• Question: If you could get rid of one thing what would it be?

    Asked by samueleason to Nicolas, Christine, Edd, Jess, Zara on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      cancers cancers cancers!! lol..
      If I can do one thing is to stop the ability of cancers to metastasize!
      Metastasis occurs very late in cancer development and this is when the cancer cell can produce certain enzymes that will help it move away to another part of the body by travelling in the blood stream!
      For instance some lung cancer cells can travel to another organ e.g. breast or liver and settle there and grow cancer in another organ! how scary!
      Usually at this stage- most patients are not likely to live for much longer 🙁

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      From the world in general: war and fighting.

      We should channel our energy into sport – rather than going to war we could play football matches instead. Joking aside though, it is always quite depressing to realise how much science can be used in the wrong way (e.g. nuclear weapons).

      If I could remove one thing from my job – it would have to be all the admin work I have to do (sorting out forms, going to meetings, dealing with minor tasks in the university etc). I’d love to have more time to do science research.

    • Photo: Christine Switzer

      Christine Switzer answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      From the world, poverty. So many bad things link back to poverty. Disease, war, starvation, oppression. Eliminating poverty will not solve all of the world’s problems, but it will make a huge start.

      From my job, I’ll have to agree with Edd. Send away the admin work!

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      From the world? I have to agree with Christine, and I want to add ‘lack of education’. If all people had as good access to education as we have, this would also prevent poverty, because people would be more likely to plan ahead and realise how much (or how little) resources are available. I think with the lack of education a lot of things would end, also crime and wars. Of course we could never get rid of it all, but we could improve the situation.

      Of my life? Hard to say, I think I need everything I have in a way. I was going to say my car, but I need that one for work (and I also use it for fun while I have it :P). Edd and Christine made a really good point about administration! I’ll go with that 🙂

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I think Christine has made a good call on this one, I agree – if I had the chance, I’d rid the world of poverty.

      And as for something ecology-related… I’d get rid of any non-native species that have become a pest and are endangering other animals and plants. E.g. cane toads in Australia, the ‘killer’ shrimp that has just been found in parts of England, giant hogweed (a nasty plant!) and of course, crayfish 😛

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