• Question: do your guniea pigs like cheese and do you take them on walks?? Who is your favourite scientist of all time?? thanks

    Asked by sophiehoward to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 9 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Joanna Giles

      Joanna Giles answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      I don’t have guinea pigs! I have a dog… he likes cheese and he goes on walks.

      My favourite scientist…that’s really difficult. There are so many that I admire so I will have to give you a top 5!

      5 – I really like (and have been lucky enough to meet!) Sir Professor Robert Winston. He does such an amazing job of communicating science and making it so understandable and interesting for everyone.
      4 – Marie Curie – discovered radioactivity and two elements – but sadly died from cancer because of it.
      3 – Albert Einstein – with a Nobel prize and a huge impact on science….he still couldn’t count his money!
      2 – Charles Darwin – He was British and introduced Evolution to change biology forever.
      1 – Watson and Crick – As a team they discovered the structure of DNA almost 60 years ago. They have revolutionised genetics and biology allowing us to understand how DNA works.

      Who is your favourite?

    • Photo: Louise Stanley

      Louise Stanley answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      Hmm, do my guinea pigs like cheese? Not really sure as I have never fed them cheese! They do however, LOVE green vegetables, in particular celery and cucumber. They live inside so their walks consist of running round my living room! My favourite scientist is Rosalind Franklin as she was essential in the work leading up to discovering the structure of DNA but is unfortunately over looked by the two guys Watson and Crick as she died before the Nobel prize was awarded. She was also extremely unusual at that time as very few women were able to work in science. But we all really know how clever she was!

    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 10 Nov 2012:

      My all time favourite scientist is Richard Feynman. He was a quantum physicist who won the Nobel prize. One important thing he did was discover ways of making the complex maths much easier using special diagrams that are now named after him. He was also very eccentric, picked locks, cracked safes and played bongo drums! There are some great books about his life.

      The first time he gave a seminar (when he was a PhD student) there were four of the World’s most famous scientists sitting in the audience (including Albert Einstein), but once Feynman started talking about his work he forgot his nerves and was just excited about talking science. Every time I felt nervous about giving a seminar I think of this and it makes me feel better.

      And sorry – never fed a guinea pig cheese…though my children love it!

    • Photo: Marcus Wilson

      Marcus Wilson answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      My guinea pigs are Yeast. Luckily they much prefer the stuff that goes into making beer and bread, which is a lot cheeper than cheese.

      my favourite scientist is a little known guy called Peter Mitchell. He (almost single-handedly) how our cells make most of our energy and why we need oxygen.

      apart from all that he seemd like a bit of a character. He inherited a lot of money and got fed up with being ordered around, so decided to build his ow n workplace. For his holidays every year he flew himself, a couple of female friends and his rolls royce to far away lands and drink…. and then he won the nobel prize!

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