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Asked by anon-207491 to William, Silvia, Scott, Oliver, Natalie, Michelle, Lowri on 6 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-207479, anon-207758.
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Scott Graham answered on 6 Mar 2019:
As clean safe water is vital for life, I would say my role in testing water and making sure it is free from harmful bacteria would benefit our future for our health. Not only do I make sure water is safe to drink from taps or swim in at swimming pools. I also test at various points of wastewater treatment plants and give feedback to how safe it is. this is useful as once processed treated water is put back into the environment by rivers oceans lakes, making sure this is safe will benefit our environment and marine ecosystem which in return will be beneficial to our future in the long run
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Oliver Andrews answered on 7 Mar 2019:
Yes – my job matters to society because I do research will tells us (and those in government) what the risks of climate change might be. This means that governments can make informed decisions about how to reduce pollution so that we might avoid these harmful consequences!
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Lowri Evans answered on 7 Mar 2019:
Yes! Fish and other marine animals provide protein for humans across the globe. Ensuring that we have healthy marine habitats is critical for providing lots of different things, one of which is food. Therefore finding a balance between fishing (for food) and marine habitat protection (for many important reasons) is critical at a global level. My work involves assessing the impact of certain types of fishing gear on seabed habitats, which help people who manage marine protected areas and fisheries in general.
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Natalie Lamb answered on 7 Mar 2019:
Yes! I think my research will benefit our future.
In the future, climate change means there will be less drinking water for us to drink and what is still there will likely be more dirty and need more treatment. I’m trying to look into the best ways of treating water that removes the most organisms and uses fewer chemicals because some of the chemicals we use today have problems.
For example, chlorine is used in swimming pools because it kills any germs on your body when you get in the pool (or if you go to the toilet in the pool!). That same chlorine but in very very low amounts is used in tap water to kill germs in drinking water too. But chlorine is only made in one place in the UK so it has to get transported by big tankers. When it travels like this, a very big amount of chlorine in one place, if there is a car accident, the tanker could explode. I’m looking into safer ways of getting rid of germs from drinking water, like UV light bulbs.
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Silvia Imberti answered on 7 Mar 2019:
It is greatly beneficial, even though the benefit is not always immediate and therefore difficult to point a finger at. But understanding how nature works, is often the starting point to begin doing new things with it.
The example I always give is the following: did you know that some of the most powerful diagnostic tools currently in possession of medicine have been developed based on discoveries made by physicists who spent a long time locked in their lab, playing around with their little “toy” just because it was interesting to them? Here they are (google like there is no tomorrow):
Two examples:
1. X-rays – see Nobel prize in Physics 1901 Roentgen and 1903/1911 Marie Curie
2. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) – this is the same as a technique we still use in our lab called NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance – they removed the word “nuclear” not to scare the public!) so google this one – Nobel prize in Physics 1844 Rabi and 1952 Bloch and Purcell.
and now for CURE, rather than DIAGNOSTIC: guess who invented radiotherapy and proton beam therapy? http://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/highly-spec-services/pbt/ -
Michelle Valkanas answered on 7 Mar 2019:
I hope so! I am trying to find the cheapest and most efficient way to clean up water. By using bacteria already present in lakes in streams to clean water, the cost is dramatically less AND we are not adding any harmful chemicals! Even better is that I use bacteria that do not infect humans! The environment is becoming increasingly polluted and we need to find a way to clean it up!
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