Question: How will your research benefit the following generations

Nick Wright answered on 10 Mar 2014:

I think science can benefit future generations in a lot of ways, from improving technology to making new discoveries that benefit everyone. Not many people know that some of the technologies we use a lot in the modern world were developed, almost by accident, by scientific research on other topics. For example, NASA developed velcro whilst studying materials, and in the internet was created by scientists to share their research – and look how that benefits everyone in the world today!

Its hard to know exactly what technological developments will come out of my research, since these things can be very hard to predict. Instead I think the most important benefit of my research to future generations is to inspire people to study the sciences. Science benefits everyone, from the development of new drugs and medical techniques, through to engineering advances in cars and aeroplanes. But science can also be hard for some people to study and young people don’t always get the right exposure to it early on in their lives. I try to use my research to inspire people to be interested in science so that some will take up scientific careers and provide the future technological advances we all need.