• Question: What is something that surprised u about science

    Asked by tern532stag6 on 11 Nov 2025.
    • Photo: Pete Webb

      Pete Webb answered on 11 Nov 2025:

      It’s that physicists agree that the Standard Model of matter, i.e., how atomic and sub-atomic particles combine, is wrong! It is inadequate to explain what matter really is but we have nothing better, and what is even more surprising is that we might never understand it. Now that’s at the atomic scale. At the scale of the entire universe, we have very sophisticated instruments and we’ve made some stunning observations of planets and galaxies, but we still fail to understand the relationship between matter and energy and consequently have to invent the terms “dark matter” and “dark energy” to make our equations work. Maybe one day we’ll understand it all – let’s hope so!

    • Photo: Sandra Robertson

      Sandra Robertson answered on 11 Nov 2025:

      That at school we are taught each of the topics chemistry, physics and biology individually, as 3 very different subjects, but in real life very rarely do you use one individually. My work is neither chemistry or biology, it is a combination of both. It then also takes physics to bring the automation required in the analysers I use on a daily basis. To try to do one without the other would be virtually impossible in medical diagnostics. The human body is a very complex machine which requires a bit of everything from the sciences when it starts to go wrong, before a diagnosis can be made and a treatment plan put in place.

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