• Question: Where has been the best place you have gone to do research? :)

    Asked by emiiwilde to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Definitively the Serengeti! Magical place, could not stop watching through my binoculars, searching for the next animal to observe

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hi emiiwilde

      In my research, we don’t get to do field work – if that’s what you were thinking. We do have to go to special X-ray generators called synchrotrons. There’s one in Oxfordshire I go to often (there was a report on BBC on Friday about it that you can see here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10291008.stm ), there’s one near Paris, one near Grenoble, in the south of France and on in Switzerland, near Zurich. So I do get to travel a bit, taking my samples on the train. It’s exciting but so intense we normally are too tired to visit the places outside the synchrotron! 😉

      I’ve also spent a month working in Finland during my PhD with our collaborators. It was February, so average temperatures were about -20C. I’ve never been so cold in my life! Of course, they have central heating everywhere, so it’s only when you’re outside that you feel it.

      I do love working at Imperial College London – its a place that has all the facilities I need and I work within a great and fun group of people.

      Hope that answers your question – if not, just let me know and I’ll try to do better! 😉

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I have travelled far and to many places. It would be very difficult to say which place was the best. But doing flight tests over Cape Agulhas (the most southern point in Africa) over the ocean seeing wales with their new born babies surely is one of the most amasing things. I also did some experiments on a submarine! In terms of countries, I think every country I have visited thus far is special.

      Currently we have telescopes in Chile. It is very special to work at an observatory from time to time.

      But then the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh where I work is also one of the most amasing places to be and I am very priviledge to work there! 🙂

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Nevados de Chillan volcano, Chile

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      It’s not very exotic but my favorite place was a small island off the east coast of Canada where some feral pigs were living. The had been ‘production animals’ who had escaped and were now living wild. We were studying their behaviour (to see if they reverted back to some wild behaviours not possible in captivity – they did!). But it was beautiful, quiet and peaceful – a great atmosphere to be working in 🙂

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