• Question: Will your contribution in the cancer zone be life-changing for people in the future?

    Asked by marshmallow to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 12 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      There are a lot of researchers and cancer research is very difficult, so no single researcher can be sure their research will make a great change for anyone. But a whole load of researchers will certainly make a difference.
      My mother-in-law, for example – she recently got over a cancer which would have killed her ten years earlier. In the intervening time we worked out the right kind of chemotherapy for it.

      Having said this – we just made a discovery (last week) that will have a huge effect on how a few people with melanoma will get on. We found that one of the ways used to treat it won’t work (and may even make things worse). So anyone who would have been treated the old way, but now won’t be, will be much more likely to survive. That feels pretty good for us.

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      Hi marshmallow,

      uuhm, probably not, no. I really do not see that coming. But, on the other hand, most scientists that contributed to life-changing discoveries in the past didn’t see that coming either! So- who knows?

      One of the exciting things in science: we don’t know about the things we do research on yet, so we can’t tell what impact it will have, if we find the answer. Let’s see what happens!

      However, the statistics say that it is much more likely that I will make a small small small contribution and not find the big thing.

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      I agree with Robert and Susanne on this one. Many scientists will make small steps that added together to the small steps made by lots of scientists, you get something important which can make a difference. One thing I hope all 5 of us scientists here in the zone achieve together is that we make a difference to your lives! We all hope to show how fantastic science is, and that might change your life!

    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      Hello marshmallow,
      as Susanne and Robert said. Each of us alone might not discover something that is critical and life-changing, but we are all contributing with little pieces to the puzzle. And by adding this little piece of information we are helping to solve the big puzzle. that’s how I feel, a really small drop in a big ocean, but if you would take each of theses drops the ocean would be dry 😉

Comments