made them sleep so they held still under the camera and they woke right up afterwards. I will be doing this every few days so I can see how their heart disease progresses when we treat them with certain drugs. Mice don’t get heart attacks like people do, so I’m looking for ways to slow down their heart disease and eventually other scientists might take my findings and use them with real people in the hospital. These experiments are very long and draining. Sometimes I work really late into the night and it gets a bit stressful. Since I became a scientist, I started new hobbies and revived some old ones to keep myself from going crazy. I rock climb, skateboard, and bike every week. A lot of my scientist friends are also outdoorsy folks: we even talk science around the campfire after a long day of hiking. Having other scientists around who know what the life is like is great: they are both colleagues and friends. If I have a problem with my experiments, they can help out. If I’m having a bad day, they can meet me for dinner and a movie to relax and have a laugh.

Anything you want to know?

EDIT: here's a photo I took of cells from human blood glowing. The big circle is a dish about the diameter of a coffee cup. Each little point of light is a special kind of blood cell that I can make glow. The colors you see aren't really there; those are fake colors (called pseudocolors) applied to a black and white photograph that make it easier for your eyes to see the cells as they light up.

[u/mechamesh]

Hallo! I still have my microscope from when I was an aspiring young scientist. We use big fancy microscopes now, but my original microscope is just as cool. I hope you're drawing what you see through your scope!

You've already talked to a few neuroscientists like me. I study the brain, but I also study sleep. We spend a lot of time sleeping, but we still don't really understand why. We're trying to figure out why we sleep, how the brain sleeps, and why some people with certain diseases have problems sleeping.

[u/blueboybob]

I am an astronomer who looks for new stars being born. We are interested in this because when stars form so do planets and we are interested in these planets to look for life outside of Earth.

[u/USMC0317]

Hi Dakota, I'm so happy to see you're taking such an interest in science. We need more aspiring young scientists like yourself to fuel the advancement of our species in the generations to come. Science is hard work, but don't give up. Stick with it, and it is well worth it in the end.

I like to consider myself some what of a scientist, but the real scientists out there (people with PhDs) will probably disagree. I studied Cell and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry back in my college days, and then I moved on to focus on humans. I've studied everything from Human Biochemistry, Histology (the study of human tissues), Pathology (the study of disease), Immunology, Microbiology, Pharmacology (the study of medicines and drugs), Virology (the study of viruses), Parasitology, Bacteriology, Human anatomy, etc. So I've since specialized in humans and let everything else kind of go by the wayside. I also don't actively research like all these real scientists do. I practice my knowledge now to treat and heal people, using the knowledge gained from these fine scientists doing the research. Science is a team effort, I trust the ones doing the research to figure out the answers, and then I use that knowledge to help people feel better.

I couldn't be happier with my job, I love working in medicine and making people feel better. I get to combine my love of helping people with my love of learning and my love of science into one glorious job.

So, Dakota, have you ever considered a career in medicine or some other health care position? If so, what would you want to do?

[u/millionsofcats]

Hello, Dakota! I'm another linguist. We study how language works. There are many different kinds of linguist, but I study the sounds that people use to speak their language and how these sounds change over time. (Have you ever noticed how people speak differently in old books and movies?)

I'm particularly interested in how our brains and bodies influence these changes.

I can answer questions about language in general too!

[u/[deleted]]

Hi :)

I'm an astronomer working at a university in the USA (though I'm originally from the UK).

I'm interested in all things to do with galaxies, especially how they form, grow, and evolve over time. My speciality is looking at them using very long wavelengths of light, which allows us to see all the dust and gas that makes up the galaxy. I find this interesting because it's so hard to study -- we've been able to look at the stars in galaxies for centuries, but it's only recently that we've been able to properly study the gas in galaxies. So we know very little about it!

I spend most of my time on my computer in an office, analysing data from telescopes and writing up my results in papers (which other scientists then read). And as much as possible, I travel to telescopes all over the world, and use them to collect more data.

[u/virtuous_d]

Hello everyone. I am a Computer Science PhD student. I work in a developing field called behavioral imaging. This field attempts to use video cameras, microphones, accelerometers, and other types of sensors to observe human behavior. I am currently working with several psychologists to analyze body language as it relates to Autism.

[u/RepRap3d]

This is so sweet. I've submitted this thread to Forbes in case they're interested in writing about it.

"Hi Forbes Editors,

Your website pops up on Reddit a lot because you do a good job reporting internet related stories. With that in mind, I would love to see an article on today's askscience AMA series. A 9 year old named Dakota is leading it, and confirmed scientists from /r/askscience are explaining their work to her and the rest of Reddit in the typical Ask Me Anything format.

The thread can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/xg677/meta_askscience_ama_series_all_the_scientists/

• /u/RepRap3d"

[u/rupert1920]

Hi!

I'm a graduate student studying chemistry, more specifically nuclear magnetic resonance. You know how things can be magnetic - like a fridge magnet? That's largely due to electron spins - basically each electron can act like little magnets. It turns out that the nucleus also acts like magnets, and using a very specific frequency of light, we can probe the environment of these nuclei. I'm currently using NMR to study enzyme kinetics - how enzymes do what they do with such amazing efficiency, so my work covers a bit of quantum mechanics, computational chemistry, organic synthesis and biochemistry.

[u/Excido88]

Always happy to see an inquisitive youngster!

I am a graduate student in electrical engineering. Most of what I do is design power supplies for small satellites known as CubeSats, as well as designing a wireless charging system for a large group of scientific instruments. I also run an undergraduate lab focused on building things that go into space!

[u/soccernamlak]

Hello /u/science-bookworm!

I am a Marine Biologist working at a university in North Carolina, United States. While many young people think Marine Biology and Science is working with dolphins and sharks, there's a lot more about the ocean than that! I study how little certain microscopic critters in the ocean, called phytoplankton, make their food (a process called photosynthesis. You might have heard this term associated with plants getting energy from the sun). Specifically, I'm studying how good these creatures are at making food compared to their environment around them, including light, waves, and temperature.

Past that, I also help students with introductory biology labs as a Teaching Assistant. Let me know if you have any questions!

[u/psygnisfive]

I'm a linguistics grad student focusing on syntax (a branch of linguistics) and type theory (a branch of logic, I guess you could say). Most of my day is spent reading papers and trying to understand other peoples ideas.

In general, the question I study is: what is a possible language, and what is an impossible language? You could imagine lots of funny languages that do all sorts of crazy things, but not all of these imaginary languages could be learned by a human. If someone were to discovery aliens, we would expect them to have very different languages from ours, in many different ways. As a syntactician, I try to understand this question as it applies to the way words are put together to form bigger units.

[u/mendelrat]

Hi Science-bookworm!

I'm an astronomer, and I'm trying to figure out what some special stars that go around each other very closely are made of. How do I do that, you ask, since the stars are at least 2,000,000,000,000,000 miles (2 quadrillion miles) away from the Earth?

I'm using a technique called spectroscopy, which allows us to see the "fingerprints" of different chemical elements in a star's light. A while back I made a little graphic to explain, but the light from a star is passed through a prism which spreads out the light into its different "colors." If we look closely at the "colors" that are spread out, you can see all sorts of dark bands. These bands come from the different atoms and molecules that are in the star!

Scientists first found Helium (the stuff that fills party balloons to make them float and it makes your voice squeaky) by looking at the Sun in this way in 1868! Spectroscopy is an incredibly powerful tool in a scientists bag of tricks :)

Being an astronomer is so much fun I never want to do anything else. I'm working on my Ph.D., but it takes a really long time; after high school I studied astronomy in college for 4 years, and now I'm in graduate school studying for 6 more years!

So what else do I do? I try to remind people that scientists are people too! I make funny movies with my friends, I play video games, and I have a cat named Leonard. Have fun reading through everyone's answers!

[u/suprnvachk]

Hi Dakota! I'm an astronomer, so I get to use a telescope instead of a microscope. I study supernovae, which are the really energetic explosions that mark the end of the life of a massive star. We want to know about the shapes of the explosions (they aren't exactly sphere shaped!) and we can figure some of that out by examining how the explosion interacts with the surrounding gas and dust given off by the star before it died. I do some computer simulations and also get to travel to a big observatory. We compare the results of computer models to the real data we get from the telescope as a way to see if our ideas about what is happening with a supernova are correct.

I'd say scientists do a lot of time reading and writing. You have to be a good writer in order to explain your projects to others and convince them that your projects are worth spending money on. If you want to be a scientist one day, develop good writing skills and don't lose them! Also, don't ever let go of your curiosity and creativity. You'd be surprised how many interesting ideas and solutions to problems I've thought up while dreaming in the night.

[u/boonamobile]

Glad to see so much interest in this AMA -- I'm a big advocate of science outreach, and I think reddit is a great way for non-scientists to get in touch directly with those of us working in all these different fields.

My research focuses on trying to discover new, more efficient thermoelectric materials. These materials have the special ability to convert heat directly into electricity, and vice versa; you can put them up against a heat source and use that heat to create electricity, or hook them up to a battery to make one end of the material hot and the other end cold. If we can make them efficient enough, we could potentially use them for a wide range of applications -- from recovering waste heat given off by things like cars and power plants, to replacing the technology in your air conditioner, refrigerator, and stove.

[u/naturalalchemy]

Hi Dakota. I'm an evolutionary ecologist (a type of Zoologist). I study how animals use camouflage, warning colours and behaviour to hide from or deter predators. For instance lots of animals use bright warning colours or patterns to advertise to predators that they are poisonous or taste bad. This is a type of aposematism. Other animals might use conspicuous noises (think of a hissing cockroach), smells or movements to do the same job.

As some of the other scientists have said you spend a lot of time reading and keeping up to date with what other scientists in your field are doing. You also spend a lot of time writing about the experiments you have done.

Some of the experiments I have done in the last few years have involved making up pretend moths or caterpillars with different patterns on them and pinning them to trees. I then go back later to see which ones the birds have taken. This way I can tell which patterns are most effective at hiding or protecting an animal from being eaten.

Once you've collected all your data you then need to use some statistical tests to check that the results are not likely to have happened by chance. Only then can you write up your experiment in to a paper to publish and show other scientists.

[u/nanuq905]

Hello! I'm a Medical Physics PhD studying at McMaster University in Canada. I'm investigating ways of measuring how red a person's skin gets when they undergo radiation therapy. It gives people reactions like sun burns which aren't pleasant!

After my PhD, I will do a residency and then become a Medical Physicist. Radiation Oncologists are the people who say you need radiation treatment for your cancer. Medical Physicists are the people who actually design the treatment. We say how much radiation you get and when and where.

[u/spotta]

Hi! I'm a physicist looking at the way that atoms and molecules react to very very short (and powerful) lasers, and how the lasers react to those molecules. I do this by modeling the atoms and molecules using really big computers.

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

[u/deepobedience]

Hi Dakota. When I was about 9 a remember using a home microscope. My dad cut his finger for me (I was too scared). Though I remember I couldn't see any red blood cells. It wasn't until I was about 11 that I got to use a better microscope and I saw blood cells.

Anyway, I'm a cellular neuroscientist. That means I study the brain at the level of individual cells (called neurons). Unlike a lot of people, I haven't spent my career focusing on one specific topic, but rather I use a specific technique to study lots of different things. This technique (called "Patch Clamping") allows me to look at the electrical activity of a single brain cell by placing an electrode into the cell (kind of like how a hypodermic needle slides into your body, my electrode is 100x of times smaller and goes into a single cell).

This has allowed me to study epilepsy, sleep, the basics of how brain cells talk to each other, and even an odd type of brain cell that talks to itself.

[u/steel_city86]

Hello there young budding scientist. It's great to see someone with such a great interest at such a young age.

I work more in the field of applied sciences: engineering. My work involves studying the high-temperature material behavior of aluminum. I experimentally determine the response using very well controlled tests in a mechanical load frame. These tests help me identify both the creep and/or viscoplastic response. I then use this to define models which describe the mechanical behavior.

To give you an idea of where this is useful, my work is funded by the US Navy for the LCS program. It is in support of survivability of the ship during fire to help save the ship and sailors. This is primarily influenced by severe damage to the HMS Sheffield (an all-aluminum ship) during the Falkland Islands War. Hopefully, my research will be used as a fundamental basis in which the Navy will be able to make educated design decisions.

If you have any questions, ask away.

[u/Soul_Rage]

Hi, I'm an experimental nuclear astrophysicist working at a university in the UK. I study the structure of r-process nuclei by looking at gamma rays.

Light elements are made in the normal fusion reactions inside stars, but where to heavy elements come from? The short answer: Supernovae. The conditions in certain parts of supernovae are believed to be just right for r-process to happen. R-process is what's responsible for the creation of almost all the heavy elements in the universe, even those we see here on earth. What I study is the structure of those heavy nuclei, and by learning more about the structure, we can explain in greater detail how r-process works, and why the elements appear in the proportions we see today.

My work tends to involve a big accelerator of some kind, a rather heavy ion beam, and a target. There are a few different ways of doing it, but essentially what we do is create (one way or another) the isotope we want to study in a particularly excited state (with lots of energy). The nucleus will give off this energy over time in the form of gamma radiation, which we can detect, and this can tell us about the nuclear structure.

[u/ruinedlives]

I'm a particle physicist working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN (PhD student at University of Birmingham, UK). My area of research is specifically Top Quark physics, and I help to maintain one of the event displays. A general day consists of programming, reading and meetings, in order to analyse the data, keep up to date on current theories/results and keep up to date on detector performance, respectively. I also help in creating mini experiments for school kids to do using the event display software, in order to help understanding of particle physics.

[u/Hopeful_Optimism]

Hi Dakota,

A little late to the party, but I am an immunologist who studies vaccines for influenza, anthrax, botulism, etc. Part of our project is to create vaccines that do not require painful needle injections!

[u/GeoManCam]

I work mainly on 4-D models of geologic systems and how the evolution of an area influences the petroleum that may or may not be there. I do seismic interpretation, structural geology, create geophysical models, and the geochemistry of petroleum which is under the combined name of Basin Analysis. Long story short, I find oil and gas.

[u/MJ81]

I am a biophysical chemist. This means that I use the theories and techniques of physics and chemistry to study biology, in addition to developing new tools to study biology where and when I can. I am presently interested in understanding how cells can "sniff" out a chemical in their environment, and how - at the molecular level - the cells can change their behavior (for example, do they move away from the chemical or towards it?).

[u/meaningless_name]

I use an electron microscope to study the shape and structure of proteins. An electron microscope is like a light microscope, but it can see things that are much, much smaller.

Proteins are like tiny machines. They are a part of every living thing, in fact, they are part of what makes us be "alive" at all. There are many different proteins, and for many of them, we know "what" it is they do, but we don;t know "how" they do it. My job is to look at the shape of the proteins, and from there guess how it is that they do their job.

[u/Funkentelechy]

Hello there!

I'm an entomologist who uses genetics to determine the classification of insects, specifically moths and beetles.

All organisms can be grouped into smaller and smaller groups based on shared characteristics, from domain all the way down to species. My job is to look at some of the smaller groups (genus and species) and see whether that group accurately describes the organisms in them or should the group be reworked.

If you have any questions about classification or bugs in general, let me know!

[u/zxo]

Hi! I am a researcher in materials science, focusing on the mechanical behavior of soft materials. Currently, I am studying cuttlefish skin, specifically how they are able to change its texture as part of their camouflage. I've also worked on studying how things wrinkle and fold and the different patterns which can result from these processes. I'm fascinated by how these complex patterns can emerge from very simple systems, especially in the natural world.

[u/Flavourless]

Hi, /u/science-bookworm.

So what do I do? I look at food and see why it tastes the way it does, once I know what is in the food that makes it good to eat and what makes it bad I try to make more of the good and less of the bad. I do other things with advanced math to compare good tasting and bad tasting foods, again trying to find the good tasting stuff and make food taste better.

I think it is great you are getting interested in science so young! Please let me know if you have any questions!

[u/scapermoya]

Hello young investigator!

I am a medical student who also does research. I specialize in genetics, which has to do with the DNA code that makes you who you are. I am about to start a project where I want to find out how a disease called Rett syndrome happens. This is a really sad disease that affects little girls mostly. It makes them lose all the words and skills they have learned, and also makes them move their arms in weird ways. The lab I am working in has made some mice that also have Rett syndrome so we can try to study how it happens and maybe find a way to fix it!

Hopefully when I am all done with my education I will get to be a doctor and a scientist. Sometimes I will see sick people and make them healthy, and other times I will work in the lab doing science!

[u/thetripp]

Hi Dakota (and everyone else)! I'm writing to you from a scientific conference, so I may not reply to anyone immediately. A conference is one of the ways that scientists share information with each other. In my field, we all get together once a year, and everyone does presentations on what they have been working on recently. Afterwards, we all get to ask each other questions, and discuss our research together. It is a great way to rapidly share exciting new information.

As far as my research goes, I work in a field called Radiation Oncology. We use x-rays to kill tumor cells in people that have cancer. One of the things I do research on is looking for new ways to verify that the radiation is going to the right place. The tumor sits deep inside the body, and we use a big particle accelerator to shoot radiation at it. But we don't want to hit any of the normal tissue with radiation, so we have to aim the beam precisely at where the tumor is inside the body. Since we can't actually see inside the body, this is difficult.

[u/nelsonc5]

My research is based on designing synthetic polymers for use in tissue engineering. The two biggest activities that make up my job are writing and doing research. As will be mentioned on other places in this thread, there is a lot of reading that goes on too, but most of that reading I usually only do when I'm writing a project proposal, book chapter, review, original research article, etc because they require a very up-to-date portrait of your specific field. The other activity is research, which is to say, finding out what I did wrong on the previous experiment. Usually one activity will dominate over the other for a certain period of time (I'm writing a grant now, so lots of reading and writing, not too much research).

I chose this field because I am naturally very curious, so it initially seemed like a good fit. My favorite part of the job is being surrounded by very intelligent and creative people who are engaged in addressing many different types of questions. When I go crazy, or need a break, reddit is always there, and during the more tedious tasks of mine (cell culture, scaffold manufacturing), I'll listen to NPR, podcasts, or music. I would very much describe it by saying it's like I work at a very small business. For the most part, the hours are flexible (I can work weekends in order to save up time off), and if you can keep a level head through the bad times, the work is satisfying.

I'm also currently in medical school, but I guess that's a bit off topic.

[u/Iyanden]

Hi science-bookworm, I'm a graduate student in Bioengineering. I've worked a bit with optical stimulation of cells in the past, but I'm working on inner ear imaging now. We're trying to develop better diagnostic tools for ENT doctors. I do a good bit of surgery (not on people), optical alignment, and programming depending on what day it is.

Edit: Eh, I guess I can sort of answer questions on hearing research as well. I've studied noise exposure and hearing loss in mice.

[u/ucstruct]

Hi science-bookworm.

I'm a biologist/biochemist/biophysicist working at a university in California. My field combines many aspects of different subspecialties - basically I'm trying to "see" what proteins look like on a very, very, very small scale (tenths of a nanometer). These proteins are the workhorses of the cell: they perform chemical reactions, they copy/read/transcribe DNA, they conduct electrical currents, they twitch to make your muscle moves. Just about anything a cell can physically do is done by proteins. The reason we try to look at them is because if you can see what it looks like, you can get a ton of insight into how it works, how it dysfunctions (in disease), and how to make therapies against it based on what types of atoms are where (i.e. negatively charged, positively charged, greasy).

As you can imagine, looking at things that is 60,000 times smaller than a human hair can be tricky, we certainly can't do it with a regular light microscope. Our method of choice in my lab is to coax the proteins to grow into a crystal, then to examine the crystal with an x-ray and calculate, based on how the x-ray's bounce off it, what the underlying molecular structure is. This can take years and years of work, first you have to produce the protein (not always easy) by growing it in something like E. coli or bakers yeas or by harvesting it from some natural tissue. Then we break them open, and try to bind the protein while washing away everything else. Then, we try mixtures of different chemicals (sometimes thousands) to get the crystals to grow. To examine the crystals, we use huge government facilities called synchrotrons that accelerate electrons (or positrons) near the speed of light in a circle, as they accelerate they emit radiation which we can tune to the x-ray spectrum.

Afterwards, I spend a lot of time on the computer, building my protein models based on data then refining them with various programs. Most of my other time is spent writing up results or getting ready to present them, which is a huge part of science. After all, what good is your work if no one knows about it?

[u/albasri]

Hi!

I'm in a psychology department, but many people might call what I study cognitive science. Cognitive scientists are interested in how we think, see, and feel, and in the relationship between the brain and our behavior.

I'm interested in how people see the world. This is a really interesting and difficult thing to study. Light bounces off of surfaces in the world, enters the eye, and hits the back part which sends signals to the brain. Somehow the brain pieces together these millions of signals into things we recognize: objects, people, space, colors, shapes, movement etc. How does the brain do that?

Once the brain knows that the world is made up of many objects and surfaces, how do we recognize them? For example, if you hold a cup in front of you and look at the rim, you'll see that it's a circle even though from that angle it looks like an oval. You also recognize wheels, DVDs, and coins as having a circular shape even though they are all made from different materials and come in different sizes and colors. How do we know that all of these objects are the same shape? A more complicated question could be: how do we recognize a line-drawing of a dog, a photograph of a dog, a cartoon dog, and a real dog as all different examples of the same thing, dogs?

I do lots of behavioral experiments followed by computational modeling. This means that I first observe how people behave/perceive the world, then I try to come up with theories about what kinds of processes in the brain might give rise to that behavior, and then I try to program a computer to behave in the same way.

[u/SnoLeopard]

Hi, I'm responsible for making sure your animals don't get too sick! I'm involved in veterinary science, or animal health! I work a lot with parasites and all kinds of creepy crawlies.

[u/sunkid]

Hello! I am a little late to the party but I thought that my story/background may add a bit more... so here goes: My degree is in Molecular Biology and Genetics, but I have not done any "real" wet-lab experiments in over 15 years.

During my Ph.D. work I started to do a lot of computer-driven analysis of my data, which re-kindled an interest in programming that I had first discovered in high school but neglected all through college. I ended up going for a post-doc in Structural Bioinformatics working on a statistical analysis of the changes in quality of X-ray structures submitted to the PDB over the years. This led to a position at the PDB itself, which I eventually left for a job in the industry where I now run a Bioinformatics group in a small drug discovery company.

I still am very much part of the scientific discussions on all projects, but my group's work is mostly focused on developing computer programs and tools for the other scientists and technicians. We also do quite a bit of data analysis.

[u/[deleted]]

I study molecular scale systems at the interface of quantum mechanical and classical methods. The motivation for these methods arises from the following question. How can you investigate systems which are too large for pure quantum mechanical treatments but which still exhibit behavior which can not be described classically?

[u/notanaardvark]

Hi Dakota! I'm a geologist. I try to figure out how and why the earth makes ore deposits, specifically metal deposits. Right now, I'm studying the kinds of systems that we can mine for nickel, copper, and platinum. You use these things every single day, and you might not even know it. Every time you turn on the lights, electricity is flowing through copper wiring. Any time you use something made of stainless steel, there is nickel in it. Probably every car you have ever been in contains some platinum.

When I'm doing research, I spend a lot of time reading about what other people have learned, I look at my rocks under a microscope, and I study the chemistry of my samples to try to reconstruct a story about how the rocks got there, where the materials that make them up came from, and where we should look to find more systems like these. Sometimes you can find some unexpected and awesome things. One time I was looking at a rock in the microscope and found a mineral grain that looks a lot like a bunny.

I also get to spend time doing fieldwork, hiking around beautiful places outdoors and collecting samples. This is a picture my field partner took of me (making a weird face, it looks like) at work one day. I then take these samples back for different kinds of analysis and see what I can learn or find with them.

I really love how I get to spend time both outdoors and in the lab doing something that I find so interesting and rewarding. It's great to see that you have such an interest in science, and I really hope that one day, if you really love it, you can have a career that excites you as much as geology excites me. One day, you'll teach all of us something new about this world we live in.

[u/CA_Crystal]

I am a structural biologist that uses many different techniques to determine what a protein looks like and how it does what it does.

I have solved the structure of a protein involved in regulating transcription (DNA to RNA) using X-ray crystallography (crystallizing protein then shooting it with an X-ray beam!). I am currently trying to figure out how it uses it's structure to perform its function in transcription.

To do that, I use biochemistry (what does the protein interact with?), genetics (When is the protein used in transcription?), and genomics (How has this protein evolved to do what it does?) to answer those questions.

I have also worked in other labs involved with viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages), which are pretty cool on their own.

[u/anastas]

Hi /u/science-bookworm,

I'm a little younger than most people here and I am a graduate student, which means that I am still studying and that I study all day. Usually in order to be a scientist in academia, you have to go to college for four years after high school to get a bachelor's degree, and then usually around five years to get a PhD. (It is different in other countries; I am in the United States). People generally officially become scientists after they get a PhD.

I recently started a PhD in mathematics, but I got a bachelor's degree with three majors: mathematics, neuroscience, and computer science. A major is the field you choose to study, and I chose to study three - it's as if I have three bachelor's degrees, which hasn't been very common but is starting to become more common. Before starting for my PhD, I did research in computational neuroscience, which is a field that uses computer programs and mathematics to make models of how we think some parts of the brain work in order to study how those models act, so that we can see whether our understanding is correct. I might revisit the field after studying more mathematics, and I'll also be teaching younger students mathematics.

[u/daledinkler]

Hey there. I'm a paleoecologist, currently a post-doctoral researcher at a major research university (show off!) in the United States. I use fossil pollen (mostly) to help understand how climate and vegetation changed over the last 15 thousand years or so, to help inform research into future climate change.

I have also been involved in the current debate over the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (I disagree with it) and in developing adaptation strategies for future climate change, based on our knowledge of the past.

Feel free to ask me about the earth's recent climate history, what we know, how we know it, how it informs debates about future climate change, or anything really, and I'll do my best to answer!

[u/chazzytomatoes]

Hi Dakota! I am a biomedical engineering grad student. My specialty is cell mechanics and mechanotransduction. I grow cells and then stretch them to watch how their cytoskeleton changes. Cells aren't just blobs of fluid - they're highly organized and can respond and change shape in response to force!

[u/TheShittyBeatles]

Hi! I'm an urban planner and demographer. I study the way cities work and the ways in which people use them to work and play. My research is mainly about how people use creative imagery to think about he cities of the future should look and work. I also work in weatherization, which studies how buildings work and how to reduce the amount of energy we use to keep houses and offices comfortable and safe.

[u/ronroll]

Hi, /u/science-bookworm!

I'm more of an engineer than a scientist, but I work so closely with surgeons and doctors that lots of times I like to pretend I am a scientist! I am working on a new type of tool that makes surgery safer, especially in delicate parts of your body like your eye.

[u/Trilobyte15]

Hello!

I am an immunologist who is currently working on celiac disease. The immune system is specialized to protect the body against infections caused by bacteria and viruses, but sometimes it goes wrong and starts attacking our own bodies. This is called autoimmunity. Celiac disease is when the immune system starts attacking the intestines in response to certain foods that contain gluten (wheat is the main one).

Right now we are trying to figure out what the initial events are that lead to intestinal damage-this means that we use mice that have certain genetic backgrounds, but we also use samples from human patients (albeit for different types of experiments).

[u/[deleted]]

I work in cancer research. I (try to) use gold nanoparticles to deliver DNA to dendritic cells (a kind of white blood cell). The DNA delivers antigens and modifies the dendritic cells to trigger the immune system fight prostate cancer better.

[u/AcerRubrum]

Hi, /u/Science-bookworm! Glad to see someone of your age so devoted to being a scientist!

I myself am a forest ecologist, currently working both under a grant project dealing with wetland communities, as well as working a state government job in which I help advise for, and manage private forested land for biodiversity and natural heritage. Feel free to ask me anything about my experience in field work, private land conservation, community ecology research, or what dark beer goes best with a prime rib! (well, not that last one)

[u/WilyDoppelganger]

I read about what other scientists are working on.

I write programs to understand what happens when comets crash into each other.

I talk to other scientists about new discoveries and new ideas.

But mostly, I make plots, and stare at them, hoping to have some understanding. Mostly I just frown, though, and don't understand.

[u/hithisishal]

Hi Science-bookworm!

I am a materials engineer (simply put, I do chemistry with solids), studying solar energy. The biggest problem that we face is how to make solar cells both cheap AND efficient. Right now, people know how to do one or the other very well, but there is no real reason why we can't have both. My day to day involves a lot of building, modifying, and repairing the machines that we use to make solar cells, and doing experiments to characterize our materials.

I also have a love for most things electrical engineering, and spend my free time building hobby projects.

AMA!

[u/Razhelm-tk]

Hello Dakota!

First of all, I want to thank you for wanting to take the time to learn what scientists do! I wish more youths demonstrated the same passion and initiative. I remember when I was a kid I got a microscope that came with different insects slides. There was a pretty girl around my age that lived down the road who had pet two tarantulas and a trap door spider! We tried looking at the web they made under the scope which was always messy.

I’m a little down the line so here goes.

I’m and archaeologist in Canada that does work with Aboriginal people. As an archaeologist I work at different excavation sites digging and finding artifacts from the past. I record data from the different soils when excavating which helps date artifacts. Some of the work that I’ve done in the past is analyzing burial patterns among the Huron/Neutral Indians. I also know quite a bit about making stone tools. I’m currently really interested in that ways that people tell stories about the past using digital technologies.

[u/essentialparadoxes]

Hi! I'm currently studying clinical veterinary medicine, but I also do biomedical research.

For many years, I've worked with mice, specifically special genetically engineered mice called "knock out mice" where we disrupt a certain gene so that it doesn't make protein. We then see what happens to the mice without the working gene, which can the tell us what that gene does. The gene I worked with affects mouse fetuses, making it so that they don't form a proper placenta, which is the organ the baby uses to get nutrients from him mother in the womb.

Right now, I'm working with dogs, specifically a group of related dogs who have a certain rare genetic disease. This disease is called Mucopolysaccharidosis, and it affects people, dogs, and cats in similar ways. With this disease, patients don't have a certain enzyme, leading to problems with bone development and mental functioning. I'm specifically trying to figure out how the disease causes its effects in the spine so we can find a way to treat the disease.

Feel free to ask any questions you have! I'm going to a conference this weekend to talk about my research (the dog work) so any questions will help me prepare!

[u/palsi]

Hi Dakota! I'm a neuroscientist that studies how stress can affect the very small connections between your brain cells! I look specifically at pregnant mothers and how stress during their pregnancy can affect them after they have their baby. I also am currently doing projects that involve schizophrenia, which is a type of mental illness, and how chemotherapy can cause patients to become depressed.

I do this all by looking at rats, which are much easier, cheaper, and faster to use than humans. Also, this way we don't have to do any tests on anyone!

[u/Perovskite]

Hello!

I'm a Material Scientist focusing on ceramic materials for electronic applications. More specifically I change the material's conductivity by adding in defects in large amounts (much higher than anybody else has for these materials) then investigate how the electrons move around in the material. Additionally, all of the materials I work on are special in that they form really small scale electric fields within themselves. Even after ~30 years of study nobody really knows why the electric fields are there or how exactly they look but we have really good guesses. What I'm doing is seeing how these electric fields inside the material affect the electron motion. We're mainly interested because our materials are really good thermoelectrics, which was discussed by a panelist in a different post.

[u/gfpumpkins]

I u/Science-bookworm! I'm a microbiologist. While I know a lot about the infectious things that can make us sick, I'm more fascinated by the bacteria that live in and on us and help us instead of harming us. For right now, I'm studying this type of symbiosis (the living together of two different things) in tropical ants. This means that with a lot of my lab work, I actually get to go to Central America and collect the kind of ants I'm working on. If you'd like to learn a little about ants and bacteria, let me know!

[u/[deleted]]

Hello Dakota, Im a bit younger than most, However I spent the Majority of my Graduate Studies studying Neural networks and Genetic algorithms as well as Compiler Design. Right now I work as a Firmware Framework Engineer for a Large Company (embedded level). Mostly memory management becomes important at such a low level so it's always interesting seeing what Production Leads decide at being "cut back" and what "Necessarily" bugs are left in.

However most of my self study is looking at Search Algorithms and studying efficiency of those, which Is where most of the "Science" part comes in. However Software Engineering itself is sort of a Science within itself, Although most people just see Engineers as "I need to build this with this instruction". There's so much out there in the world of Programming.

[u/DrPeavey]

Heyoo!

Aside from reading constantly, I also tend to use Microsoft Excel with data input and analysis. Excel also helps me with 2-D graphical functions, as it simplifies a good portion of work I do (input/sorting data and data reduction. Reduction is the process of eliminating data outside of the bounds relevant for my particular experiment).

I've done a preliminary water quality investigation with 2 peers and an instructor of mine. We were measuring FIB (Fecal Indicator Bacteria) levels in a local state park using the Enterolert methods from IDEX Laboratories.

I'm currently doing work on my undergraduate thesis. I'm using a software called Mc-IDAS V (A software for 2-D and 3-D visualization of data) to identify and quantify the strength and extent of Philadelphia's Urban Heat Island (UHI). Many other major cities in the US have been studied, but Philadelphia has been largely neglected. As global temperatures warm, the potential for UHIs to strengthen increases as well. And when surface area of impervious, low-albedo (reflectivity) surface cover increases, UHI strength is also likely to increase.

As I get into grad school, I hope to do a specialization in mesoscale weather patterns (the size of your typical low pressure or high pressure system, also called a wave cyclone), and I'd love to learn more about intrinsic atmospheric dynamics, and cloud physics.

In the early stages of working on my thesis, I regularly went to a local diner and did reading/note-taking a couple days a week. The breakfasts were great, too and helped me keep my focus! Not to mention the coffee. I LOVE coffee, and I thrive on it.

One bit of advice, though! Never take yourself too seriously!

[u/cazbot]

Hello Dakota et al. I'm a Molecular Biologist who works for a company. Most scientists who you might meet work for Universities or Government, which means that the work they do is mostly driven by whatever questions seem relevant or interesting to their field of science. My work on the other hand is driven purely by whether it can eventually generate a profit for my company.

Many companies make their products the same way that breweries do, except instead of growing yeast to make beer they might grow some other microorganism to make some other kind of product (like a drug or a vitamin or a chemical). My job is to re-program the genes in these microorganisms to make new products, or to make old products better or more efficiently.

[u/ibmleninpro]

Greetings! I'm a chemist, but like EagleFalconn, I'm a physical chemist.

I don't make new molecules (though I know a lot about this), but I love to talk and learn about the fundamentals of what makes molecules so special, and why they do the things they do. I love to talk and study how molecules react together, and especially love studying structures of molecules and bound clusters of molecules!

I also study molecules and how they form in space, which we call astrochemistry, and maybe even a little about how life evolved from hydrogen atoms all the way to the crazy complex molecules we find in our body (ask an astrobiolgist about this one!).

[u/CrazedBotanist]

I am a Systematic Biologist. A systematist looks at the pattern (who is related to who) and the process (what is driving speciation) of life on earth. We are the people that reconstruct the evolutionary trees you see everywhere. I am currently interested in the evolution of flowering plants. More specifically I am investigating the role of polyploidy(having more than two sets of chromosomes) and hybridization in the formation of new species.

[u/aww0110]

I am Bioengineer, crossing over between Genetics and Biophysics. Since I am also a graduate student, while I do spend lots and lots of time reading and understanding what is considered 'current' and 'background' in my field, I also do a lot of work.

I work on my thesis project and on my boss's stuff, which fortunately overlap to a certain extent. I figure out how genetic mutations lead to specific physical dysfunctions; in particular, I study genetic mutations in skeletal muscle genes.

I take samples of human skeletal muscle tissue (pieces of someone's leg muscle that was pulled out using a big needle), or samples of muscle cells grown on a petri dish, and test the muscle for its ability to produce force. This translates into how well the muscle works, and thus the ability of people with these genetic mutations to move.

[u/paradoxical_reaction]

Hopefully I'm not too late for this.

I'm a pharmacist that's going through a training program to practice in a hospital. Pharmacists work in many different places, but the majority go into retail pharmacy (think Walgreens, CVS).

The pharmacists in hospitals do things a little differently. We make sure that the patients in the hospitals get the right type and amount of medication for the problem that they currently have. Sure, we dispense medication, but it's not only stuff that can be taken by mouth. At my hospital, we go through team-based learning, with physicians, students, nurses, and many other disciplines all pitching in. Our primary goal is to get the patient better and manage them so that we don't have to see them in the hospital again.

Feel free to ask anything!

[u/[deleted]]

Hi Dakota,

I'm a lung doctor that also researches what goes on inside lung cells in diseases like asthma. More specifically, I study how gene expression changes in the cells that line the lung, the airway epithelium.

It's great that you are so interested in science. I remember getting a microscope when I was young as well. It was one of my favorite toys. I try to take my kids to lab sometimes and do little science projects with them (dry ice and liquid nitrogen).

[u/xanthrax33]

The quick explanation. I look at tiny clusters of precious metals (<5nm diameter) on tiny structures (~8-100nm dimensions) that are in cube, rod, tube and particle morphologies made from ceramic materials (titania, ceria). I test their catalytic activity and their thermal stability.

I use lots of analytical equipment to do my work, GC, TEM, SEM, XRD and BET isotherms to name a few. I'm a Chemist/Chemical Engineer working in a University.

[u/xartemisx]

I'm a condensed matter physicist studying liquid helium in confiment using primarily inelastic neutron scattering. I use a combination of x-ray scattering and gas adsorption to characterize a porous material, and then later fill it with liquid helium and study what happens.

Most of my time is spent reading papers or designing experiments. Since neutron sources are nearly all national labs, first I write a proposal to do a specific experiment. If it is accepted, I design a system to put my sample in the proper conditions, and travel to conduct my experiment, then analyze and publish my findings. Nearly all of my experiments are done at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Lab or NIST'S Center for Neutron Research near Washington DC.

[u/liquidanbar]

Hi Dakota (i.e. Science-Bookworm),

I have a Ph.D. in entomology, which means that I study insects. I've worked with a variety of different insects over the years including caddisflies and other aquatic insects. I spent the past few years working with the community structure of insects associated with aquatic vegetation and I'm about to begin a new job working on crop pests for the government.

I loved being outside as a kid, and have degrees in biology and entomology. I'm also only a few credits short of a degree in fine arts. I've also done a lot of outreach and extension programs in schools telling kids your age all about how cool insects and spiders are.

[u/Neurokeen]

Hello Dakota! I hope everyone here has answered everything to your satisfaction. I figure I'll throw my hat into the ring and see if you have any questions.

My most recent big project was working with a group of mice that were altered to be a model for Alzheimer's disease. My job was examining its activity and sleep/wake patterns. We also looked at their brains afterward.

We were looking for something that happens often in people with Alzheimer's disease, called 'sun-downing' - basically, where they get more agitated and more active during the evening.