• Question: Which science is progressing the quickest? Ie new technology or discoveries.

    Asked by evilevo to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Not an easy one to quantify but there will be areas of all the sciences which are zooming along, even though the Victorians said at the end of the 19th century that there was nothing more to discover!

      There will be many discoveries each day, although it may not be obvious how this might benefit society.

      There is of course an arguement that in certain fields we haven’t progressed as much as we would have liked. For instance in the cancer field, the US government has spent over the last 40 years something like $100 billion on cancer research, yet most of the drugs were developed 70 years ago. This probably shows how difficult a disease cancer is to work out rather than the lack of effort but its something we need to think about and it may mean a radical rethink of how we approach disease

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      As a computer scientist I would say that the rapid development of technology has been a massive game-changer for modern science and research. For example, in a recent United Nations poll, the microprocessor was voted the most important invention of the past 50 years. It is hard to demonstrate the impact that it has had on our life and our development…

      The rapid development and application of new technology has enabled cutting-edge scientific research; for example nanotechnology, computational chemistry and drug development, the Large Hadron Collider, etc!

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      God, that’s a great question and so hard to answer, especially for disciplines you don’t know terribly much about. However as a biologist, I would probably say nanotechnology and genomics.

      Nanotechnology is the science of building ‘atomic machines’… that is putting together molecules to perform a job at a microscopic level. Some of the main benefits of nanotechnology is that the materials used are extremely light and strong. The applications range from making self-cleaning fabrics that don’t allow stains to settle, to making better products to stain cells with for microscopy, to removing toxins from water, to creating artificial bone to be used in surgery.

      Genomics is the study of DNA sequences. There have been massive advances over the past 10 years in how quickly a genome can be ‘read’ so that now there are well over 200 animals, plants, and germs that we can get genetic info from about how they work and the differences between people that may cause diseases.

      Also, although this isn’t progressing as rapidly, there has been a major push towards personalised medicine, which has been helped by advances in genomics. In the past, doctors would prescribe the same drugs for the same condition for all people. Personalised medicine tries to match the best medicine to a person based on his or her genetics because their genetics will influence the disease.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think that biotechnology is progressing faster than a lot of other sciences. Recently I have seen a lot of new technology being applied to biochemical research. The development of mircoarrays has greatly sped up the biological testing of new drugs, and new arrays are being created where they can print new drugs for testing onto microscope slides with inject printers! New kits are being made where cells are bound to a physical surface which can be used as alternatives to animal testing.

      In my building we are constantly getting new equipment and instruments to enhance our research, deliever more accurate results faster than ever before.

      The field of biotechnology also includes, gene therapy and stem cell research and I think these fields are where the next big discoveries and breakthroughs are going to be made in the next 50 years.

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Difficult to answer this, as I’m not up-to-speed with all areas of science. Often breakthroughs come with the development of new instruments. For example, radio astronomy took off shortly after the Second World War. This was due to huge advances in radar and radio communications and many ex-military scientists turned their attention to radio astronomy… a then brand new field.

      Since then, different fields then to rise and fall as they make breakthroughs. Sometimes they go quiet for a while until something new comes up. (For example, weather and atmospheric science was a bit quiet until it was realised that we’re inducing global warming. Now it is a major area of research.)

      When we look at what is happening today, there seem to be a couple of areas with huge developments: genetics, microprocessor electronics and material science. In astrophysics, radio astronomy is picking up pace at the moment due to various new telescopes just being built and a chance to observe the universe with incredible sensitivity at new frequencies with projects like LOFAR or ALMA.

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