Question: Do you find being a scientist more compelling then your job as a composer?

Tom Hartley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

I was lucky to get involved in doing music for videos while I was doing my degree. It was a lot of fun, and I still record music at home as a hobby now (and I now have loads of recording equipment that I’ve managed to scrape together over the years). I have a lot of fun with music, and I would have loved to do it for a living, but science is equally enjoyable and I am better at it (there, I’ve admitted it). The funny thing is, both science and music appeal in similar ways – I often have a strong urge to do something creative, and designing new experiments gives me a similar feeling to writing a song.