FAQ for Sanger scientists

What kind of questions will I get?

It can be absolutely anything – moderators will take out clearly nonsensical, or gratuitously rude questions, but that leaves a big field!

Many questions will fall into the following categories:

About you – what you like doing in you spare time, what is your favourite food?
About being a scientist – did you always want to study science, do you have a social life if you’re a scientist?!
About your research – what you do at the Sanger Institute, will your work impact on the students?
Completely random – science questions on anything and everything!

Some very common questions asked in past events are:

Variations on, ‘What made you want to be a scientist?’ (this is the most popular question by far)
Will the world end in 2012?
Will X give me cancer?
Which came first the chicken or the egg?

DO NOT feel you need to be up all night on google to answer questions way out of your area. Although remember, you’ll know more than most of the students. Answer what you feel you can, but it’s fine to say you don’t know. You can suggest who they should ask, or how they could try to find out.

A cautionary tale. Last year two scientists ignored our advice to say ‘I don’t know’, googled the answer to one question, found the same spoof site, didn’t realise the information was nonsense and repeated it in their answers. I think they must have been rushing, because it was pretty obviously nonsense if you thought about it. I hope I don’t have to say this, but use your critical faculties if you’re going outside your area and want to avoid looking silly.

What do I do about problem questions, or ones I’m worried about?

There’s some examples below, with our advice, but if in doubt do ask, it’s what we’re here for!

‘Are you gay?’

This is quite a common question. Sometimes, doubtless, the student is just trying to be cheeky. But they could be a young person struggling with their sexuality and trying to start a conversation with a non-threatening adult about it. Because we’ve no way of knowing the difference, we will always approve this question.

We recommend you’re as honest as you feel comfortable with in your answer. And bear in mind that whatever the motivation of the original questioner, there will certainly be gay teens who read your answer.

Questions about sex and relationships

If the question is relatively scientific, then answer as you would on any other topic – sex isn’t something to be ashamed of.

We won’t approve personal question which are inappropriately intrusive, but you may get things like, ‘Do you remember your first kiss?’, or, ‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’

It’s possible, but extremely unlikely, you’ll get more personal questions where students are asking for your advice about their own lives. If you do, answer in a friendly, reassuring way, but remember you are not a trained sex and relationships educator. It’s probably a good idea to refer them to accessible but reliable information (we recommend Bish’s website) and if appropriate, suggest they speak to a trusted adult or their doctor.

Bullying

It’s very rare, but we occasionally get questions about bullying. Refer students to accessible but reliable information (we recommend Bullying UK) and suggest they speak to a trusted adult, if appropriate. If there seems reason for concern we will alert the teacher.

What’s your moderation policy for questions?

All questions are moderated before they are sent to you, in order to strike a balance between making your lives easier as scientist participants and giving students the chance to ask real questions.

Moderators will take out:

Duplicate questions, but allow through similar questions which make slightly different points.

Rude or offensive questions, but allow challenging and irreverent, but friendly, questions.

Moderators will allow questions which may be unclear – you can start dialogues with students to clarify them.

How do the live chats work?

A few minutes before the chat booking you should go to the CHAT page in your zone and the chatroom will open.

Live chats are text only, a bit like MSN or google chat. You don’t need any special software or anything, just your computer and access to the internet.

Schools will sometimes take a few minutes to turn up, as the teacher is briefing the students, handing out cards, etc. Chats are are booked in advance by the teacher through the Sanger Institute.

How do I embed videos from YouTube in my profile?

To embed a video from YouTube, or individual photos from a Flikr account, you’ll need to use the embed shortcode around the link URL:

Paste in the URL of the video;
Make sure the URL is not a link. It should not be underlined. If it is, click the link once to make it active then click the break link icon in the toolbar (it looks like a broken chain);
Put (embed) before the link and (/embed) after it but use [square brackets] in place of the brackets.

Do I need to do any IT checks?

No, not really. The site’s very simple. It uses HTML and some JavaScript. We may use Java to run the chat page, but no Flash and no plug ins. It uses cookies. It has been tested on all major browsers (even, shudder, IE6) and should be fine on machines running Windows, MacOS or Linux.

How do I get in touch?

Please get in touch if you’ve got any questions not covered here, or you need help with anything.

If you have questions for the Public Engagement team at the Sanger Institute please email pubengage@sanger.ac.uk or call 01223 496997.

If you have technical questions about the site please email Rosie at admin@iasuk.ddev.site, or call 01225 869413. We’re here to help!