Re: A science field or career that starts with the letter Y

This is not really a science question, but let's stretch a point. It is more a question about the 
English language.

I do not know of a science field nor job/career that starts with "Y". Nor does a quite extensive 
dictionary. There may well not be one, and that is very likely. It might be possible to produce one 
by stretching a point -- you could come up with "yoghurt analyst" or something of that sort!

Why do I say that it is likely that there is not one? Next after 'X', 'Y' and 'Z' have the fewest words in 
the language starting with them, and they come in about equal. My English dictionary is the type 
with a large number of words and derivatives, and very brief definitions (Chambers). It has just 
over 1300 pages of definitions. X has only 21 main entries, over 1.9 pages. Z has 162 main entries 
over 5.4 pages. Y has more main entries (185) but takes up less space (5.2 pages). This is because 
of an obsolete form of the past tense in English. In modern English we use the verb 'to clothe' with 
the past participle 'clothed' . In German (a closely related language) the past participle would be 
'gekleidet' -- the 'ge-' is a marker for this form of the verb. If we trace 'clothed' backward in 
English, we only have to go back 100 years to get 'clad' as the more usual form, and a few hundred 
years earlier it was 'yclad'. About 30 or 40 of the 'Y' entries in my dictionary are obsolete verb 
forms with the 'y-' tense marker and a single line definition. Other rare initial letters are well ahead 
of these three: Q (242 over 8.4 pages) J (11.7 pages) K (13.1 pages), and V (22.9 pages).

With only about 140 serious word bases to start from, it is easy to check them, and not too 
surprising if none of them turns out to be related to a field of science or a scientific career.

Presumably for 'X' you got 'xenobiology'. 'xerography' is more a technology than a science. 'Z' is 
obviously saved by 'zoology'. 'Q' is for 'quantum mechanics', and after that there is no real 
problem.