• Question: What is it like to see your work applied to everyday life?

    Asked by John to Anne, Ruhina, Arthur, Thomas, Rose on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by Ben, phoebe, Ola, Ellyn, Dhananjay, Courtney, Imogen.
    • Photo: Anne Canning

      Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi John,

      For me that’s what motivates me the most. When I read about stem cell products making a real difference to peoples lives it makes it all worth while. I am only working in a very small part of my area, but I like to think however small my contribution is, it will help to help someone. It’s really cool to read about different polymers that other scientists in my area make as well. Especially those which make it into clinical trials or better yet when I read about polymers being successfully implanted into humans to replace lost tissues.

    • Photo: Rose Simnett

      Rose Simnett answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hey,
      It takes a lot of time and hard to work to get something from the lab into products that people actually use. I’m sure it would be amazing to know that some research you’ve done has helped to produce a new drug or even gone into a new shampoo or plastic.
      As Anne has already said, even if your work doesn’t directly go into a product, the knowledge you found out will go towards peoples understanding of how things work or don’t work. Eventually, someone will make a breakthrough but it will only be because of all the work that has gone before.

    • Photo: Ruhina Miller

      Ruhina Miller answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I agree with Anne and Rose – essentially we are one piece in a much big puzzle for whatever problem we are working on. Without the work or knowledge that’s come before us and the knowledge we gain from our research – whether it be success or “failure” (failure is simply a lesson learnt/understanding gained), we wouldn’t really get very far. I hope that one day, something I have researched (however small) is useful to other people 🙂

    • Photo: Arthur Wilkinson

      Arthur Wilkinson answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      In most cases (as Anne, Rose and Ruhina have mentioned) you work on a small part of a long development that leads to a product you can point out in everyday life. Occasionally, however, the development life is much shorter particularly in materials development collaborations with industry. For example, we worked on developing a composite material for formula 1 cars. I’m told it is being used, and we all found that very exciting, but I noticed that the team that is reported to be using it is now less successful than they used to be! Obviously just a conincidence.

    • Photo: Thomas Farrugia

      Thomas Farrugia answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      Hoi all,

      I don’t think my work is going to be immediately translated into everyday life – sometimes it’s more about proof of concept or “blue sky” research, which can take a greater time to penetrate into everyday life or even industry. Although this research may seem less valued in the long run because it doesn’t have a direct impact on society it’s still crucial since other people can build on it and take it places. Sometimes I’m a bit worried that we think of using science as a problemsolver only – I mean it’s great to do so, but it’s also a way of exploring the universe and creating, much the same way as an artist paints for the sake of painting.

      However I’d imagine that it’d be a similar feeling to getting an experiment to work, but more awesome, especially if it’s never been done before.

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