• Question: Why is your research important?

    Asked by anon-199757 to Sylvia, Sumit, Martin, Kate, Bryony, Aryanne on 1 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      There are several answers to that question…

      I feel that it important that we understand where came from… How our star, its planets and the life on it originated as this will help us understand our place in the Universe. Why should the physics have all the bid questions to answer, at least give chemistry it’s place at the table.

      A second point would be that you can never predict what use a piece of research will be. Back in the 1950s, scientists knew everything that was know about nuclear magnetic resonance and could have stopped studying it. They didn’t and by the mid-1970s we saw the development of magnetic resonance imaging. A much more powerful and safe imaging technology for medicine that traditional X-rays.

      I would also argue that in parallel to doing research, we train younger people to grow and develop as scientists. This is in fact one of the aspects of research that I most enjoy!

    • Photo: Bryony Hockin

      Bryony Hockin answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      This is a really interesting question! My research is important because making chemicals uses a lot of energy; so for example, we need to make a really large amount of some medicines such as painkillers and antibiotics. However, when we make medicines in a factory, we might need to, for example boil a big vat of chemical instead of a small flask, and that uses a lot of energy; that’s not good, because then we’re releasing lots of CO2 and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. So, my research takes two approaches to this. I am designing molecules that act as tiny antennae and absorb sunlight; they can then give the energy from that sunlight to chemical reactions to help them happen without needing any heat energy. This way we won’t need to boil chemicals in a big vat, we could just leave the vat in the sun with some of the antennae molecules in it, and the chemical reaction would happen. Secondly, I’d like to one day use these antennae molecules to actually break down CO2 molecules, and since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, this would be a lot better for the planet.

    • Photo: Sumit Konar

      Sumit Konar answered on 3 Mar 2019:

      Chemical syntheses are nothing but cooking in a sophisticated way in the kitchen (laboratory). We know cooking needs mixing, separation, and often requires high temperature. Until last sixty years chemists never truly thought about ‘pressure’, although geologists knew that all the rocks and minerals under the earth’s crust are formed due to pressure effect. Natural diamond is nothing but another form of carbon (graphite) due to pressure effect. Chemists now made artificial diamond in the laboratory. This is a big success. Pressure can change materials tremendously; its structure and property. Therefore, I strongly believe pressure should be combined with temperature to explore new materials with superior quality. This is exactly the research I do. I make new pharmaceutical drugs using pressure induced crystallisation. I also investigate structural changes of explosives (like TNT) under pressure, this helps me to understand how safe an explosive will be during transport. I make new form of carbon using pressure induced polymerisation. This is a new century, and i believe pressure will make a significant contribution, and I hope that my high pressure research will be part of that.

    • Photo: Sylvia Soldatou

      Sylvia Soldatou answered on 3 Mar 2019:

      My work is about discovering new molecules with biological activities from marine organisms. We are mainly focused on new molecules with promising antibiotic and anticaner activity without neglecting other diseases such as Alzheimer’s, viral and inflammatory. There are several examples of marine derived molecules that are now in the market as anticancer, antiviral, antihyperlipidemic (reducing blood cholesterol) drugs. Currently, we are running low on antibiotics that can actually kill the microbes that cause infections and therefore, I am particularly interested in finding new molecules with strong antibiotic activities. However, the process from the discovery of a molecule to that becoming a marketed drug can take up to 20 years. It is a long process and not always successul, but this is the reason why there are several research groups in the world focusing on the same work and hopefully, a new marine antibiotic will be on the market soon!

    • Photo: Kate McGonagle

      Kate McGonagle answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      I think the research I’m doing is super important as it’s looking for new medicines to treat people with awful diseases! If we could find a new medicine, this would have a huge impact on a lot of people’s lives.

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