Question: what did you want to be when you were a kid?

Michael Schubert answered on 29 Nov 2023:

All sorts of things! I wanted to be a scientist, of course, but also a doctor, a writer, an actor, a dentist, an astronaut, a pilot, and a number of other things. I think everyone changes their mind a lot as they grow up and their interests change.

I didn’t always know what kind of scientist I wanted to be. I liked palaeontology, but also chemistry, genetics, zoology, botany, medicine, molecular biology, microbiology, the forensic disciplines, and many more. I couldn’t even make up my mind in university, so I studied lots of different subjects – all of the ones I mentioned above, plus immunology, pathology, biochemistry, oncology, geography, geology, mathematics, and others – which has been a big help to me when trying to communicate big ideas in science.