• Question: what good will come of your research - what benefits will it bring.

    Asked by pest to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 16 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi Pest! Love the name!
      I’m looking at ways of controlling pests of plants using non-chemical means. Chemicals aren’t always bad, but if we can reduce the amount of chemicals we put on plants, there are a lot of advantages.
      I’m looking at using biological alternatives to chemical pest control. So, hopefully that’s a big benefit for people and for the environment!

      Thanks for the question!
      Eoin.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      @pest

      My big hope is that we’ll achieve something that will be of use to the human race, even some small thing that will improve peoples lives in some way. If our current research is successful, we’ll soon have new treatments available for some of the commonest and most severe forms of blindness. Vision is our most precious sense, so I like to believe these would be meaningful benefits.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I think everyone who works in science does it because they think some good will come out of it. I certainly do – there are 300-500 million cases of malaria each year, and more than one million children die from it each year. If my research plays even a small part in helping some of those children, then that would seem a research career well spent.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      My research looks at how vitamin A from the diet is used by the brain. Our recent discoveries have been that vitamin A is important in areas of the brain involved in memory and learning. I hope that the benefit of my research will be new treatments for diseases associated with memory such as dementia, and psychiatric diseases including depression.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      hi pest thx for the Q! i guess there any direct link between improving humanity and my research – sorry! I guess it’s a little related in that if the rockets work, then it will bring jobs and i guess help the economy a little. I suppose the satellites for which the rockets are designed are generally used for good purposes like understanding the universe, and monitoring the earth (for example for signs of climate change). They wouldn’t generally be used for millitary space purposes, as the millitary tend to use larger satellites.
      That reply was a little rambling sorry!

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