• Question: what discoveries and breakthroughs have you made so far?

    Asked by hannah20 to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Hannah i discovered lots of things relevant to the problem I was trying to solve during my PhD – like which glue to glue the detector with (that managed to keep its strength when exposed to chemicals), which plastic to use (that was strong and resilient enough) which detectors to use…I spent 5 years making such breakthroughs which lead to me finishing the PhD.

    • Photo: Pete Edwards

      Pete Edwards answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Most scientists contribute to their fields but only in a small way. Science progresses from the many small contributions that the individual scientists make. It is only very rarely that an Einstein comes along and changes everything in a flash! I’ve made small advances in my field but I’m no Einstein!

    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Hannah – someone else asked a similar question so I hope you don’t mind if I re-use my answer.

      I have been working in science for 25 years now and would like to think that I have made a few contributions. Not sure if they all count as breakthroughs, but these are the discoveries that have given me most satisfaction:

      One of the oldest is work on a project that I did (when I was in the US) which helped to explain how the poliovirus manages to punch its way into cells to start an infection.

      Though it’s not related, I was also pleased to be able to do a lot of work on the structure of human serum albumin (HSA), a protein found in the blood that normally carries fat molecules around. However, many drugs also stick to HSA and can get trapped there so drug companies are keen to find ways to make their drugs less sticky for HSA. And our work has helped to show them — to some extent — how they might be able to do that.

      More recently we have been working on proteins from foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Our very latest paper (published online just last month gives us some important new information on a FMDV protein called 2C. This is an little nano-machine that helps the virus to make copies of it genes in infected cells. Our work shows for the first time that the protein actually assembles into hexamers – rings with six copies of 2C. This might not seem so important but it’s a first step towards explaining how the protein does it job. And that is a starting point for thinking about how to develop a drug that might block it.

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      Hi hannah,

      I helped to show for the first time in humans that different parts of the brain are used when you a) find your way about and b) follow a very familiar route (as if on autopilot).

      I invented a new memory test which people with damage to the part of the brain that helps with a) above (its called the hippocampus) find very difficult.

      When people have Alzheimer’s Disease it often attacks the hippocampus in the early stages. The memory test might help identify these people early on, so that they can get better treatment.

      While working on my PhD I came up with a model (explanation) of how we learn new words (and why we sometimes get the sounds mixed up, so you might say “darn bore”, when you meant “barn door”). This has been quite influential, and it could be important, because problems with the mechanism could lead to dyslexia and other language and educational disorders.

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