• Question: If you could make one discovery and become famous for it, what would it be? e.g. a cure for cancer.

    Asked by mjones to Amy, Drew, Julia, Sara on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      If I could choose from anything, a reconciliation of quantum mechanics and relativity. Since I don’t fully understand either, I’m not exactly in the running. I’ll settle for demonstrating that current methods of estimating the safety of nuclear power plants and aircraft are not effective at what they claim to do.

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hey jonesey… It would be pretty awesome to be a famous scientist… Even better if you were known for finding an amazing medical cure! Maybe a big egotistic but I’d like to thing that maybe someday my work would help someone..fingers crossed. My work currently involves looking for new drugs for diabetes, its more realistic for me to be able to do that than find a cure for cancer.. that would be a tough one!

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi mjones! That’s a toughie! my research is quite molecular so is actually trying to explain how cells work…but I hope that some of the stuff that I find out will help people with rheumatiod arthritis, asthma and other autoinflammatory conditions in the long run!

      I am actually working on protein mutations that are fond in cancer cells – there are other far better qualified biologists out there working on this in much more detail but it would be good to think that my work might help them understand a bit more about how cells are working in certain cancers and lead to a cure.

      🙂

      What would yours be?

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hello mjones! Mine would be figuring out how life got started (or gets started)! To me that is the holy grail of science right now – the toughest question out there and the one we have the most to gain by understanding!! It is a deep question, and would help address other deep questions like – why are we here? Is there possibly other life out there in the universe? What is life? I don’t expect to accomplish all this, but I hope to make a dent!! In any case I am having fun trying!!!

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