• Question: What is the benafit of your reaserch?

    Asked by tacos to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Dave Sproson

      Dave Sproson answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      The idea of what I’m doing is to better understand the transfer of energy from the ocean to the atmosphere underneath hurricanes and typhoons. If we can understand the physics of this better, then we should be able to improve the computer models that are used to forecast them – hopefully giving people better and more accurate warnings of these dangerous storms.

      I also think that doing research is a benefit of itself: many of our greatest discoveries have been found completely by accident while someone was researching an unrelated area (Alexander Flemming and penicillin is a great example of this). You never know what you’re going to find once you start looking!

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Dave, knowledge is always beneficial, even if you dont just “cure cancer” or something.

      Just to be a little more specific, we are trying to understand how the molecular clock works in krill. We think that the clock synchronises krill swarms. It can also have an effect on seasonality. Krill is very highly harvested and used in phatmaceutical industry and as catle and aquarium feed. Unfortunately krill numbers are in decline and this is going to affect the ecosystem negatively since krill are at the bottom of the food chain. The more we know about the biology of krill the better we can advise policy makers and krill fisheries.

      Another point is that krill can teach us about how the circadian (24h) clock works at the poles. We already know a lot about the molecular machinery of the circadian clock in mammals and drosophila (fruitfly) but how does that compare to that of krill. Do the same molecules exist in krill, do they work in the same way? This can give an insight to the evolution of the clock…

    • Photo: Clare Woulds

      Clare Woulds answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      My work is trying to understand one but of the global cycle of carbon. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is what is currently giving us climate change problems. I study the burial of carbon in marine sediments (i.e. the mud at the bottom of the sea). This is a very slow way of burying carbon, but it is important because once the carbon is buried it is locked up in rocks (kept away from the atmosphere) for millions of years. I’m particularly interested in how the animals that live in the mud affect the cycling and burial of carbon.

    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Drugs. One of my best friends, who is not a scientist said to me the other day, “So – who cares about octopus venom? How is that going to help my 80-year-old grandma?” The answer is – octopus and squid venoms may (and hopefully, do!) contain novel (new) proteins that can be used to make drugs for humans. For example, scientists have discovered anti-cancer drugs in marine sponges, and pain-killers in cone snail toxins. Who knows what will emerge from cephalopods!

Comments