Biology vs. Chemistry vs. Physics

Comrade C

Heyo!
Im a 5th year student seeking guidance to choose a branch of science to delve into! My subjects are Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Applied Maths along with the 3 core subjects! I have a passion for both Physics and Biology and enjoy Chemistry but see it as more of something that has to be done tbh! Just want to hear some opinions on what every1 thinks on it, like how relevant each is nowadays! Ye know urselves like!
Posted this here btw cause ther seems to be no other place to post it!
Cheers

riffmongous

I'd say if you want a (non phd) job in science biology and chemistry are the way to go.. of course you can always get a job in physics if your willing to do engineering:D

I presume you're interested in going to uni so here's what I found:

physics and chemistry go well together in 1st year, not so much after that
chemistry and biology go very well together in the first few years, I was quite surprised by how much chemistry is in biology
biology and physics is only useful if you want to do medical physics and even then strong biology isn't needed for it
applied maths and physics are pretty much the same:D

Of course imo physics is defo the subject to go for, so many different and interesting disciplines you can go into later, Astrophysics, Meteorology, Nuclear/Particle, Medical....

I hope this is of some use to you, my source is 4 years of astro and 1 in met/climate

cianl1

Thread title was misleading. I was hoping for some sort of grudge match.:rolleyes:

Comrade C

I apologise Cian, not quite the Dawkins vs Hawkins battle u were looking for :L ! No reason why that thread cant be made haha!

And thank you very much Riffmongous! Ya that sort of my dilema, physics and biology cross over very little! Well is there many places you can go PHD in biology! Like i love ecology and evolution + love being outdoors! But also have a keen interest in Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics! What road am i looking for the latter may i ask?

Sid_Justice

Back in the day I chose Physics and Chemistry with Geography and I did a Natural Sciences degree based on Biology. When I was making my subject choice the guidance councellor told us 'not' to take all three sciences cause it would be too imbalanced. One of my friends did all three and did well in them, If I was going again I'd have done all three, I would have loved to have done applied maths.

Can you do all three?

As much as I love education etc. ultimately the Leaving cert is about getting the points for college so kinda be warned that doing physics, chemistry, biology and applied maths might be a lot of work to all get As in.

Doing all three with maths english irish you'll obviously be grand for any scientific or engineering discipline you take in the future. A lot of people say Physics and Chemistry are very difficult to take up afresh in college, even if you're doing a medical degree which wouldn't have as much biochemistry and Science. Biology on the other hand, and this was my reasoning, is something youj can take up brand new in college and not struggle with the basics.

riffmongous

I'm glad that was of some use to you Comrade.

Now as for a phd in biology, from what I saw my friends doing, I think as long as you can get funding or pay for it yourself getting a doctor or prof to take you on for a phd is no problem at all, they are more than happy to have an extra worker that they don't have to pay for.

Now getting funding in Ireland usually means IRCSET so you'll need very good grades which leads me to my main problem with biology, in my year there was around 100 people in biology in 4th year, compared to 10 in physics, so obviously the competition is a lot tougher and I also thought the overall standard of grades was higher (which I attributed to the lack of tough maths but thats just my opinion ). So if you want to go on to do biology my advice would be study, study, study and just do as much work as possible, try and get involved with outside course work, it all helps down the line.

I think by doing all science subjects while it will be harder than geography or something at least you'll have some overlap, plus the honours maths will help with applied maths, and 1st year uni will be way too easy. But as Sid said biology does seem the easiest of them all to take up afresh, especially if you already have a good science background.

Nuclear and Particle are very interesting, you'll need to take experimental and mathematical physics for a few years though, so by third year you'll probably need to make a choice for physics or biology, I mean you could do one of the physics and biology if you really wanted but you probably won't get as much out of it.

eZe^

I did Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Applied Math for my leaving cert. I'm going into 4th year Physics in UCC. If you've an interest it'll be grand.

Comrade C

Well to be honest i dnt rly get ppl saying that 3 sciences is difficult! Like i say alot of ppl who dnt have an aptitude for science but have to take them for criteria wud feel that 3 wud be impossible! Personally im not finding anything extremely difficult, bit o cramming ions and definitions for chemistry but thats it! Plus Applied Maths, Physics and Honours maths have a massive overlap which is brilliant By outside Bio, in wat form do u mean? Like grinds, work experience or jst reading up on it and such?

riffmongous

Comrade C wrote: »

By outside Bio, in wat form do u mean? Like grinds, work experience or jst reading up on it and such?

Things like joining the Irish Biology Society (if one exists.. I know they do for Met and Phys, try the English versions if they don't here), go to seminars and talks, join the club in university and get involved.. work experience is great if you can get it, if you can you should offer to work for free with a relevant group, there must be plenty of ecology groups who would be happy to have another free worker, if you can afford it of course it will look great on your record.