• Question: Does any of your work save lives?

    Asked by jennah23 to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 16 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by raasay, denchdrogba, matthewwilson.
    • Photo: James Boone

      James Boone answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      My individual work doesn’t save lives. There are a lot of people working in the field of Nuclear Graphite and it’s important to understand how the material behaves as it gets bombarded by neutrons from the fuel. So in a collaborative effort, the research done goes towards making safety cases and indirectly, you could say that it saves lives.

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      When I was a medical physicist, we did treat cancer, which saved lives, extended lives, and improved quality of life. Now, I try to do things which are helpful to society, but I’m still learning what those things might be.

    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Not in any direct way at all. My work on quantum computers will hopefully help us build new ways of computing stuff, which would have an effect on all aspects of life, including things like medicine.

      But that’s a long way away and very far away from the work I do day to day.

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Not directly right now. I’m hoping that the work I do now will lead the way to new discoveries in structural biology that could change the way we make new drugs but that won’t be for some time.

    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      I don’t save lives with my work no. I struggle to currently see how it would be used in that type of application but all technology leads to developments that you never knew it would. I would love it if someone eventually found a use for my science in a way that makes people better.

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