• Question: how can you describe the feeling you get after you have got the results from a project?

    Asked by E_kelleher to Laura, Matthew, Andrew on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Fury, joy or relief. It all depends on what the results show. Sometimes I am simply amazed at why it did not work. As you can see science offers you a whole range of emotions, and these are normally different with each different set of results.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Imagine baking a cake…it’s taken you hours to do it, you’ve made a horrible mess all over the kitchen, you’ve got flour on your face and sugar in your hair and you’re exhausted. Then, you put the layers together and ice it and step back. That is the feeling when it works. That exhausted relief and pride and joy!
      Now imagine getting to that same stage but when you go to taste it, you added way too much salt and then when you put one on top of the other it all collapses and falls on the floor. That’s what it’s like when it doesn’t work. Sometimes it is gutting. Like you’ve been kicked in the stomach. But you have to try again because everyone is expecting you to make a cake.

    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Excitement, elation, so many emotions. The overriding feeling was that “I’ve got to tell someone!”, but in spectroscopy those results come from analysing the data which I find best done once everyone has left for the day and I have no interruptions!
      This means that there is frequently noone to tell when I find something!

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