• Question: What experiments do you do?

    Asked by anon-218387 to Shannah, Richard, Matthew (known as Kaan by, johnpaterson, Emma, Anna on 17 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Emma Markham

      Emma Markham answered on 17 Jun 2019:

      I’m not conducting any experiments at the moment, because I currently work to support the scientists doing experiments. At the moment the big area of research we are supporting is sustainable food, so growing crops which are good for our diet and good for the environment.

    • Photo: Shannah Gates

      Shannah Gates answered on 18 Jun 2019:

      I do lots of different experiments. I do microbiology- thats where I grow bacteria. I then use those bacteria to infect my plants that I grow. These bacteria then send a piece of DNA into the plant and insert a new gene so that the plant does new things, like produce more medicines. I also do chemistry experiments, and grow human cells.

    • Photo: John Paterson

      John Paterson answered on 19 Jun 2019:

      I do two main kinds: First, I look at information that’s been collected over the past 50 years or so about bees and hoverflies and I try to understand how their populations have changed over that time in response to the warmer temperatures that climate change is causing. This mainly involves sitting at a computer and doing lots of maths.

      Second, to try and understand what effect these changes in population might have on flowers and pollination I do field work. I grow lots of plants and put them outside at different times of the year to try and imitate what would happen if they changed what time of year they flower at due to climate change. Then I go and measure them in the field and see what pollinators like bees and hoverflies visit them. I catch some of the pollinators so I can identify them properly, some I just watch. Then I let the plants grow seeds and I harvest them and count how many seeds they make to see if the time of year they flower at makes any difference to their seeds.

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