• Question: How will what you are using the money for help in the advancement in your area of science?

    Asked by Science-yay!!!:) to Alex, Laura, Lesley, Richard, vediacan on 12 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Prince

      Richard Prince answered on 12 Jun 2015:

      The experiment that I’m aiming to have people do (measuring the strength of chilis) won’t generate any new knowledge – there’s a lot of information on this already. However, it should get visitors and school pupils interested in receptors (major targets for drug development) and how the body senses pain (again, important for drug development). Hopefully everyone who takes part will end up applying to study pharmacology at university – that would be a huge boost for my area of science!
      All the best,
      Richard

    • Photo: Laura Newton

      Laura Newton answered on 13 Jun 2015:

      Hey!

      A lot of news that reaches the public about science isn’t explained properly or it gets distorted and doesn’t show the whole picture. People who don’t really understand what is going on can easily make the wrong decisions. For example, one of the big controversies at the moments is about people deciding not to vaccinate their children because they don’t understand what is in a vaccine and as a result diseases such as measles are getting caught by a lot more people again.

      It’s ok (and normal!) not to understand everything but that’s why it’s really, really important to be able (and encouraged!) to ask questions and get them answered. The more people that get the opportunity to ask questions and learn about important science the better! Then they can go on to support science and our scientists, even become scientists themselves and that makes the government more interested in science too and spend more money on it. Which means that we can make more discoveries that makes everyone’s life better.

      That’s why I want to use the money to help more children and young adults get the opportunity to see what science is really like and ask whatever questions they want so all of science can benefit in the future.

      Thanks for your question!
      Laura

      PS great name!

    • Photo: Vedia Can

      Vedia Can answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hey Science-yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I have come up with a new concept “Bite sized adverse reactions”, and if I win this competition the money will go towards setting up this idea.

      The concept: I’m sure most of you have seen your parents take medications (or even yourself), which sometimes contains a label on the medication warning you not to mix certain foods with this medication. The concept is not directly related to my current research. So, the benefits of this concept to the advancement in Pharmacology is that the combination of drugs and compounds I will use have not been tested yet. I hope to highlight the importance of different job roles in pharmacology and the importance of scientists safely yet effectively making beneficial discoveries to society. I will demonstrate these experiments, which you can safely carry out at your school if I win.

      Best Wishes,

      Vedia

    • Photo: Alex Agyemang

      Alex Agyemang answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hello Science-yay!!!:)

      Sponsoring a student or group of students to attend a relevant scientific workshop or conference will hopefully give them better awareness of the importance of pharmacology and scientific research to society in general.

      Best wishes,
      Alex

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