• Question: If you were to win how would you spend your money? Do you think that the £500 could really help change the quality of peoples life's when people have already spent millions if not more already attempting something on the same lines as yours?

    Asked by pkchristian to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 24 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 11 Mar 2011:

      Hello!
      Good question. You are right, millions have been spent on research, so the prize money won’t go to our research because £500 just really enough for what we do, research is very expensive! Thankfully the government, or charities do give us money for our research and its very hard to get this money, scientists have to prove that they deserve it and that the work they plan to do is worthwhile.
      Whoever wins the money in this competiton can use it instead to excite you ( and lots of other students) about science and what it’s like to be a scientist. This could mean lots of things – visiting schools, putting up a website, printing leaflets, painting a mural or arranging class visits to a laboratory.

      I have a stem cell workshop that allows students to see stem cells in action, and hopefully learn more about them and why they are so important. £500 would allow me to visit lots of schools instead of having them coming to my university, which is not always possible.

      What would you like to see the money spent on?

    • Photo: Kara Cerveny

      Kara Cerveny answered on 12 Mar 2011:

      This is a great question. If I win the money, I plan to give it back to the I’m a scientist program, so that it can expand and reach even more students, perhaps with a live event where some of you can visit the scientists in their labs or offices. I think that £500 can make a big difference, especially if it starts something that leads to something bigger than we ever imagined. I hope you are already enjoying the interactions that you’re having on-line with the scientists here.

    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi pkchristian, Thanks for your question, which is a really good one! Truthfully I don’t think £500 will make much of an impact on people’s quality of life. That’s why I want to run an outreach event with the money to teach people more about stem cells. I think if the public understand about them then they can lobby in the future for more money to be given to research.

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi pkchristian:
      You are right. £500 is peanuts in research, but that’s why we need to be creative with how we spend it. My plan is to make a really fun documentary about what young scientists get up to and what a massive impact they have on society. People often forget that it’s the young people’s crazy ideas that drive science forward! So I hope it’d be something that can reach thousands of students like yourselves and get them to consider doing science, and that way, that 500 quid can make a HUGE difference to science – a difference that millions cannot buy!

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      Absolutely, the £500 would be amazing to win because it isnt going to go directly into research but instead will help support the public engagement i do. maybe, just maybe, i will go to a school where there is a kid who gets really interested in science because of what we talk about. they then might decide to study science hard and go to uni to learn even more. imagine if they then become a scientist and make some amazing discoveries about stem cells that we dont even dream about yet! then id say that would be £500 very well spent 🙂

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