In the 10th season of 10 Things to Know About, the RTÉ science show welcomes a new face. Amy Hassett joins series regulars Kathriona Devereux, Jonathan McCrea and Fergus McAuliffe. Here, she tells us a bit more about herself and her love of science.
Amy is originally from Wexford, she is currently a Neuroscience PhD candidate at UCD and kids will already know her from RTÉjr's Let's Find Out.
She says: "Science week provides us with a great opportunity to start having those conversations and getting people interested in science."
Did you always want to be a scientist?
When I was younger, maybe still in Primary School, I remember wanting to be a science teacher - so not necessarily a scientist per se, but I have always wanted to work in science. And I guess explaining science and communicating science isn't actually very far off that.
What was your inspiration?
Well, my mam is an artist, but her dad worked as a scientist for Teagasc in Wexford, and my dad is a pharmacist (like his dad and granddad), so science has always been in the family! When I was a kid I used to read a lot of books about science - big books about "1000 facts you should know" and things like that. I watched a lot of Discovery Kids and documentaries too, so I've always been interested in learning about science, particularly biology and the natural world.
Tell us about your own science career so far?
It somehow feels both very short and very long! I've been in college for the last ten years (fingers crossed I'll finish soon!), first doing a Degree in science, then a Master's in neuroscience and now a PhD in Marine Science/ Neuroscience.
I've enjoyed every bit of it so far, but I have really enjoyed branching out into more science communication-orientated things in the last few years. Now I want to stay in science, but move into stuff that involves getting the public involved in science - citizen science and things like that!
Tell us about working on 10 Things...
It was really a joy to work on the show. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly, and we had a lot of fun filming it. All of our contributors were so generous with their time and were more than happy to answer the 1,001 questions I had for them (on and off camera). Everyone was really enthusiastic about their specific topic of interest and it was lovely to chat with them about it and share that enthusiasm.
How important is Science Week?
Science week is incredibly important, but of course, I'm going to think that! It's a great opportunity to showcase some of the fantastic research that is happening around the country, but also to show how science can and does influence our day-to-day lives. I also think it's great from the perspective of planning for the future.
One of the things that is being talked about more and more within scientific institutions is that we have big challenges coming down the line - protecting the environment, climate change etc - and we really need to think bigger and more deeply about how we address those challenges.
That will involve getting everyone involved- scientists and non-scientists- to come up with solutions and make sure that the solutions we come up with don't disproportionately impact certain groups of people. So that will require more public members to get involved with science, and for scientists to reach out, work with the public and listen and respect their expertise.
Watch 10 Things to Know About Mondays at 8.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
For more on Science Week on RTÉ, see www.rte.ie/scienceweek and visit ww.scienceweek.ie for all the events taking place.
