• Question: If you could have anything in the world what would it be? (To do with your jobs)

    Asked by millie137 to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Oooh that’s a toughy! I think I would want a solution to the problem of non-native species – a way of getting rid of them, or stopping them from getting to new places. That way I would save lots of native plants and animals from extinction. It would also save a lot of money – millions of pounds are spent every year trying to deal with non-native pest species, like the grey squirrel and zebra mussel in the UK, rabbits and cane toads in Australia… and of course signal crayfish!

      Then again, if I wished for that, then I wouldn’t have anything to research any more… so I’d be out of a job 😉 So maybe I’d wish for something else, like an office with windows (check out my office here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXb3KBWQyU). Either that or an unlimited amount of money for research and travel (including trips to conferences in exotic places!).

    • Photo: Christine Switzer

      Christine Switzer answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I work mostly with contaminated soils so if I could have *anything* in the world, it would be to have to retrain for a new scientific field. It would do the world so much good to be rid of contaminated land and retraining would be lots of fun.

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Right now in my job I would really like a bunch of volunteers who could help me with my lab work, because on my own it’s kind of a nightmare. Working together is so much more fun. It’s a lot to wish for, and often I do have volunteers, but right now they’re all away, and right now I need them the most ;(

      Haha, Zara I so hear you 🙂 … well no, because unlike you I didn’t even bring my headphones … an office with windows would be great though!

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I think my answer is similar to those above – I would like either more time or more people helping me with my research. I have loads of ideas and questions that I want to look at further but I never seem to have the time to do as much as I would like! I have lots of projects and studies that I have started but have never had time to finish off 🙁

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I would like to have a plant that contain new chemicals to the ones we have got now so it can kill cancer cells in a new way to the drugs discovered so far!!!
      I think there is definitely a plant out there somewhere now but finding it will be decades and very hard since trees in forests are getting chopped down all the time so it might have been destroyed or become very rare (that we might never find one)!

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