• Question: do you feel that your job is important to how the worlds runs as it does and how does your job effect the earth? @nicola, @kathryn, @jonathan, @ glyn and @debbie

    Asked by u11raybouldd to Debbie, Glyn, Jon, Kat, Nicola on 11 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by u11cartera.
    • Photo: Nicola Fletcher

      Nicola Fletcher answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Sometimes I do…people say to me that they think my work ‘makes a difference’, and I suppose it does because it helps us to understand diseases and sometimes we can find ways to cure them. But for me, I just love doing experiments and finding out things that nobody knew before.

    • Photo: Debbie Crockard

      Debbie Crockard answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      My current job is to make sure that the government in the UK and in Europe take responsibility to protect our seas for the future. Sometimes I get annoyed and upset that what I’m doing isn’t making a big enough difference – in the EU 75% of our fish stocks ( the fish that fishermen catch) are overexploited, which means that we are taking to much fish out of the sea.

      But then things change and turn around and you realise that people do care that they want to make a difference and that makes all the difference in the world. I was recently at a vote in the European parliament and the MEP’s (the ministers who represent us at Europe) we had been talking to and meeting with voted to help protect our seas, they voted to ensure the sustainability of our oceans. This was a huge step for us and showed that the work that people does makes a big difference – it can change the law!

    • Photo: Jonathan Stone

      Jonathan Stone answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I think that all jobs are important to how the world runs, and each of us can effect things. The great thing about science, is that all science is relevant and has the potential to change the way humans live.

    • Photo: Glyn Barrett

      Glyn Barrett answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I like to think that science is about learning about the world and sharing that information with other people.
      Think of science as like a massively huge puzzle with loads of pieces and each scientist in the world working on just one piece. So we all have to work together to solve the puzzle.
      With my work in the laboratory I want to find out how dangerous bacteria live on plants. Two years ago in Germany more than 20 people died and thousands of people became sick because they are plants with dangerous bacteria on them. I want to help stop this happening again in the future but cant possibly do it all by myself so I help with one bit of the puzzle.

    • Photo: Kathryn McMahon

      Kathryn McMahon answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      It depends on whether I’ve had a day when my experiments have been successful! If they’ve worked, then I do feel like I’m at least helping us to understand more about cancer and how the body works. I think that’s pretty important to how the world runs. Whether its a good thing for the earth, rather than just humans, is hard to say.

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