Question: What do other scientists think of your work?

Luke Fountain answered on 15 May 2025:

This is a very good question… Science is all about communication. As a scientist, you have to be able to communicate your work, usually through writing scientific papers and presenting talks at conferences, to show scientists (and others) why your work is important. Writing proposals for new ideas is sometimes even more important so that we can secure funding to carry out further research – it is really important here to stress why our work is important.

When writing papers and proposals, we often go through a process called peer review, where other scientists in our field read our work and provide feedback to ensure that it is valid and we have taken the right approach – sometimes there is not much to say, and at other times, reviewers have LOTS to say about your work, but it depends. Overall though, this makes the quality of the science that is carried out and published better.

Conferences are another great place for scientists to talk about their work, and in my field at least, most scientists are very supportive of my work and that of others in the field – we are all excited about the field, and any science that moves it forward is worth discussing.