• Question: why are you not trying to cure cancer?

    Asked by rupertbear to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Sarah Beasley

      Sarah Beasley answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      There are so many scientists out there all with important roles to fill. Often people choose the science that they’re good at to work on, and I was never really very good at biology!

      I enjoy what I do and think it’s important to work in what interests you – I’m glad there are lots of people working on curing cancer already, and I don’t think I’m skilled enough to contribute as much as I’m contributing to my work at the moment 🙂

    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      As Sarah says, everyone is good at different things. I’m much better at maths and physics than biology, so if I want to help make a difference, I can do more good by researching materials of the future than trying to cure diseases.

      Besides, a lot of medical technology wouldn’t exist if not for people working on things other than medicine. Things like MRI scanners or PET scanners, even x-ray machines, computers and lasers – all of these came from people working on different topics, but now are used every day in hospitals and research labs working to heal people. So ultimately, we’re all still helping the human race by working on the technologies and knowledge that people in the future will use to solve big problems like cancer, or global warming.

    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      @rupertbear we all try and do our best and work to our strengths. Also, quite a few new amazing discoveries have come out accidentally from research into other things, like the discovery of penicillin and DNA fingerprinting. Both accidents while working on something else. For my part there is a spin off from Earth’s core research into things like industrial materials and damage limitation after explosions. The point is, you never quite know where the research is going to take you.

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Cancer needs to be cured, and I’m not trying to stop anyone from trying to cure it, but my strengths lie elsewhere. I have great respect for the biology talented, and those with that gift should surely pursue it! My research will push for better cameras and technology that might help the medical field eventually, but that’s not where my calling lies.

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