• Question: what is the best thing you have invented

    Asked by anon-177322 to Andrew, Becky, Daniel, Helen, Nicola, Urslaan on 16 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Andrew Singer

      Andrew Singer answered on 16 Jun 2018:

      The great thing about being a scientist is that you’re always doing something that no one else has done–so you’re always “inventing” new ways of seeing the world. I don’t like playing favourites with my publications, but I do have a few that I feel especially proud of. Here’s a recent one, which effectively says that the constant release of sewage into our rivers is likely contributing to the problem we have with antibiotic resistance (drug-resistant infections): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308389595_Trace_levels_of_sewage_effluent_are_sufficient_to_increase_class_1_integron_prevalence_in_freshwater_biofilms_without_changing_the_core_community

    • Photo: Becky Thomas

      Becky Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2018:

      I’ve not invented anything in the normal sense of the word, but as Andrew says, we are ‘inventing’ new ways to look at things. So far, I’m most proud of my work looking at the conservation of leopards in South Africa. Leopards are the only big cat that you’ll find living outside of big nature reserves and because of that they come into contact with people. Many get hunted or hit by cars. In our research we worked with local people, and used camera traps to study the leopards. We found a very rare population of strawberry leopards which are amazing (rather than the black spots, they are a pinkish colour!).

    • Photo: Helen Littler

      Helen Littler answered on 17 Jun 2018:

      I designed an egg-shaped roundabout which made traffic slow down so cyclists felt safer using it.

    • Photo: Urslaan Chohan

      Urslaan Chohan answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      I’ve not really invented anything, but I’ve discovered some very interesting things in my research! Of course I’m biased… 🙂 I learned that water and magnetism don’t mix well for steels.

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