• Question: what difference do you think your work is making?

    Asked by jibberjabber to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I’m hopeful that one day the stuff I’m working on will help make forecasts of hurricanes and typhoons more accurate, to give people more warning of what’s coming. At the moment that does seem like a rather long way off, though!

    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The work I’m doing is a small part of a bigger project to make sure that the people of coastal villages along the southwest coast of Madagascar are able to carry on their way of life for generations to come. This is done through the promotion of Marine Protected Areas and methods of sustainable fishing which encourage people to fish less now so that, in the future, there are still fish in the sea for their children and their children’s children to catch.

      My work is to survey the coral reefs (where a lot of fishing takes place) to show how changes are taking place in areas that are protected and there’s less fishing.

    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      If, as I hope, I discover novel (new) compounds in the octopus venoms, then those could possibly be used to develop drugs to help people. As examples, similar research has found anti-cancer drugs in sponges and anti-pain drugs in cone snails. I’m also hoping that people will find my work really interesting, and then will want to protect the oceans so that these animals can live in an unthreatened environment.

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      My work helps us to understand part of the global carbon cycle, which is linked to climate. So, hopefully, when combined with everyone else’s work, we will be able to predict how the carbon cycle will change in the future.

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I think other scientists have touched on that but really what we are all doing is contributing to the general knowledge and I think that’s the most important part!

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