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Zander
Student
Beaverton, Oregon
1
Question
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What does a day in the life of a animal scientist look like?
I am a high school senior who is trying to get advice on what a day in the life of an animal scientist looks like for one of my classes.
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Dr. Tamara Bittner
Postdoctoral Scholar in Chemical Physiology & Biochemistry
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Portland, Oregon
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Dr. Tamara’s Answer
Hi,
I´m not exactly a animal scientist, but I am a scientist who just started to also work with animals. In general, I would say that a day as a scientist, whether chemist, biologist or animal scientist, is roughly the same, although hard to descibe since every day is a bit different.
I am a chemist who transfered to biology, including animal work. My day normally starts on my computer to check emails. Then I think about what I´ve done the day before, if I have to finish an experiment and/or planned another one for the day. Regardless, I will go to the lab and do that. What this exactly looks like is very hard to describe since there are tons of different experiments in science. It all depends on the exact scientific area, which kind of animals and what question you´re about to answer. This could include surgery on mice, dissection of a rat pancreas, or injections of fluorescent compounds into animals to visualize their effects via an animal imager.
There are always days with tons of work and experiments going on, but sometimes there are days where you have a lot of waiting time, because some experiments include a long incubation time (meaning you start the experiment within a few minutes and then you have to wait until the next day to continue). There are always a lot of hands-on experiments but also quite a bit computer work, including reading papers about your topic, analyzing data, or write a manuscript for your own publication.
I hope I could help you a bit to get an insight into what a day as a (animal) scientist looks like!
I´m not exactly a animal scientist, but I am a scientist who just started to also work with animals. In general, I would say that a day as a scientist, whether chemist, biologist or animal scientist, is roughly the same, although hard to descibe since every day is a bit different.
I am a chemist who transfered to biology, including animal work. My day normally starts on my computer to check emails. Then I think about what I´ve done the day before, if I have to finish an experiment and/or planned another one for the day. Regardless, I will go to the lab and do that. What this exactly looks like is very hard to describe since there are tons of different experiments in science. It all depends on the exact scientific area, which kind of animals and what question you´re about to answer. This could include surgery on mice, dissection of a rat pancreas, or injections of fluorescent compounds into animals to visualize their effects via an animal imager.
There are always days with tons of work and experiments going on, but sometimes there are days where you have a lot of waiting time, because some experiments include a long incubation time (meaning you start the experiment within a few minutes and then you have to wait until the next day to continue). There are always a lot of hands-on experiments but also quite a bit computer work, including reading papers about your topic, analyzing data, or write a manuscript for your own publication.
I hope I could help you a bit to get an insight into what a day as a (animal) scientist looks like!
Thank you for your advice. This was very helpful.
Zander