• Question: How would your research affect people?

    Asked by ashishhans10 to Nathan, Allan, Diva, Harriet on 27 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by zero.
    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Well, I’m doing research in what are called the “basic sciences”, so it’s often difficult to point at something specific and say “I did that for people and look at what a great effect it’s having”. It’s more about possible ways that might happen in the future, rather than specific things we can see right now. However, some of these possibilities are really amazing, which is why we are looking into this stuff.

      One example, is the quantum computer. No one has built one yet and it’s still a long way off. But if, just if we could build one that was big enough, we could do some amazing things. For example, we could simulate how cancer affects DNA in mutated cells and maybe learn how to stop it. We could simulate how drugs might work on complicated and rare diseases, without need lots of money and materials, or even people who are affected – this might save an enormous amount of resources in drug design and might make medicine much more cheaply available for poor people.

      Another way is that we might be able to simulate how photosynthesis works at a fundamental, basic level, discover how plants are so efficient at converting light into energy and then use this information to be able to design better solar cells.

    • Photo: Diva Amon

      Diva Amon answered on 5 Jul 2012:

      Hey ashishhans10,

      My research is on the weird and wonderful animals that live in the deep sea, especially those that live on the skeletons of dead whales. This may not sound like it could impact humanity in any way, but it does so in lots of small ways.

      Many people do not realise that a lot of the medicines and chemicals used today have partly originated in some kind of plant or animal. My research seeks to find out what lives in the deep sea and once, new animals are discovered, big companies get their hands on a few of these animals to see if they have any compounds in them which could be useful to humans in modern-day living.

      A great examples of this is with washing powders. Because of climate change, humans are trying to use less energy. This means that there is a drive for us to wash our clothes at colder temperatures and so washing powders that work better at lower temperatures have been created. The enzymes used in these washing powders actually originated in some bacteria found on the skeletons of dead whales in the deep-sea. They were used because animals in the deep-sea are adapted to living in the very cold temperatures down there (about 1-4 degrees Celsius) and this means their enzymes work best in colder waters.

      Another example is that of a deep-sea glass sponge called Eupectella aspergillum. Here is a picture:
      http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/species-of-the-day/collections/our-collections/euplectella-aspergillum/index.html
      This sponge is made of very intricate glass spicules. The shape of the sponge has actually been used as the inspiration to re-modelling some fibre optic cables to make them more efficient, so we can have things like faster internet etc.

      We dont really know what we are going to find in the deep sea or how it will be able to help us. Who knows – maybe the cure for cancer is lurking down there!

      The important thing to remember is that science is cumulative – knowledge adds on to other knowledge, so even if what I’m doing doesn’t help humanity in a direct way, in years to come maybe someone else will discover something which will cause my discoveries to be looked at in a more useful way. For example, I’ve found three new deep-sea worms so far in my PhD. Maybe in years to come, another scientist working on them will realise that they can help to make a cure for a disease.

      Lastly, another way in which research helping people may be overlooked is that – maybe the amazing pictures of the new deep-sea animals and habitats found will just inspire a young person to also become a scientist. Or maybe it will just cause someone to smile and think about how wonderful and amazing our planet id. We must not forget about the impact that science can have on the general public’s emotions!

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