Question: hello this q is to all of you, can you remember what the first big experiment that you SUCCESFULLY completed

Grant Campbell answered on 13 Mar 2013:

My first job in industry after graduation was for New Zealand’s largest baking company. One of the issues with baking bread is that you drive off water, which causes the weight to decrease – but bread is sold on weight, so you have to guess in advance how much water/weight you’ll lose. The “guess” is based on experience, of course, but different ovens are likely to cause more or less weight loss during baking. So, my job was to drive all around the country measuring the weight loss in different bakeries. This counts as a “big” experiment because it involved doing measurements and collecting data from lots of different bakeries all over the countries. It was successful, both in terms of suggesting opportunities for improvements in different bakeries, and also because it was when I first became interested in bread, which I now appreciate is the world’s most important food and one that I continue to enjoy studying. It was also successful from my point of view, because it was a nice opportunity to drive all around New Zealand and see the sights before I left to come to the UK to do my PhD (on bubbles in bread).