• Question: How do you help people day to day?

    Asked by anon-176147 to Simran on 12 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Simran Chopra

      Simran Chopra answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Hello S

      That is a tricky question but I will try and explain it to you. I help people in a very different way. I try and make them realize what they eat and why. It is to make them understand why they choose to eat or buy certain foods. This will help the scientists like me determine how people’s choices can be changed to eat more health which is also environmentally friendly.

      Let us take an example.
      Avocados do not grow in the United Kingdom but people want to eat them because they think they are exotic, fashionable and healthy. Transporting them from Mexico or Spain leads to a lot of carbon emissions and hurts the planet. I make people understand how much an Avocado costs in terms of carbon footprint and it is not entirely environmentally friendly or sustainable if you eat them in the UK.

      Hope I answered your question. If you want to know more just ask.

      😀
      Simran

Comments

  • Photo: Mark

    Mark commented on :

    Great question!
    Scientists are always talking about “impact”, that is, how our work helps the world. But sometimes, it’s hard to see the big picture when you are starting intently at some petri dishes or getting square eyes on the computer!
    For example, my work looks at how different types of Salmonella behave in different hosts, that is, pigs or humans in my case.
    So day to day, I just look at genomes and play around with bacteria, and I sometimes forget what it’s all for. But if you take a step back, you realise that it’s all towards something more. Me finding out which Salmonella like humans or pigs more, helps us identify and try to beat those ones that are more dangerous to people.
    Science is an iterative process. That means scientists build a knowledge base from other research. And THAT means, the more work we do, the more information there is out there for someone else to come along and use it to connect the dots with whatever they are doing.
    If someone tells you a particular science story is silly, just think about how the experiment may sound silly, but could be answering some much more important questions in other ways.

  • Photo: Ali

    Ali commented on :

    This is a great question – I know you didn’t ask me, but I’d like to answer because it’s a something I often ask myself – is what I’m doing useful?!

    Most of my time is spent working with athletes, trying to get that extra 2% performance out of them – if you look at the 100m finals in the olympics although it looks like there was a massive gap there was only about half a second between them. Over a ten second race that’s less than 2%. It’s nothing! I’d be looking at what they’re eating and drinking, and even how well they were sleeping, trying to find out if there’s anything I could do to make them faster. It’s a fascinating world. Did you know that British Cycling team take their own pillows and bedding to events – have you ever had a sleepover at someone else’s house and it’s not quite felt right and you haven’t slept as well? You feel not right the next day, don’t you? Well they worked out that if cyclists could take their own pillows they’d sleep better and cycle faster (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/19174302).

    I have a big nutrition “lab” at work, which is basically looks a bit like the inside of the bake off tent. Despite being a sports nutritionist, I spend an increasing amount of time working with normal people (i.e. people who aren’t athletes) teaching them how to cook and how easy it is to get fruit and veg in your diet. I’d like to think it helps them to have a healthier life.

    Finally, I also run a course at a university to teach people how to be nutritionists. I’d like to think that these people use the skills and stuff they’ve learnt at university and go into the real world and help people to be healthier. Sort of like creating your own healthy army!

    I guess when it comes to deciding what you want to do with your life it depends what you think is important. For me it’s important to do a job I love and to be helping people. Science lets me do that. What do you want to be?