• Question: what is your daily routine?

    Asked by indre1997 to Mark, Sarah, Lily, Laura, Paul on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by naomijeffs1, elliesmelly, alexx.
    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      7am get up breakfast
      8am get into the lab, check mail and IAS
      and start experiments – the exact day will differ depending on the experiments that I’m doing that day
      but could involve some pipetting then incubating or some other days sitting using a microscope all day or other days sitting writing up data.
      I leave work around 5-6 ish and then head home or out with friends, to the pub or theatre or such

      During university term I also teach one day a week which means one evening I mark and one afternoon I teach students

      At weekends I often travel to all sorts of places.

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I get up at about 7am, or I’m supposed to. Its usually more like 7.15. I get into work an hour later, log on to my emails and read them while having breakfast.

      I then look at my RSS feeds which allows me to view all the updates from all my favourite web sources in one place. So I check sources like the BBC, New Scientist, Eurekalert and Reuters. I’m looking for any new scientific developments being reported in these places which may have an impact on the environment and therefore the work of the Environment Agency. When I find something that fits the bill I will store the information in a database and write about it.

      On Tuesdays I will publish one of our main communications called ScienceScan (like the name!?), which details these developments to our subscribers. Other days I can be working on scripting videos which describe some emerging issues, giving presentations to people in the organisation, attending meetings about projects I’m working on, putting together briefing papers for senior managers and, at the moment, taking part in schools out reach programmes!

      I finish work at 5, head home, and depending on what day it is, I will then go out to play tennis, or my dance class, or spend the night working on my banjo skills, or simply make dinner and watch some 24.

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I get up, check my email and have breakfast with my husband. I walk to work and form a plan for what to do that day. Sometimes I have phone calls or meetings, sometimes I visit universities or write reports. Evenings I spend with friends and family.

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I get up at 7 during the week, drop off my kids at ~8.10, in the office at ~8.30. I work until about 4.30-5.30 most days (teaching, e-mails, admin paperwork etc.), then head off home. Monday is the only weekday that I don’t really do anything in the evenings, as I do a lot of martial arts (Chinese stuff on Tues and Thurs, judo on Weds and Fri), and after that I’m usually on the computer for an hour or so to catch up on e-mails etc., then off to bed around midnight.

      Weekends I go to the gym on Sat morning, usually take the kids swimming around midday, then various other things on Sat afternoon/evening. Sunday is usually sorting out jobs in the house or garden, generally vegging out and getting ready for the next week…

    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      In experimental particle physics you either do software (writing computer programmes that simulate detectors and physics) or hardware (building and testing detectors).

      I have been developing software for the LHC for the last four years. Before that I was working on hardware development for a neutrino physics project called “super nemo”.

      I spend alot of my day writing code (computer programmes), compiling code (getting it to work on the computer), running code( getting it work with LHC data) and then fixing all the bugs I put in it.

      The rest of the time is spent reading papers wirtten by colleagues and trying to understand them, thinking about ways to improve my analysis techniques and drawing diagrams in order to help me understand the chaos going on inside my brain. And drinking coffee.

      Sometimes I have to go to a meeting, but most of my meetings are video links as I am in London and the people I work with are scattered all over the planet.

      I think I spend at least half of my life on my laptop. I realised this may be an issue when my cat molly started pretending to be a laptop (lying on her back with her big white arms in the air), presumably in order to get some attention.

      So I am thinking of trying to concentrate more on hardware this year.

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