Question: what kind of experiments do you do???

Edward Codling answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Hi tammy

I do various types of experiments but they can probably be divided into 2 types: computer simulations and ‘real’ experiments.

In computer simulations I try to set up a population of ‘virtual’ animals (a bit like animal Sims if you have played that game). I give them a few rules on how they should behave and then I see what happens after a certain time. I then change the rules a bit and see if that makes any difference to what happens. Because I can do pretty much anything on the computer, I can try lots of different examples. However, the big problem I then have is trying to relate what I have done on the computer to the real world. This is where I have to make some predictions using the computer and then test them in real experiments.

The real experiments I do vary but usually involve testing an animal group to see how they behave. For example, at the moment we are looking at swimming plankton (little bugs that live in water) and coral reef fish which we observe in a tank.

However, using animals to test my predictions is often very difficult. Because of this we have tried doing some real experiments with humans – as they are easier to control and give instructions to! We gave each person in the group different instructions and then observed what happened as they moved around in a large room. I’d like to do some more of these types of experiments with some school students if I win the £500 prize!