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Asked by ilovehannah to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 18 Mar 2011 in Categories: Your Research. This question was also asked by stephmaskell4, florarichx, babywabylishypoo.
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David Pyle answered on 16 Mar 2011:
Hello ilovehannah – this is a big question!
The problem that I want to help solve is to understand what happens when volcanoes wake up after a long period of inactivity (perhaps hundreds of years), and build up to an eruption. There should usually be enough warning time (a few days to weeks) that an eruption is about to happen, and I am helping to develop theories about how we can recognise the start of an eruption before anything dangerous happens.
To get to this point, I have had to work a way of measuring how ‘large’ eruptions are, from measurements of their deposits. And I have also been working out ways to understand the past history of particular volcanoes – since this gives us the information we need to work out what might happen, and when, in the future. Most volcanoes are quite set in their ways: their behaviour tends to be quite similar from one event to another, so the more we know about their past, the better.
Most of my work is not directly relevant to the UK, as there is only one active (erupting) volcano on British territory at the moment – and that is Montserrat. Instead, I work with scientists overseas to help reduce the risks of volcanic activity for the millions of people who live near active volcanoes. One way in which my work helps to benefit the UK is through teaching and training of students and researchers. My students have gone to work in teaching (both in schools and universities); others have to gone to work for the insurance industry (looking at risks that affect the UK both directly, like wind storms and floods, and indirectly); and others have gone to work in natural resource industries – gas, oil, diamonds and in the environmental sector (water, pollution and waste).
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Luna Munoz answered on 18 Mar 2011:
It has already, but at a small scale. When I was working in New Orleans, my research helped in showing that cold and uncaring features can be a sign of much needed treatment. My supervisor and I developed a way to find and treat children who needed help by working with Florida city councils. They wanted to help the younger siblings of young offenders, and we helped to develop the best way to find them and treat them before they got into antisocial behaviour themselves.
Now, my work and others’ work has been used to try to convince the American Psychiatric Association that they should add these features to diagnosing children for the purpose of treatment. I hope that it will benefit people at a larger scale based on this. Prevention, of course, is best, and that is what I would aim for in society: identify those at risk and prevent those people from getting worse.
I should add that this research is now ongoing in the UK and there are several of us preventing bullying and other problems in schools here based on the research that I and others have done.
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Probash Chowdhury answered on 18 Mar 2011:
The medicines I test for safety will help people to do more, feel better and live longer.
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Melanie Stefan answered on 18 Mar 2011:
I am working on the molecules that control learning and memory. Having a better understanding of this might enable us, at some point in the future, to help when these processes don’t work as they should, for instance, in dementia, but also in drug addiction.
Also, some of my work is about how proteins are regulated in general. Some of the principles of that can probably be applied to other proteins, not just in the brain, but also in other organs. So maybe it will help us understand a whole lot of other things.
Comments
ilovehannah commented on :
Awww thank you soo much David! the whole class has benifited from that and my teacher is very proud you’ve put so much effort into this project!
David commented on :
Thanks! It’s great to get feedback like this too! 🙂