• Question: have any of you made any scientific inventions?

    Asked by anon-240508 to Tom, Rebecca, Emily, Elspeth, Ben, Antoine on 13 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Ben Cropper

      Ben Cropper answered on 13 Mar 2020:

      Sort of. I’ve invented a computer program which looks at graphs likes this:

      finds all of the peaks, draws a line over them, and works out the area of them!

    • Photo: Tom Dally

      Tom Dally answered on 17 Mar 2020: last edited 17 Mar 2020 1:21 pm

      I kind of invented a new method of using passive acoustic recorders to monitor insect activity in a given area over long time periods. I created a standardised, non-destructive trap, that attracts insects to it and then records their buzzes, so you can get a sense of how active the insect community is. The trap can be left out in the field for up to a month, and stores it’s data on a microSD card so you can retrieve it whenever.

    • Photo: Emily Goddard

      Emily Goddard answered on 18 Mar 2020:

      I’ve found an additive that makes a particular salt freeze at exactly the right temperature every time, which is useful for the company who pay for my PhD. I also used an old piece of equipment in a different way to make it useful for my project 🙂

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