• Question: Do you think all of your work is going to pay off,and help make the world a better place?

    Asked by anon-176388 to Ali, Jenny, Mark, Paul, Simran, Stephen on 13 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Mark Kirkwood

      Mark Kirkwood answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      Nice question!
      You never really know for sure that your work is going to improve the world, but my research should increase our understanding of how food microbes make us sick, and how we can stop that from happening.
      So one way or another, I should be helping to keep people healthy!

      Also, Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered BY ACCIDENT, by Alexander Fleming. So, no matter what you do, as long as you keep trying, you never know what you’ll find!

    • Photo: Ali Hill

      Ali Hill answered on 13 Jun 2018:

      Oooh a tough one!

      I’d like to think it will pay off. Sport is a fantastic thing – not only does it make you feel better and more confident when you’re playing it, but you can also use it to help people in lots of ways. There’s nothing quite like a game of football for bringing a street together. It’s also been used when people are recovering from illness or bad situations in life like if they’re homeless. It’s amazingly versatile! Have you heard about the football matches that troops on opposite sides came together to play in the first world war during a truce? (more here – http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxsfyrd)

      I guess the work that I do is more about when people are playing sport, how can I make them better at it. Think how you feel when you beat another school in a football match or how you feel when the team you support wins! Not only do people playing feel great, but the people watching you do too.

      So I probably won’t make the whole world a better place, but if I can just improve it a tiny bit I’d be pleased 🙂

    • Photo: Jenny Shepperson

      Jenny Shepperson answered on 14 Jun 2018:

      A lot of funding for science comes from public money, like taxes, so I think it’s really important to make sure that the work we do is going to help make the world a better place. This doesn’t mean that every bit of science is going to be ground-breaking and drastically change the world – but there should be a point to everything we do!
      For example, some people work on quite complicated theoretical things, like how cells work – maybe that particular piece of work isn’t going to instantly change the world, but it might contribute to our understanding of how cancer works, and then help us develop cures for cancer..
      I like working in fisheries because I can see how my science is being used. When you buy fish in the supermarket some have a little blue ‘MSC certified’ symbol on them, letting you know that they are a more environmentally friendly fish to eat – I work on helping to decide who get’s to put this symbol on their fish products!

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