• Question: Do you think you contribution to science is making an effect or that it is making minimum difrence?

    Asked by Rafael Magalhaes to Joe, Jos, Kate, Lisa, Pierre on 8 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Robb, Jade.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 8 Nov 2014:

      What a fantiastic question!

      I think we all probably hope that our work makes a difference, but sometimes it can be difficult to point to something and say that “that finding” or “that number/data/experiment” did x, y or z. As an academic reseracher working in a university, and partly supported by government funding, it is something we have to consider when we plan our reserach and justify why we do what we do.

      I am trying to develop new understanding of how volcanoes work and the very basic scale (What happens when a magma moves? How does it behave when something in it, or around it changes?) but this new understanding will allow other reserachers to improve the models of how any volcano is likely to behave. As 10% of the worlds population lives within 100km of an active volcano, I hope my work will, eventually help improve our ability to forecast if, when and how any volcane will behave, but it’s probably quite a long way down the road.

      In the meantime I try to help how I can to make sure the people living near or visiting volcaoes know about the potential risks.

    • Photo: Lisa Simmons

      Lisa Simmons answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I would like to think that my science is making an effect, but I think that in all honesty we cannot think of our science on its own. We publish our work which leads others to challenge it or even change the course of their own research. I think it’s very rare for one team to make a difference. Scientific research is based on shared knowledge and although it might be a bit idealistic I like to think that combined knowledge is making a difference.

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