• Question: What kind of science stuff do you do ???

    Asked by anon-249296 to Zoya, Tom, Stacey, Laura, James, Connor on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Stacey New

      Stacey New answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      At the moment I study climate change and work with climate scientists to turn scientific research into something that can be used by people all over the world to help them understand the potential impacts of climate change. This is important work as it helps people to understand the climate science that the Met Office produces and assist them to prepare and adapt for a changing climate. For example we work on food security and by using our computer models we can predict how crop growth might be affected by a global warming.

      I’ve just finished my PhD in Wildfire. The research I did and still do for this will help scientists to understand how a fire behaves when burning different plants and wood. I got to set fire to trees and plants in the laboratory and in America with firefighters in forests so that I could watch and study how the fire changed. This is important as climate change could result in more damaging fires in the future that could affect a greater number of people and more of the environment.

    • Photo: Connor Prior

      Connor Prior answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      I make new chemicals and use them to design and make other chemicals which can be used for medicine or materials!

    • Photo: Zoya

      Zoya answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      I look at the chromosomes of babies who are not born yet. The chromosomes carry genes and different genes have different functions. Babies are screened when they are still in their mother’s tummies to check how they are growing and if they have any risk of developing any diseases.

    • Photo: James Lees

      James Lees answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      I work with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) it’s basically a very small lever that gently brushes over the surface of an object and can show very small things down to the size of an atom.

      My job is to make it so that the machine is also able to work as a thermometer and measure the temperature.

      This is very important for future technology. As phones and computers get smaller and smaller we need to make the components that make them up smaller too. We all know that electronics can get hot and if it get’s too bad they can stop working all together.

      My machine will make it possible to properly test the next generation of tech. Testing where and why they get hot so we can keep making things smaller and smaller.

      Within my own research i’m already using it to look at computer memory, wires and even the fridges of the future.

    • Photo: Tom Scott

      Tom Scott answered on 10 Mar 2020:


      My work is all about studying nuclear materials and how they interact with other things. Some of it is about finding out about radioactive decay and how this impacts the environment the material is in.

      Other work involves using robots and drones to scan material and collect data so we can find out if it is radioactive, and how strongly radioactive it is. This is important as we will then know whether it is safe for humans to go near the materials and how they can be moved or looked after.

      I’m lucky that this means I get quite a lot of opportunities to go on fieldtrips to study materials, such as in Japan, Ukraine or the USA.

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