• Question: How do you think science will expand in the future? What kind of achievements do you hope to accomplish?

    Asked by ninjallamas to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 13 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      How will it expand? Urgle. Scientists are notoriously bad at seeing that kind of future (we’re good at moving a step at a time by looking at evidence; Steve Jobs was the big jumps man). Would be nice if we could get a handle on ageing?

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      Hi ninjallamas,

      I hope governments and society will allow science to expand further! Right now, there is a big discussion ongoing, because the european union and governments are planning to reduce the science funding.

      Science has a bit of an image problem, because we don’t know what we will find out, before we go and have a look. However, some of the greatest discoveries (in hindsight) could not have possibly been predicted back then. I heard a talk from a nobel prize winner who said he had no idea that his research would have such an impact.

      Let’s see!

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      I tell you what, if more young people like you are interested in science and decide to become scientists then science has a great future! As long of course as the government realises that it must fund science – I think we will need science to help us deal with lots of problem in the world – diseases, global hunger, climate change – all sorts of really big challenges. One thing I’ve noticed though is that sometimes things are big, like the Large Hadron Collider, while other things get smaller – have you heard of nanotechnology? This uses really small things – like tiny particles, or tiny electronic devices so actually, some things in science are getting smaller rather than expanding!

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