• Question: Do you think your research is worthwhile

    Asked by oscanljd to Daniel, Derek, Ian, Phil, Upul on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Derek Mann

      Derek Mann answered on 13 Jun 2010:

      Yes the research is very worthwhile as we are begining to discover ways to reverse liver damage. In fact my research has now progressed to the stage where we are testing our ideas in a clinical trial where we hope to prove that we have a treatment for reversing liver fibrosis (this is a fancy name for liver scars).

    • Photo: Philip Wadler

      Philip Wadler answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Absolutely!

      Throughout history, there have been two major modes of communicating new ideas: prose and mathematics. Now we have a new one: writing a computer program. In computing, I’m not sure we’ve yet had our Galileo, and our Newton and Einstein are yet to come. I design programming languages—and I have no doubt that in future programming languages will not just let us program new apps for the iPhone, but express whole new theories of science.

    • Photo: Ian Sillett

      Ian Sillett answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Yes, I believe that counter terrorism and policing are very important for the UK and I also believe that my work is important to both of these issues. It is important to choose work that you think is worthwhile, otherwise you won’t give it your best.

    • Photo: Daniel Mietchen

      Daniel Mietchen answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Certainly yes – otherwise I wouldn’t spend my time on it. The worthiness for much of it is not apparent immediately, though, and requires a longer perspective.

      For example, schizophrenia has its origins in early brain development, and it leads to an altered folding of the brain surface. There is no therapy available yet (though many symptoms can be controlled), but designing one might well require (if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research) a deeper understanding of these developmental processes in humans and other animals. And even if we do not understand the causal relationships yet, we can search for altered folding patterns in patients and use this to help the physicians with their diagnose.

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