What is your favorite area of science?

[Goldie]

I love science... well, most of it. I always did well in classes, and I ended up working as a large animal vet tech for several years, but truly, I didn't follow my love of it and make it my profession. I often wish I had.

I love biology and, having assisted (and more) during many horse, cattle and other exotic animal surgeries, I think I would have made a great human surgeon. I love surgery. I love cutting things open to see what's inside. I enjoy being able to fix something / someone and see them alive and doing better in the days and weeks after. Many people think that's just gross, but that's one reason why I think I would have been a good surgeon.

How about you? What is your flavor of science?

[nygreenguy]

Plant systematics is my first choice. I love the relationships and taxonomy.

Next would be evo/devo, evolutionary development.

Im also a huge fan of theoretical physics!

[BioBeing]

Right now, any area of science that relates to homebrewing :drunk:

Also love neurobiology. What is going on inside our brains?

[Ray Moscow]

Lately it's been evolutionary biology for me, but I'm still a novice taking basic courses and reading for fun.

Eventually I want to read more in geology and astronomy.

Practically speaking I should read more chemisty, since it's closer to my actual work.

[BWE]

I love science... well, most of it. I always did well in classes, and I ended up working as a large animal vet tech for several years, but truly, I didn't follow my love of it and make it my profession. I often wish I had.

I love biology and, having assisted (and more) during many horse, cattle and other exotic animal surgeries, I think I would have made a great human surgeon. I love surgery. I love cutting things open to see what's inside. I enjoy being able to fix something / someone and see them alive and doing better in the days and weeks after. Many people think that's just gross, but that's one reason why I think I would have been a good surgeon.

How about you? What is your flavor of science?I was in love with the sea when I went in for marine sciences, (part oceanography and mostly marine ecology with enough biology to fill out the forms.) But I'm a little more of a forest guy these days. Rivers, mountains, I'm quieter than I used to be.

Sorry, got carried away there. :p


it was is and always will be ecology.

[BWE]

Lately it's been evolutionary biology for me, but I'm still a novice taking basic courses and reading for fun.

Eventually I want to read more in geology and astronomy.

Practically speaking I should read more chemisty, since it's closer to my actual work.

fake it. just Remember whether the water goes in first or the acid... :)

[Uthgar the Brazen]

I love astronomy and physics, with an increasing interest in evolutionary biology.

Unfortunately, being absolutely wretched in mathematics, I can only get so far into something before having to stop, smile and nod. :(

[nygreenguy]

I was in love with the sea when I went in for marine sciences, (part oceanography and mostly marine ecology with enough biology to fill out the forms.) But I'm a little more of a forest guy these days. Rivers, mountains, I'm quieter than I used to be.

Sorry, got carried away there. :p


it was is and always will be ecology.

Im double majoring in ecology. Actually, many students at my school do this because it is an ecology school. Even our gen-eds are taught with an ecological edge. For example, for english we have "Writings of great naturalists" and for history we have "Natural resources in american history".

Its pretty cool.

[Goldie]

I am one of those strange trivia people who know a little bit about many things...enough so that people ask, "How the hell do you know that?" Because my brain seizes on these little gems, and I end up saying "Actually, the bla-bla-bla-bla is often bla-bla-bla..." but, never enough to be an expert on the subject.
Two of my brothers were genius science nerds that never put their brains into practice. I was the social one, who was a closet nerd. But, life led me astray.
Yet... had I been dealt another hand... i would have made a great doctor / surgeon...this much i know. I can keep up with the best of them with absolutely no education. If I had been educated...I'd have been dangerous ;)

[VoxRat]

Different days, different favorites. My "first love" was chemistry. I think most days it's still my favorite. But I can see a lot of biology as an extension of chemistry.

[Garnet]

I took an anthropology class in college just to fill my science requirement.

I loved that class! I was so fascinated that I came withing a centimeter of changing my major.

Sadly, I don't remember much about it now. College was a long time and many dead brain cells ago.

[BWE]

Im double majoring in ecology. Actually, many students at my school do this because it is an ecology school. Even our gen-eds are taught with an ecological edge. For example, for english we have "Writings of great naturalists" and for history we have "Natural resources in american history".

Its pretty cool.

Aldo Leopold, Ebenezer Howard and Paolo Soleri are all inspirations for me. I did a stint at Arcosanti. It's a life changing experience.

[Redshirt]

I don't think I have a favourite in particular. But what I find most interesting is the stuff that takes into account the "big questions" and/or defies "common sense". Stuff like black holes, evolution, quantum gravity, relativity, the history of the earth, quantum mechanics and Big Bang cosmology. One of my favourite popular science books is The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss.

[Garnet]

Aldo Leopold, Ebenezer Howard and Paolo Soleri are all inspirations for me. I did a stint at Arcosanti. It's a life changing experience.

When were you at Arcosanti? Uh...does the name Dolores Colangelo ring a bell?

[Brianna]

I suck at it but A&P.

[ck1]

The very first thing in science that grabbed my attention was genetics and old-fashioned Mendelian genetics in particular. Then in college I discovered retroviruses.

So I did my Ph.D. in bio with an emphasis (and thesis) in genetics, and went to a retrovirus lab for a post-doc.

So I was in genomics before the genome project, and retroviruses before the discovery of HIV! Perfect timing!

Still work on retroviruses from a genetics and evolutionary genetics viewpoint.

What could be more interesting than that!

[Master Taran]

The physics of explosions.

[Schneibster]

Two that I can't choose between: physics, particularly high energy particle physics and relativity, and neurobiology and cognitive physiology.

[Lisa0315]

Astronomy and Physics! Don't know a hell of a lot about either, but I am fascinated by both.

Lisa

[Eudaimonist]

Physics, geology, and cosmology.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[Oolon Colluphid]

Do I need to answer this question? :D

[Uthgar the Brazen]

The physics of explosions.

God, I miss lab days.

[Goldie]

The microscopic world... and parasites! :D

[Master Taran]

God, I miss lab days.aYup. :evil:

[sohy]

Neuroscience fascinates me even though I don't understand a lot of it. It's the one area of science that I still enjoy learning. Perhaps it's because I've been working with people with dementia for the past ten years. If you're including the social sciences, I'd have to say anthropology and primatology. I'm always trying to figure out what makes us big brained apes tick.

[Steviepinhead]

Lots of good -- and different -- responses! Most of which I could second, heh-heh!

I don't make my living in any scientific field, though the field in which I do does require the careful evaluation of evidence and the ability to construct a logical argument.

As a li'l kid, I was fortunate enough to have my parents pay to sign me up for bookclubs: the old Random House "All About" series was one of them, so that initially exposed me to a wide range of science. I can specifically remember books on Einstein and relativity, on the Ice Ages, on astronomy, and paleontology... Loved 'em!

There's a passage in The Two Towers where Gandalf is riding across Rohan on Shadowfax, carrying Pippin along. They get to talking, and -- in a paragraph that's always resonated for me -- Pippin tells Gandalf how he wants to know about "everything" (which, in Middle-Earthian terms is expressed somewhat differently than in mere terrestrial ones). I'm not real smart, but in Pippen-esque fashion I've always been very widely curious, without ever becoming a master of any one field...

This innate curiosity was steered in the scientific direction by some good grade-school teachers. I remember my fifth-grade teacher having us do simple experiments with sugar and salt crystals, saturation of solutions, and so forth. (She showed us how carbonization turns sugar crystals to a black-brown crackled gunk; I had volunteered the pan, since my house was a diagonal block from the school, and I guess my teacher had "forgotten" to bring her own -- I got in a little trouble with my mom when she saw the pan that evening [fortunately, she was studying to be a grade school teacher herself].) My fourth grade teacher had a little device of some kind, enclosed in the same kind of half-globe that snow-globes are made of, in which the impact of photons made the little thingy spin.

When my mom was student teaching, I got to play hooky a couple of times and accompany her to "her" classroom. I remember a map of the back side of the moon, based on the (at that time, extremely recent) Soviet satellite's excursions, which I found fascinating.

My sixth grade teacher had us memorize most of the major bones of the body (we skipped a couple of the lesser-known internal bones of the skull; I don't think we learned all of the wrist bones...). This stuck with me and is still helpful today! She also taught me that horse-butts are round in cross-section (I was the designated drawer of horses for some sort of state history mural we were working on).

I was good in math until I hit an algebra teacher who didn't like me. I shouldn't have let this throw me off track, but I did, and never got past simple trigonometry into calculus. As was said by someone else above, the lack of basic maths and statistics is a deficiency that haunts me still -- and may have had some impact on my career choice.

Er, moving right along...

I took an anthropology BA in college and was fortunate to be an undergraduate TA in both a general cultural anthro class and in an early primate sociocultural class (the latter taught by a woman who was a colleague/correspndent of Rumbaugh and Goodall). So one of my loves remains cultural anthro, now focused primarily on the art, culture, and archaeology of the native north americans. My ex-wife took a Ph.D in cultural anthropology, and we lived among native people while she did her fieldwork. I have had the distinct privilege of studying with NW coast art historians Bill Holm and Robin Wright.

This NW focus has broadened a bit in recent years, and now includes the SW, Plateau, and Mississippian cultures (I vaguely recall visiting some mound sites in Georgia with my mom when I was a tyke...).

But i've been a general science reader since those grade school "All About" days, and I also love the intersection of cosmology, physics, and astronomy.

Obviously, to those of you who I've been hanging with now for the last few years, I'm also fascinated by the intersection of evolutionary biology, evo-devo, geology, paleontology, systematics (ahem, though until recently I just thought of this as the history of life), and the like.

The geology-tectonics aspect of this has been enriched and spurred on by one of my other little avocations -- mountaineering, hiking, backpacking. I've explored much of the Washington and Oregon Cascades, have hiked from rim-to-river of the Grand Canyon and back twice, and have explored mountain and canyon country in the SW, Rockies, California, and Wyoming.

The pleasure and information-rich environment resulting from "sharing" some of our favorite internet fora with the sciencey likes of deadman, SteveF, dlx2, Per, MartinB, Febble, ck1, VoxRat, Glenn Morton, ... is really indescribable.

Not to mention the interested layfolk like myself, and various architects, paralegals, and other uneducated louts, who I'm proud to number myself among!

[Joykins]

biology, anthropology, sociology, hm. Astronomy and physics. Not chemistry so much.

I'm good at math and it just made me less likely to pay attention to the sciencey bits when I was in school because I'd just apply the math and get the answers :dunno:

[Brother Daniel]

I studied physics, mostly. My PhD is in particle theory. Unfortunately, I've been out of that field for long enough to forget a hell of a lot. :(

As I age, I find biology more and more interesting. In my younger days I thought it was dead boring.

Deep down, I'm really more of a mathematician than a scientist.

[Worldtraveller]

A little bit of everything to be honest. I'm good at math (I'm an engineer by day.), so I can usually follow enough at at least a cursory level to understand it.

I love evolutionary bio, and up until late high school, I was split between going into marine bio (I had just gotten my SCUBA certification) and engineering. Eventually, my math skills and a comparison of payscales convinced me to go the engineering route. I like it well enough, since I'm actually working in the aerospace industry (my other big love is airplanes), but I find myself reading lots of other topics.

As far as understanding other fields, geology, particularly plate tectonics, really makes sense to me. Probably because I'm used to dealing with stress tensors on a daily basis.

[Notta]

Microbiology, particularly medical microbiology. I was en route to becoming a doctor, then an epidemiologist, and got side-tracked by marriage and babies. I taught biology, chemistry, integrated science, life science, physical science, and general science for almost 15 years. I liked every branch of science except botany and astronomy.

While I'm best at microbiology and biochemistry, I like reading about advances in neurobiology and neurochemistry most of all.

[Worldtraveller]

I also love astronomy...part of my passion for rocket science. Can't believe I forgot to include that in the list.

[crazyfingers]

Astronomy and cosmology. I have a nice Mead 6" reflector on a clock drive mount. I mainly just look at the fun stuff and not too seriously. But I enjoy it.

I get Astronomy and Sky&Telescope magazines and read them cover to cover. They are my bedtime reading - the only real paper magazines that I get. I wish that they came out weekly.

I enjoy reading about E/C debates but it's astronomy that has my heart.

[nygreenguy]

I liked every branch of science except botany and astronomy.



..... :mad:

Actually, I used to always say "ill take any science class but botany" than I had this one professor which changed it all and now look at me! This is why I respect teachers so much. They can have such an impact on peoples lives!

[tjakey]

I love astronomy and physics, with an increasing interest in evolutionary biology.

Unfortunately, being absolutely wretched in mathematics, I can only get so far into something before having to stop, smile and nod. :(

Me too...and me too!

[dancer_rnb]

microbiology and paleontology. (so why am I an electrical engineer? money:bang:)

[Berthold]

My interests are fairly widespread, though there's a kind of diffuse focus on anything related to life.

What I do for a living is analytical chemistry applied to ecology; the latter one is learned-on-the-job, and has more to do with substance flows, physico-chemical conditions of life etc., than with what is in vernacular commonly meant by "ecology" ;).

[Preno]

Theoretical physics (esp. relativity) and linguistics (pretty much anything from sociolinguistics to phonetics, except for Chomskianism). Also of any of the myriad interdisciplinary fields that try to meaningfully apply mathematical models to human social behaviour.

In the long term, I'd like to learn a bit about geology/geophysics and mathematical biology, but right now my knowledge of them is unfortunately nil.

[Tenebrae]

I'm having to do microbiology and anatomy and physiology for nursing and really enjoying both of them.

I think medical microbiology would be my favourite though

[Zebulon]

Like some others, I'm more of a dilettante when it comes to science (actually, learning in general). I like to know some about a lot of stuff, more so than studying one subject in depth. My recent fascinations have been psychology and cultural anthropology.

[Zygote]

I'd have to say general biology, although genetics, ecosystems and neurobiology capture my interest more than most other aspects.

I have a BS in Bio Sci (yes, a BS in BS) that I haven't ever used for employment. It's great for general background info. No regrets there.

[Goldie]

I'd have to say general biology, although genetics, ecosystems and neurobiology capture my interest more than most other aspects.

I have a BS in Bio Sci (yes, a BS in BS) that I haven't ever used for employment. It's great for general background info. No regrets there.

lol@ BS in BS!

I know some people who would fit that description!:p

[Matty]

i'm a bit of a biological jack of all trades. Background in marine nutrient cycling, and haematological medical research, worked in oxidative stress, and these days i do laser mediated biological imaging. And some lecturing.

most of the non work + non fiction books i read are astrophysics (Saga, Rees, Smolin, Hawking, that kind of equation lacking more approachable stuff) so i guess i'm an interested amateur in that sphere, and the same goes with the evolutionary bio though i have more basis in that area obviously.

[ofro]

I happen to like cell physiology (making a living with it), by just about any physiology is fun (except the brain).

[Goodchild]

Astrophysics and anything closely related. What goes on 'out there' is so incredibly fascinating to me!

Biology, tbh, is pretty dull to me. Sure, the ToE is fascinating in what it tells us about life but discussing it and other biology-related topics just sets me to snoozing.

Reading discussions of biology with creotards just gives me a head-meets-brick-wall sensation. I have to admit, though, Richard Dawkins talking biology is always fascinating :) "Growing up in the Universe" is one of my favorite videos to watch every now and again.

[Sodong]

My first love, so to speak, was quantum physics. I remember when I was about 18 being fascinated with it and reading a copy of Schroedinger's Cat that I bought and several others. I don't remember what they were now. I think I might have understood only a small portion of what was written in those books. Five years later I had a baby, then another two years later and that interest got put on the back burner. Later on, I went to college where I studied environmental science, which is mostly organic and analytical chemistry as Berthold notes. I'm not so fond of synthetic chem though. Also loved the spectroscopy, chromatography and instrumentation courses, microbiology, biochem and toxicology.

On to university for another 4 years for some more chemistry - aqueous geochemistry (loved it but found it almost frustrating and difficult until right after the final exam when it all sort of fell into place for me), cell bio and anthropology (half my major) I wasn't terribly fond of archeology, but I listened because the professor was oh so good to look at (and he thought I was interested in his pottery shards!) :evil: I did like some of the cultural anthro and linguistics but most of all the physical anthropology.

So, oddly enough, I now work in biophysics and imaging and I can't imagine that anything could be more interesting. I'm privileged to work with some of the world's top biomedical researchers and I learn something new there every day. I also get to mess with really cool lasers. :D

[Lugubert]

Where do I even start? All of you seem to equate science with natural sciences, so I’ll start there. From my present me, I would after high school (that’s 1962) have gone into biochemical analysis. It didn’t exist as a subject of its own at the time. I went for more general Biochem, and still love it. I should perhaps have tried more of analytical Biochem, if it had been more obviously available at the time. I loved GC, and was awed by MS.

On other science, had I had the financial means and a lot more of drive, I might very well have chosen some field in linguistics in the late 1960’s and by now been enjoying a professorship in some arcane area. Ancient Semitic, or Sinitic languages, language universals… Still, great material for leisure time.

I don’t complain; after sufficiently many years of hardship of different kinds, I now combine my tech/med and language skills as a professional translator in a way that enables me, 65, to go for most whims of mine. Favourite possible future areas of study include

Tibetan religions (modern and ancient, including relevant languages)
Sikh religion (starting with a summer course, 2010, in Sikh religion and culture, and Panjabi, in Chandigarh)
Old Testament exegesis (digging even more into OT Hebrew; one full academic year so far)
Language universals (But I don’t speak or even read all of the 120 languages of my library. Yet.)

And I really should spend a lot more time on spoken Hindi and Chinese. Like, a year in Chengdu together with an ugly, not to distract me, and immensely patient old hag teaching me spoken Chinese, or a similar year in Delhi for Hindi/Urdu. After only a total of one month in Delhi, my list of things to investigate there next time is several pages.