• Question: What would you do with the winning money? Would you spend it on something science related?

    Asked by anon-186079 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 2 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-186306.
    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 2 Nov 2018:

      I would spend it on science outreach events. These are where us scientists go out and meet with the general public to try to explain science and research they may not be familiar with.

      These usually are stalls where people can walk up and do fun sciency activities to learn about new stuff!

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 2 Nov 2018:

      I would work with a programme called Byte-sized Bioinformatics!

      Bioinformatics is the analysis of data that comes from the genetic material (DNA or RNA) of any living thing. It can tell you how the species evolved, or which person transmitted a virus to another person, or whether that group of bacteria is resistant to antibiotics.

      It’s a really cool part of biology, and it also involves a lot of coding! The programme takes PhD students like me with a Raspberry Pi (a very small computer that is very flexible) into schools in Scotland to teach practical bioinformatics. The money would help the programme to go further away from Edinburgh because there would be more money for travel, and in case the people running the session had to stay over night.

    • Photo: Raquel Medialdea Carrera

      Raquel Medialdea Carrera answered on 3 Nov 2018:

      I would spend it trying to teach about Epidemics to children and families.
      I will bring the “OUTBREAK GAME” to schools and science museums 👩‍🔬. I want to bring this game to as many schools as possible!

      The game is really fun! It is a show in which a group of children (or adults) play together with the objective of stopping an EPIDEMIC that is occurring in the city!! 😱😱

      A series of clues are given including the main characteristics of various diseases and epidemics, possible treatments, routes of transmission, etc.

      Then, the teams, together, need to learn how to interview patients, conduct contact tracing of suspected cases and learn how to treat, control and prevent further epidemics!
      This really fun game is the best way of learning about epidemics while having fun! ☺️
      Some of the epidemics I will teach about will be Malaria, Zika Virus, Ebola Virus, the flu…

    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 4 Nov 2018:

      I would like to spend it on outreach events to local schools, to tell people about how maths and sexually transmitted infections (known as STIs) are linked.

      STIs are on the rise across the country. Most new STI diagnoses are from people aged 16 to 24, so it is important for young people to know why they spread and how best to control them. I think this event would be a great opportunity for young people to learn more about what researchers of infectious diseases do, and also learn some practical advice about how to control the spread of STIs.

    • Photo: Catherine Smith

      Catherine Smith answered on 4 Nov 2018:

      For the last year or so I have been working on a project called Bug Watch. This involves volunteers are telling us when they are ill with an infection and what they do to make themselves feel better. It would be great to host some events for our volunteers (and anyone else who is interested!) so that they can hear all about how the information they have filled in has been used – and to get more ideas from them for future work.

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