• Question: how will having a career in science benefit for: me,the world and mankind if we know everything about things like physics already

    Asked by octopiefae to Thomas, Steven, Sarah, Sabina, Richard, Nicola, Michael, Leah, Jo, John on 30 Jan 2018.
    • Photo: John Allport

      John Allport answered on 30 Jan 2018:


      Hi Octopiefae,
      It’s only when you start to study things like Physics that you realise how little we actually do know. Every day I find more questions than answers as I look more closely at things. For example, today I am working on how to make metals that can work at higher temperatures. This involves considering the individual properties of each element in an alloy and what that metal contributes to the overall properties of the alloy. Although lots is already known about each of the individual elements, no-one yet knows what happens with every possible combination of them, so there is still lots of work for scientists and engineers to do.

    • Photo: Jo Nettleship

      Jo Nettleship answered on 31 Jan 2018:


      Hi,
      As John says, although we know a large amount about science, this is just a drop in the ocean! There are many areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology we know very little about. Increasing this knowledge is both interesting – it’s great to find something out which nobody knew before – and also worthwhile for the World/mankind. It depends on the discipline how your research may affect the World. Often we make tiny baby-steps which can build up to something bigger. For me, my research on how cows raise antibodies to foot and mouth disease virus is part of a bigger picture aimed at developing new vaccines which will cover all strains of the virus and be more robust for use in hotter countries where there are problems storing vaccines in the field at 4’C. This in turn will increase the welfare of the cattle and help farmers. This is particularly true in third world countries where losing a cow for a small subsistence farmer means loss of livelihood and their only food-source.
      Although it is unlikely that an individual will solve a big world problem on his or her own, you can be part of a team which solves this problem often collaborating across many countries and disciplines which I love and so is beneficial to you personally as a scientist.
      I hope this answers your question.
      Jo

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 5 Feb 2018:


      Hi octopiefae,
      One of the most exciting and most scary things about working in science is that you don’t really know how your work might benefit you or the world and mankind when you’re doing it. Sometimes really incredible breakthroughs, like gene editing, would be impossible without seemingly unimportant initial findings years and years before the breakthrough. Each scientist and researcher builds up one or two small pieces of the puzzle. This means that once we get a few pieces together, we can make a big difference in peoples lives, but it’s not always easy to see beforehand how that will work out.
      The other great reason to follow a career in science is because it gives you amazing skills in lots of different areas. Scientists have to be good at putting together complex information into something sensible, they have to be good at solving problems and communicating and they have to constantly learn new things – all really useful abilities that would make you stand out to an employer in any career if you decided to leave science.

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