What is the most interesting thing you’ve learnt about the science you study?

Question: What is the most interesting thing you've learnt about the science you study?
- Keywords:
  interest,
  study
Asked by anon-255457 on 9 Jun 2020. This question was also asked by anon-257236.
- Steve Thackeray answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  That’s a really great question, Omar! I am a freshwater ecologist – I research the plants and animals that live underwater in our lakes and reservoirs. I think the most interesting thing I learnt is that, underwater, there are seasons, just like there are on dry land. However, underwater seasons aren’t about when trees grow leaves, when flowers appear, and when the birds migrate back to breed. Underwater, it is more about changes in the way lake water mixes, how algae and microscopic animals grow at certain times of year, and fish and amphibians spawning at certain times. By studying long records of these things, my team have been able to show that climate change is affecting underwater seasons (and dry land ones), making some of these natural events happen earlier in the year than they used to.
- Luke Hillary answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  I work on viruses in soils which scientists know very little about. I ran an experiment where I found over 3,000 different viruses that nobody had ever seen before. Most of them infect fungi or bacteria living in the soil and we have no idea what they do!
- Helen Roy answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  That’s a fantastic question and really got me thinking! Everything about ecology is interesting! I am fascinated by the interactions amongst species – so called ecological networks. I have been interested by the thought that we should be as concerned about the extinction of interactions as we are about the extinction of species. That means that when the number of individuals of a declining species becomes low then important interactions also diminish – for example declines in the number of pollinating insects result in reductions in pollination because there aren’t so many insects around to visit the flowers.
  
  I am intrigued by the ways in which the natural world is so interconnected – and find it incredibly interesting to think about one species and all the connections it has with other species. Charles Darwin called this a “tangled bank” and he wrote very beautifully “It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us.”
- Sarah Morgan answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  Great question! I had a great time reading the answers.
  I love to learn new things and the weirder the better! I work with parasites which are animals that live on or inside of other animals. Some parasites can control the minds of other animals, some parasites can change the physical appearance of other animals, but then most fascinating thing I think about parasites is how important they are to the food chain! By controlling the mind or appearance of prey animals they make it easier for predators to find and eat them! For example, Toxoplasma gondii makes rats LOVE the smell of cat wee. That means that the rats go and hang out near cats where they get eaten. In a tiny little crustacean called daphnia, a parasite makes the daphnia grow orange spots making it a lot easier for predators to see and eat!
- anon answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  Im currently studying renewable materials – I loved finding out that we can make surfactants (cleaning / foaming ingredients ) from sugar ! That shows how important understanding the chemistry really is, and go be constantly looking for better alternatives for the planet
- Josh Wolstenholme answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  Really good question Omar, I think for me it’s the interdependency between different processes at all scales. In river science, the micro scale (things like single grains of sediment moving) impacts the catchment scale (100s of km^2) and we still don’t understand how all of it works!
- Ricardo González-Gil answered on 9 Jun 2020: last edited 9 Jun 2020 10:26 am
  
  Hi Omar! The most interesting thing I’ve learnt is that phytoplankton in the oceans (marine microalgae) are extremely important for the rest of the marine life despite being so tinny. They’re are as important as plants for terrestrial life. When phytoplankton accumulate a lot in the oceans, these accumulations are so big that you can even see them from space! Despite their importance, we still don’t know a lot of things about how and when phytoplankton abundance changes. This makes this science field very interesting and challenging.
- Alec Christie answered on 9 Jun 2020:
  
  I’m going to be cheeky and talk about the two most interestings things I’ve learnt – one from when I first went to university, and one when I went on to do more advanced research.
  
  When I was a younger university student, I carried out a project to show where guillemots (seabirds with chocolate feathers and a white belly – https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/guillemot/) go during the winter and early spring. Amazingly I found that if you collected washed up guillemots from beaches (unfortunately some die during winter storms) and looked at the chemicals in their feathers, you can work out where they have been and what they ate for lunch. So even though these birds had sadly died, they helped us to better protect the rest of their species in the future.
  
  Now I’m a bit of an older student, I don’t do field work like many researchers do – instead I essentially sit at a desk and collect data from the internet. That may sound boring, but it lets me study wildlife on a more global scale. I look at where the gaps are in the scientific information that tells us the best ways to protect wildlife (like putting up bird boxes, or planting wildflower seeds). The most interesting thing I found out was that we don’t actually know how best to protect wildlife in many places outside the UK and USA. Luckily I also found that we can translate and use the scientific information that is written in non-English languages (like Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, French) to help us fill these gaps in our knowledge – so translating scientific information into other languages is super important!
- Rachel Meacock answered on 10 Jun 2020:
  
  I studied marine biology with a focus on marine mammals and the local perceptions of Amazon River dolphins was a very interesting topic. This particular dolphin is known as a malevolent trouble maker to local settlements, who believe they will sink fishing boats, drown people for fun, and even transform into men to enter villages and seduce women.
  
  Local opinions of animal populations is a very important topic in conservation biology that needs to be handled carefully. Those that suffer from particular prejudices are often the hardest to manage.
- Ana Filipa Palmeirim answered on 11 Jun 2020:
  
  This was a deep question! I am a ecologist and conservationist, so I am continuously learning about the importance of taking care of our environment so we can ensure biodiversity persists while we all have a better quality of life.