• Question: Why is your area of scientific discovery important (or relevant) for the ordinary citizen of this country?

    Asked by anon-224916 to Simon, Selen, Paul, Nawapat, Natalie, Katy on 19 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Nawapat Kaweeyanun

      Nawapat Kaweeyanun answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      One of the important studies in my area is space weather, which is not unlike normal weather but instead of wind we have plasma (very hot gas), and instead of rain-storm we have plasma-storms. Space weather is important to everyone because bad storm events can damage satellites we have up in space. Broken satellites mean no TVs or GPSs – both of which are very important today. A very strong plasma-storms can also affect electric plants causing long power outages! Today we are trying to accurately predict when certain space plasma events are gonna occur, so we can navigate our satellites around them and protect our livelihood down on Earth.

    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 19 Nov 2019:

      Harking back to my PhD: I was working on how your teeth erode over time, when you challenge them with a fizzy drink. Since people are drinking more fizzy drinks, it’s a useful to know how to help stop your teeth falling out!

    • Photo: Natalie Fowler

      Natalie Fowler answered on 21 Nov 2019:

      Mine is very important to the people because I am looking into making sure we treat people who are sick in the best way. People want to know that if they need medical care that it is as good as we can possibly give. Research helps us to continually improve and to make sure we are saving and treating as many people as possible in an effective way.

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