• Question: If you had an infinite supply of funding for your work, what would you do with it and why?

    Asked by hannahkw to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Wow – I would donate it to scientists working on solving some massive environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable use of water, energy and land.

    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      I’d definitely spend some of it on promoting the LHC in a way that people can actually understand and enjoy. That is what me and my musician frinds are trying to do now with this project: http://www.lhcsound.com/. I don’t see why science and art have to be so separate.

      I would also make sure that the new generation of proton therapy (cancer treatment) research gets funded.

      And I would fund a project that teaches the politicians all about science so they don’t keep making crazy decisions that leave us all in a big mess.

    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Ooooh well I’d employ more people to work for me so I could get the work done faster and buy a more automated microscope to make taking images of my bacteria easier.

      So basically I’d use it to buy better tools for my work and more people to help me do the work and answer the questions we have about how bacteria sense.

      I’d also fund better communication of science and how science works – to everyone from politicians to primary school children

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      If I had an infinite supply of money I could do everything, as I could pay everyone to investigate everything…and eventually we’d know everything – probably! (never, ever talk about “infinite” to an astronomer, they get very carried away and excited!)

      If I had “a lot” of money, I would use it to try and make people more interested in all types of science, so I’d spend it on education projects. Science should be exciting and enjoyable, and if we had lots of money available we could make it like that in schools. We need lots of scientists, so making science more interesting would really help to do that, I think.

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