Anne-Marie Glynn (Ireland)
| I'm Anne-Marie from Ireland and I moved to do research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany almost three years ago. |  |
At school I was interested in a wide range of subjects, so choosing a career was rather difficult. To postpone the decision I opted to study biotechnology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, as it included business and French in addition to a diverse range of scientific topics.
After receiving my degree, I was offered a job in a hospital lab checking patient samples to check if they had cancer or other diseases. However, I realised that I preferred learning in-depth about a topic, so that I and others could really understand what was going on.
That's one of the great things about science. There are so many fascinating topics but only 24 hours in each day, so scientists write about what they discover to explain to others about it. Then other scientists try to discover additional things. Bit by bit we can complete the entire story together - and although this can be a long process, at the end of the day it's rewarding to have been part of elucidating something completely novel.
I'm working in an area called cryo-electron tomography - guess you haven't heard of that before?! It's basically photography in three dimensions - not like a movie but a photograph that you can enter into to explore not just the areas at the front but also deep into the image. You can twist them around and view it from different sides to see things that have never been seen before. Really small things can be seen in this way with 50 000 times magnification!
Sometimes I joke with my friends that I spend my days watching diamonds - but in a way it's true. Our samples need to be cut into very small pieces and the only substance strong enough to do this is precious diamond. It's very sharp, so it's a little different to the diamond in your mother's ring. Following this, I use a microscope and a computer to study the sample, and I paint different areas to make it easier for other people to understand the images. (Our microscope can only make black and white pictures.)
Working in science is excellent if you enjoy travelling. Think back to how different people can be if you go abroad on holidays. Now imagine working with people from different cultures, with different hobbies and languages, and them becoming your friends. In general you can have the opportunity to travel all over the world to explain your work to other scientists. In addition to the international atmosphere, I am extremely fortunate to work in an institute where we have famous scientific speakers come every week to share their ideas.
Although we have busy days, scientists also know how to have fun. I'm lucky to have good friends to hang out with, whether by the riverside, going for a cycle or watching a film.