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Research Scientist
Conducts original scientific research to advance human understanding of the natural world.
Did you know?
The scientist who discovered penicillin (Alexander Fleming) did so by accident — a mold contaminated his petri dish
How subjects help
- Mathematics: Write equations that describe how a population or a reaction changes over time.
- Biology: Grow cells or study living things in a lab to answer an open question.
- Research Methods: Plan a fair test with controls so the results can be trusted.
- Statistics: Check whether a result is real or could just have happened by chance.
A famous name
Rosalind Franklin: Her X-ray images of DNA, including Photo 51, were key to discovering its double-helix shape.
Try it yourself: Run a fair test with sugar
- Guess first: will sugar disappear faster in cold or warm water? Write your guess down.
- Fill one glass with cold water and one with warm tap water, the same amount in each.
- Tip a spoon of sugar into each at the same moment, stir each the same way, and time how long until it has gone.
- Was your guess right? What did you keep the same so the test was fair?
Chemists and researchers test ideas this way: change one thing, keep everything else the same, measure.
Also try: Try a brain dump.
Known for it in
USA, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Japan