What drives Australia's Chief Scientist?

Cathy Foley on what fired her enthusiasm.

Transcript

00:00So we're going to cool this down and, um, I'll just, um...

00:05How can you not be enthusiastic about levitating a magnet on a superconductor

00:10or just actually understanding that how does the world work?

00:13You know, why is it our brains work?

00:15Or, you know, why is it good weather today and bad weather tomorrow?

00:19And I think just wanting to, you know, get in there and understand the details,

00:23that's what I find really interesting.

00:25And that's always what's excited me, getting into the bottom

00:27and understanding how does it work.

00:29And what he did was he got helium, you know, the gas we put in balloons?

00:33Yep.

00:34And he passed it through a small tube.

00:36And I want you to do an experiment.

00:37Now, if you go like that.

00:38I think I was a very curious child.

00:40I was told I was always in strife because I was experimenting all the time.

00:45I think it's something where I was probably encouraged as well,

00:48which is lucky.

00:49Sometimes kids, when they paint the newly freshly painted walls with Vegemite,

00:53which is apparently a family story, when I was three years old,

00:58they saw that as funny rather than naughty.

01:01So that sort of thing.

01:02Getting into a place where my dad used to have lots of tools,

01:05it's amazing I've got my fingers and toes still,

01:07because I used to love making things.