• Question: Hello all, My name is Elton, I come from Lampton School! I would like to ask you all some question's? 1. Do you have any hobbies apart from science? 2. Have any of you're theory's been on the news? 3. Do you have a noble piece prize?

    Asked by eltonknightowenga to Joel, Kristian, Tim, Venus, Zachary on 20 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Tim Hollowood

      Tim Hollowood answered on 20 Nov 2013:


      Hi Elton, (1) I was glad that you noticed that for scientists their job is their hobby….there aren’t too many jobs like that. So when I’m not thinking about black holes, the big bang and all that, I like playing the guitar and mountaineering. (2) I’m afraid that my theories haven’t made the news yet. But I work on string theory which does get mentioned in the media sometimes. (3) I don’t have a Nobel proze not even the physics one…but I’m working on it. That’s the thing about science there are always surprises and I will be very surprised if I win that prize!

    • Photo: Kristian Harder

      Kristian Harder answered on 20 Nov 2013:


      1) Yup. I use almost all of my spare time for construction work. In my house, I have replaced all water pipes, built new bathrooms completely from scratch, built foundations, concrete floor and walls for an extension, did the interior work for a loft conversion, ripped out the staircase, modified the floor structural elements and built a new staircase in a different location, moved my hot water tank and central heating installation to a different place, started replacing the electrical wiring by some high tech power system with computer control, monitoring, safety features etc.
      And I can’t stop talking about it. Sorry. 🙂

      2) Actually on a couple of occasions local news reported about lectures I had given or was about to give for the general public. There even is an interview with me on youtube, with more than 100 views. That means I am almost famous. 🙂 Haha, not really, but I am very flattered anyway. 🙂
      I don’t do theories anyway, I only try to test them with experiments. And I am involved in one of the experiments that recently discovered the Higgs boson. That definitely was all over the news, even though my personal contribution to this discovery is veeery tiny, being just one of 6000 scientists having worked on that.
      Also, there is quite a bit of news coverage in general about the experiments I am working on (CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider) or have worked on before (Dzero experiment at the Tevatron and a few others before that).

      3) No, and I am quite sure I will never get a Nobel prize. Nobel prizes usually go to outstanding individuals, but I am only a member of a big team. The team as a whole is outstanding, but I personally am not.
      Although of course I do my best. 🙂

    • Photo: Zachary Williamson

      Zachary Williamson answered on 21 Nov 2013:


      Hi Elton!

      So, question one. I have a few hobbies other than science. I like to tinker with electronics, I currently have a project where I’m trying to make a digital clock. I also like to try my hand at DIY, badly.

      I’m not a theorist, I’m an experimentalist. So I run experiments that try to verify or disprove theories. I don’t think my experiment’s been in the news much. It sometimes gets mentioned in passing though.

      As for the Nobel Prize, I wish! Nobel prizes are only given to a select few, geniuses who have made great discoveries. I’m only 25 so I’m not quite there yet 🙂

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