• Question: What do you find most interesting about the field you are in?

    Asked by Dhananjay to Anne, Arthur, Rose, Ruhina, Thomas on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by Beth, Molly, TabbyA.
    • Photo: Anne Canning

      Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I love the diversity of polymers that can be made for different applications. In particular you can change the material properties to make the polymers stiffer or softer. If you grow stem cells on stiff materials, it has been shown they can change to bone cells, whereas if you grow them on softer polymers they change into cartilage/ softer tissue. I think its really cool one small change can have a massive effect on how the cells behave when grown on them.

    • Photo: Arthur Wilkinson

      Arthur Wilkinson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Polymer science and technology (in common with other branches of materials science) is a blend of chemistry, physics and engineering. I find this breadth means that I come across something new and interesting every day. This morning it was a discussion about new carbon fibres with my colleagues over a cup of tea and 5 minutes ago it was a discussion about breaking large specimens in our (very) large testing machine JLo.

    • Photo: Rose Simnett

      Rose Simnett answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi Dj,
      I feel the same as Anne and Arthur. The variety of science involved in polymer research is great. It means you always get to try different things and learn new techniques. I also really like how polymer chemistry is very easily related to real life. There are many times when the research done in the lab will actually go into a product that you can buy in the shops.

    • Photo: Ruhina Miller

      Ruhina Miller answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Like everyone else there’s a wide range of techniques and approaches that can be used to analyse a problem so it’s nice to be able to try different things out that you wouldn’t otherwise. Also it’s nice to have an industry linked project because you see or hear about the problems they have first-hand.

    • Photo: Thomas Farrugia

      Thomas Farrugia answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hoi Dhananjay – what I find most interesting about my field is the variety of things that people have done with proteins – some people have made materials out of them, whilst others have used them as sensors for chemicals or toxins or just used to build up really complex chemical systems.

      And some have done a little of all that and made materials that form in response to a stimulus e.g a liquid that turns into a gel when there is a temperature change (actually this is jelly!) or in the presence of another chemical.

Comments