Like many students, I found the drudgery of real experiments and the slowness of progress a complete shock, and at my low points I contemplated other alternative careers including study of the philosophy or sociology of science.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I had been interested in science from when I was very young, but after a disastrous summer lab experience in which every experiment I tried failed, I decided on graduating from college that I was not cut out to be a scientist.
I actually wanted to be a forensic scientist for a while. When I was doing my Standard Grades, three of them were science subjects. The interest in science didn't wear off, but I found other interests.
My first undertaking in the way of scientific experiment was in the field of economics and psychology.
I was rather hopeless at school, but the one subject I seemed to be good at was domestic science.
My latter schooldays and my university days were during the war, when science - physics, in particular - was a very important and glamorous subject. A lot of us felt that if we couldn't get into science, we might try engineering or medicine.
Ever since I was a kid, I've had an enormous interest in the sciences - everything from quantum physics to anthropology.
I very much enjoyed my career in science. I didn't leave science because I was disillusioned, but felt I'd done my bit for it after about twenty-five years.
I come from a working-class background, and I thought I had to be studying something that would get me a job.
I'm a school teacher, and later on, well past my formal education, I became very interested in science.
I almost got a psychology degree, I almost got a philosophy degree. I kept changing it so they couldn't make me graduate. I studied anthropology and eastern religion, epistomology, and astronomy... I took every interesting course I could find for nine years.