Question: Have either of you met any of the scientists you are/were competing against?

Paul Roche answered on 25 Jun 2010:

Do you mean in this competition? In that case, no, I don’t think any of us have ever met – we work in different places and in different research areas, so there are very few opportunities to meet up unfortunately. Scientists tend to go to meetings with other scientists in their particular research area, so we don’t often mix with other areas (e.g. astronomers go to astronomy meetings, where you would not expect to find bio-sciences people).

If Mark wins, he will use the money to go to the annual British Association meeting, which I have been to a few times – that is one of the few meetings for all sciences, but it is very big (many hundreds of people attend each year). Maybe I’ll see him there, it would certainly be nice to actually meet as many of the other people involved in “I’m a Scientist” as possible, as we all share a common interest in helping make science more interesting and exciting.

Maybe whoever wins can buy everyone else a drink?!