• Question: How will your work affect the rest of the environment/world in the future?

    Asked by danni to Emma, Jen, Joseph, Michael, Mona on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Emma Bennett

      Emma Bennett answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      This really depends on what my work discovers. If everything goes to plan then it could be important for finding ways to make crops such as oilseed rape have more nutrients in their seeds and higher yields in the future. Since the world population is increasing (possibly up to 9 billion by 2050!) then being able to supply more food from the same land area could be really important for feeding everyone.

    • Photo: Jen Gupta

      Jen Gupta answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      My answer to a similar question (/cobaltj11-zone/2011/06/how-does-your-work-help-us) is below with a little bit added onto the end:

      This is always a really tough one for me because I guess my work doesn’t directly help us. I think it’s important for us to be curious about the world that we live in and the universe beyond the Earth. In my opinion be curious about everything around us is part of what makes us human. The galaxies that I study have really extreme physics going on in them – more so than the LHC particle physics accelerator at CERN so I guess one day in the future it might be important to understand this physics but maybe not right now.

      Astronomy has helped us in a lot of indirect ways though. CCD chips that you get in digital cameras were originally developed for telescopes, wifi internet was invented at an observatory in Australia. A lot of technology that makes its way into every day life originally comes from scientists – the internet was invented at CERN! If you want to know more about how astronomy can have an impact on us, I would recommend you look at this booklet that the Royal Astronomical Society made http://www.ras.org.uk/publications/other-publications/1868-new-view-universe

      One of my friends has written a few blogposts called “What is the point of astronomy” you can find them at:
      http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000537.shtml
      http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000772.shtml
      http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000822.shtml

      🙂

    • Photo: Michael Taggart

      Michael Taggart answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Possibly in two ways. First, the more we understand about our human bodies and what controls it’s functions then the better placed we will be to diagnose, treat and maybe prevent many disease conditions. So, effectively, people can lead healthier lifestyles that, hopefully, means they can make even more positive contributions to society. Second, to do this we need do scientific research which means we need to ensure that people are taught about science in all aspects of their life (not just taught to those of us who wish to have a career directly in science). Doing that will increase our knowledge base in broad population terms which, again, should enable individuals to make even more positive contributions to society….

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