• Question: You all study the outside so how are you different?

    Asked by mhchs15 to Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      I guess I am different to the other guys here as I also use computer simulations to try to make predictions about how animals might behave in certain situations. However, even when we use a computer simulation we still have to test our predictions by running real experiments and then comparing the results we get to our simulations. Sometimes they match but sometimes they don’t – and if this happens we have to go back and redo our simulations to make them more realistic.

      The computer simulations I do wouldn’t be any use if we didn’t have any real data from the real world to use with them though!

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi mhchs15!

      We’re all different because we study different things! i study crayfish and how they interact with other animals. Edd models animal behaviour. Jess studies rainforest plants and their anti-cancer properties. Nicolas looks at plastic rubbish in the environment. All very different research topics – but all very important if we want to learn more about the environment and look after it!

      How is my topic different? Well I’m the only one in this zone who is studying a non-native species – an American crayfish – that was introduced to this country and is causing loads of problems. Non native species are the second biggest cause of species extinctions in the world (the first biggest is habitat destruction) so it’s really important to study them if we want to save our native plants and animals! I made a video (with crayfish footage!) here: http://www.tinyurl.com/imascientist if you want a quick summary!

      You can ask us questions if you want to learn more about our topics 🙂

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