• Question: Will your work's impact be a quick, or slow process? and why?

    Asked by kingc045 to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: James Holloway

      James Holloway answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      My research will have a long term impact. We help build the machines that will help discover fundamental physics that will lead to new inventions, such as mobile phones, the internet, microwaves. So I’m in it for the long haul.

    • Photo: Janet Daly

      Janet Daly answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Some of the research I do is quite applied and not about big discoveries, e.g. developing a rapid test for Schmallenberg virus – it’s a new virus, but the methods to make the test are not new…so impact can be quick. Lots of research is about putting one little piece into the jigsaw puzzle, which takes longer to have an impact.

    • Photo: Niall Crawford

      Niall Crawford answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Making ‘smart’ adhesives is a fast moving field – they’ve made robots which can climb like geckos already – but in terms of my work I can’t say. It all depends on how quick the other half of my group works in making frog-like sticking surfaces.

    • Photo: Emma Ashley

      Emma Ashley answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      The impact of my work is pretty fast because the patients need their results as soon as possible. However, with new tests in the lab, it takes a long time for them to come into routine practice as you have to complete clinical trials to make sure what you’re testing is giving the right results and doesn’t confuse the diagnosis.

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