• Question: if you could be another scientist for a day, who would it be?

    Asked by amygreenee to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 10 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by eviokido, lubylulo12, catherines12, mazzasciencekid, .
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I would be Andrew Wakefield. He is the doctor who was struck off the medical register for the fraudualent MMR vaccine study where he claimed it gives you autism. So many people still believe it and its killing children who get diseases they could have been vaccinated against. If I could be him I would make a media sensation by admitting that the study was unethical (he always defended it even though everyone else on the paper agreed it was unethical) and hopefully that would help a lot more parents make informed decisions about whether to vaccinate their children.

    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I would like to be one of the professors here at Durham, Judith Howard. She’s an amazing crystallographer and did her PhD working for Dorothy Hodgkin, which I can only imagine was amazing. While she has published thousands of scientific papers, anyone outside of academia will probably not have heard of her, which I find very sad. I always think it is sad that someone who has made such a contribution to advancing scientific knowledge over her whole career can walk down the street unnoticed while a z-list celeb from geordie shore can cause mayhem at the baggage reclaim at Newcastle airport.

    • Photo: Roy Adkin

      Roy Adkin answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Hi Amy,
      I think I would like to be Rosalind Franklin because she was completely ignored when the Nobel prize was awarded to Crick and Watson. She would not have been awarded the Nobel prize because she had passed away; it is not awarded posthumously; but she should have been acknowledged for her work. If I were able to be her for one day (keeping my mind and knowledge…just doing a body swap)…and with the hindsight of history…I would speak up with her voice and make sure she got the recognition she deserves.

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