Well. We did it. We’re coming to the end of the first day of our November 2013 round of I’m a Scientist: Get me out of here!, and what a first day it has been.

Students have asked questions on everything from radioactive cottage pies, to life elsewhere in the Universe, to house cleaning robots. Among the major themes today were the old favourites, “Does your work harm animals?”, “How does your work help people?”, and “Why is the sky blue?”.

In the Ecology Zone, students had the scientists evaluating how interesting they find their research; while in the Genes Zone, the students were interested in different ways of curing cancer, and whether curing inherited diseases might play a role.

In the Iodine Zone, the live chats looked at everything from football playing robots, to the future of DNA mapping; and in the Particle Physics Zone the students were looking at what it takes to work at CERN and whether you even need to be a scientist: you can even be a postie, or a fireman.

We’re grateful to the Wellcome Trust for providing part funding to run I’m a Scientist: Get me out of here!, as well as to the STFC for providing funding for the Particle Physics and Extreme Clean Zones.

We’ve plenty more live chats to come in the next two weeks, check back tomorrow for more updates; or follow us on Twitter (@imascientist), and use the hashtag #IAS2013.