• Question: what things in science make you say wow?

    Asked by 263nveg45 to Michael, Marisol, Lauren on 14 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Lauren Burt

      Lauren Burt answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      Hey!

      Did I see this question in the live chat on Monday? I remember it being asked. There are lots of things that make me say ‘wow!’ In my job ?
      I get to go to some really beautiful places by the seaside and it is like going on holiday! Seeing big waves in the sea crashing against the land is also really cool, but you can’t get close because the sea is dangerous In a storm. When you look at the damage that a storm can do to a beach that can be pretty cool! Also if a cliff falls down I’m like “wooooooooow” haha

      Lauren

    • Photo: Michael Rivera

      Michael Rivera answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      I think it is a great thing that I get to walk into a lab containing hundreds and hundreds of people’s bones. I think to myself that it is amazing being able to study people from the past – whether they lived 50 years ago, or 15,000 years ago. It is my job to tell their story – to find out who they were, how they lived, and to tell their story to people visiting museums, reading scientific reports, and going to schools just like you are! Without me and scientists like me, their story would never get told – and that makes me go ‘wow’!

      Michael 🙂

    • Photo: Marisol Collins

      Marisol Collins answered on 16 Nov 2016:

      Great question! I think I probably say ‘wow!’ at least once a day!

      One thing that ‘wows’ me a lot are the clever ways that diseases use to infect animals and people. here are some examples that make me say ‘wow!’:

      Ticks will climb up to the top of a blade of grass, stretch their little legs out and wait for an animal to brush past, and then they cling on tight! This is called ‘questing’.
      The malaria parasite will infect a mosquito, which will then fly around, and when it bites an animal to feed off its blood, the parasite will cross into the animal from the mosquitos’ mouth.
      Probably the cleverest of all is a tiny blood parasite called Toxoplasma. It infects mice, finds its way into their brain, changes the messages in the brain to make the mice no longer afraid of predators, such as cats. This makes the mice easy for cats to catch and eat because they no longer run away, and the cat then becomes infected with the Toxoplasma! Clever, huh?

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