• Question: how will your research affect the future?

    Asked by shazzy101 to Alex, Ali, Kerry, Philip, Theo on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Alison Thomson

      Alison Thomson answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      I’m working to cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which affects really young children. So if we can cure it, then these children won’t get sick anymore!

    • Photo: Kerry O'Shea

      Kerry O'Shea answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      The amount of data being generated in the world is said to be doubling every year (crazy!), so we need to come up with new ways of storing information efficiently to cope with future demands.

      Over the last decades, the physical size of memory devices has decreased – eventually this trend will have to stop because you can’t go any smaller than a single atom! Instead, we need to look for materials that are multifunctional, that’s where my research comes in!

    • Photo: Theo Laftsoglou

      Theo Laftsoglou answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      I’m trying to understand how a bug breaths, which is finding knowledge for the world we live in. However, such knowledge, we believe, that will help with the design of renewable energy sources and better biosensors (a biosensor is a device that can sense a biological marker, such as glucose biosensor, where it can detect how much sugar (glucose) is in your blood). Also, my findings may inspire other people with their own work!!

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      I’m afraid my research will probably never have any real direct effect on the future. All I can say is that, as part of the general process of increasing our knowledge and understanding of the physical world, what I have produced I hope will somehow combine with what others have done (and will do) to provide the basis for as yet unimaginable technological steps forward.

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