• Question: What have you decoverd as a scientist that will be useful to humans to know about ??

    Asked by aiishii to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by tblow.
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I sort of “discovered” a new chemical compound. It had never been made before and never reported. It has a big long chemical name, but for short I am going to call it “TMPO”. Its chemical formula is C9H16O2N2.

      The important thing about TMPO is that it is a Spin Label. This means that I can use it to label some of the biomolecules involved in the growth of cancer and then we can study them and learn about what they do in the body and how it causes cancer to grow.

      This is pretty important because the more we find out about how cancer grows, the more ideas we have about how we can fight it or target it. So this spin label is really important and hopefully it will help us discover new drugs for the treatment of cancers.

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I work on this molecule called p110-delta which is only found in the immune system. I check what it does mainly in T cells, which are very good at fighting infection and cancer. SO what does it do in T cells? A lot, they don’t work very well if you get rid of this protein. But because it isn’t in other organs, its loss will only affect the immune system.

      Because of this information and related info from other researchers, many drug companies are designing drugs against p110-delta to treat cancers of the immune system, allergies and also autoimmune disease (like diabetes are some types of artrhritis) where the immune system attacks the body for’no reason’. Actually, a few months ago the results of the first clinical trials against cancers were published and the results are pretty amazing! So I am really thrilled to be involved along with many other people in helping to identify a possible new drug.

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I discovered that a protein in milk is there to stop babies from being infected which reduces their chance to die from diarrhoea. Its a particular problem in Africa where upto 6000 children die each day from infected water and especially to babies born to mothers with HIV as they are not supposed to breast feed so they have to use a dried milk instead. We were able to isolate this protein and find a way to dry milk and preserve its activity, so that it can be given to children whos mothers have HIV to stop them from becoming infected. This was such a simple finding but may actually be my most significant contribution, probably even for the rest of my career.

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I have certainly discovered a few things, and have pioneered a few techniques and have built some high quality scientific equipment. But because physicists are trying to understand the fundamental nature of the universe it is not necessarily obvious what our work will achieve in the long run. For example, would Isaac Newton have known that his laws of gravitation would one-day result in navigation and communication satellites? Would Max Planck have realised his work on radiation would lead to lasers? Or could Heinrich Hertz predict his radio propagation experiments would become a crucial part of wireless broadband internet?

      I don’t know what my work will bring, but there is no doubt that if anything, it will be because I am part of a larger team, than because of any individual discovery. Perhaps the telescopes will help solve some of the cosmological problems, or maybe a receiver array will be used to make a breakthrough in understanding the aurorae? Perhaps they might detect the first signal from an extraterrestrial civilisation? Or maybe be the first warning of a super-massive geomagnetic storm.

      I don’t know.

      But no doubt the work that I, and my colleagues are doing today, will be used in some way to help the next generation of space physicists or astronomers who will bring about a slow change for the benefit of humanity.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I have invented a method for generating provably optimal computer code for microprocessors, using a technique known as superoptimisation via Answer Set Programming. Essentially I use mathematical logic to model and reason about real-world problems. I hope that my research will eventually have an impact on every device that has a microprocessor…this is pretty much every electronic device in the world! While this may be a grand aim, if some of the outcomes from my work enables these devices to be more efficient and use less power, then this would be a significant result for humans who use electronic devices (and would also help the environment).

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