Metallurgist

A Metallurgist is a scientist that studies the physical and chemical behaviour of metals, metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. They investigate and examine the performance of these metals and use them to produce a wide range of useful products. There are different areas of metallurgy, like physical (e.g. studying properties and forms of different metals) and chemical (e.g. looking at chemical properties and transformations of metals), but in practice these roles overlap.

Qualifications:

Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Engineering ( in certain areas).
Relevant degree subjects that could help with getting the job are chemical engineering, materials science and physics. Employers also look for qualities like:

• good communication and presentation skills;
• teamworking;
• business awareness;
• problem-solving;
• innovation;
• leadership;
• initiative, drive and enthusiasm;
• numeracy;
• attention to detail;
• ability to focus on results.

You can gain these qualifications in the University of Auckland and the course takes about three or four years to complete. Helpful subjects to take at school are physics and chemistry.

Bill Bryson- Elemental Matters

The chapter “elemental matters” goes over the history of chemistry, and how it came into existence. it talks about the early stages, being when it was first distinguished as being different to alchemy, and about the famous (or not so famous) scientists and their discoveries. the first person talked about is Hennig Brand who discovered phosphorus in 1675. Then Scheele, with his discoveries of chlorine, fluorine, manganese, barium, molybdenum, tungsten, nitrogen and oxygen, and got credit for none of them. Then Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier who never discovered any elements, but took the discoveries of others and made sense of them. Then Humphry Davy, who discovered potassium, sodium, magnesium,calcium, strontium, and aluminium. It also talks about Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, who came up with the idea of the periodic table. Then it talks about Ernest Rutherford, and his works with radioactive materials.

Bill Bryson - Science Red in Tooth and Claw

Bill Bryson - Science Red in Tooth and Claw

In this chapter I learnt about how scientists analysed and discovered fossilized bones from creatures dated years and years ago.

It all started in 1787 when someone in New Jersey found a thigh bone, which was thought to be from a duckbilled dinosaur, sticking out of a stream bank at Woodbury Creek. At the time they didn't know about dinosaurs so they sent to to an anatomist  call Dr Caspar Wistar. He failed to recognize what the bone was from and missed the chance to be the discoverer of dinosaurs.

In Philadelphia, naturalists started to assemble the bones of a huge elephant-like creature known as 'the great American ingonitum' but was later identified as a mammoth. In their keeness to show the incognitum's ferocity, the naturalists appear to have gotten carried away. They overestimated its size by a scale factor of six and gave it terrifying claws, which actually came from a Megalonyx or a giant ground sloth.

In 1812 at Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast, a young child named Mary Anning found a starnge fossilized sea monster, 17 feet long and is now known as the ichthyosaurus, embedded in the steep, dangerous cliffs along the English Channel. That was the start of a remarkable career as Anning would spend the next thirty-five years gathering fossils, which she sold to visitors. She is commonly belived to be the source of the famous tongue-twister 'She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore'.

In conclusion, scientists spent years trying to discover bones from dinosaurs and other creatures that were fossilized into stone all over America and England.

Bill Bryson - The Stone Breakers

 As far as I know this chapter of Bill Bryson is telling us about the history of geology. It is also telling us about the people themselves whom discovered new theories and ideas on their dispute.

The first person to discover geology was a man by the name of James Hutton. In his time with no rivalry, he found a question he needed an answer to, it was "how slow the shaping of the earth is". Unfortunately, he himself was not able to set it in a written form that people could understand. In his 1795 masterwork, he created the science of geology almost singlehandedly, changed our perspective on the shaping of the earth.

When James Hutton passed away, a man called Charles Lyell was born.  He became a professor of geology at Kings College in London from 1831 to 1833. Also at this time he produced 'the principles of geology,' which elaborated on the thoughts first voiced by James Hutton.
Between James Hutton's time and Lyells, there was another important idea people pondered about and in the end there became two sides, catastrophists and uniformiterains. Catastrophists thought that the earth was shaped by catastrophic events such as flooding and earthquakes. While the others thought it all happened over massive spans of time.
In the end, not one person in this generation could figure out an equation for how many years the earth had existed.

Neurobiologist

What is a Neurobiologist?

A neurologist is a medical doctor or osteopath who has trained in the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system disorders, including diseases of the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles.

What qualifications and training will you need?

It usually takes about 14 years of university-level training to become a neurologist in most countries, as well as passing several national-level certification exams. A person has to complete a medical degree, pass national-level tests to get a medical license, and then take an additional three to four-year residency, which consists of specialized training in neurology.

University

At the University of Otago, Neuroscience is available as a major subject of study for the degrees of Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science with Honours, Master of Science, for the Diploma for Graduates, the Postgraduate Diploma in Science and the Doctor of Philosophy.

Subjects to Take


Biology, Chemistry and pre-med courses.

Kenzie:)

Pharmacologist

Job Description:

Pharmacologists investigate how drugs interact with biological systems. Undertaking in vitro research (using cells or animal tissues) or in vivo research (using whole animals) to predict what effect the drug might have in humans. Pharmacologists aim to understand how drugs operate so they can easily used effectively and safety with no problems. They also conduct research to aid drug discovery and development. Their work involves a high level of collaboration with other scientists.

What it takes:
Pharmacologists must have an advanced degree such as a Ph.D. Students interested in entering the field should take classes in toxicology, chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and microbiology. Pharmacologists must have a strong background in math and science and need to be able to gather, analyze, and understand medical data. Additionally, they should have excellent written and oral communication skills and must be capable of operating medical equipment and other machinery used in research.

Where:

University of Auckland
University of Otago
University of Wellington