• Question: Do you think your work could have an impact on society/later life? If so, how? And how big would that impact be?

    Asked by to Clare, Divya, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by , .
    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      Scientists ask lots of different types of questions.

      One type of question is about how to solve a problem right in front of us – like Apple might be trying to research how to make their phone batteries last more than about 2 minutes (can you see that I have an iPhone?!).

      The other type of problem is about finding out more about the world in general. So, I have friends who work on the basic processes in chemistry that allow light or chemicals to make electricity. Their work isn’t to find out how to make a better battery at the moment, it’s about finding out about how our world works. Of course, later on other people can use their knowledge to make new stuff (like batteries).

      My work falls into second type of research. I am trying to find out more about how the world works and how humans have evolved. I hope that my work will have an impact by teaching us more about how humans evolved.

      However, other people do use research like mine to help with conservation, in robotics and to understand conditions like autism. I hope that these impacts of this work will be big overall, but my bit of it will be quite small. I am happy with that – science progresses by making small steps.

    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      I think my current work will impact people who need reconstructive surgery, mainly on their face- like if they have had skin cancer, or severe burns. It isn’t revolutionary, but hopefully it will reduce the number of operations required, reduce the pain experienced by the patient and improve the outcome.

      On the whole, the impact of one scientist is very low, but all the scientists work together to make a great impact. Hundreds of people will have worked on the project that I have worked on, maybe thousands by the time it reaches a surgeons hands. Sometimes there is one scientist who gets great acclaim (and often rightly so) for making a break through, but there are still thousands more scientists who have made it possible, this is where the phrase ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ comes from.

    • Photo: Clare Nevin

      Clare Nevin answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      Yes definitely. People in society today are becoming mcuh more concerned about the effects of their lifestyle on their health and wellbeing. My research focusses on how this can affect fertility and future generations – so it is possible that your poor lifestyle choices could confer similar diseases to your offspring. If we gather enough evidence to show, for example, certain antioxidants in foods that promote healthy sperm, then we can advise the public on their lifestyle choices and generally promote healthier individuals that don’t need medical intervention later in their lives.

      As Jess said, it takes collaborative research over many years for huge differences to be made on society, but I am hopeful that my work will successfully contribute to this movement!

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      I don’t think we can ever predict which way technology is going to go!

      I’ve done a lot of work with medical research stuff but I suspect if anything it’ll be the nanotech I’ve been helping with – quantum dots are the next big thing in screen displays, they’re tiny crystals trapped in a shell of plastic and they can be tuned to make light in different colours. The trouble is most of them use horrid things like cadmium ( a very toxic metal ) and in a way that wouldn’t be recyclable. The group I was working with were trying to get the same vibrant colours using plain old iron and a cheap degradable polymer. The next generation smart phone screens may well be using this technology.

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