• Question: What difference is your work making right now

    Asked by Zuriel on 27 Sep 2025.
    • Photo: Emily Walls

      Emily Walls answered on 27 Sep 2025:

      My project involves looking at stars and their remains in a specific galaxy called M82 and I’m using a wide range of data, which dates back to the 1980s up to present day, so my project essentially is updating the research that has been covered across 40 years and to help our estimates and ensure that our data is as accurate as possible for this one galaxy. M82 is also the closest galaxy to us which is considered a ‘starburst’ galaxy – so this galaxy produces lots of stars in comparison to other galaxies, it being close to us makes it easier to observe what’s going on in the galaxy and then I can apply what I’ve found in M82 to other galaxies that are similar to update our current understanding.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 29 Sep 2025:

      The work we do is pushing the boundaries on one of the biggest questions in science… where did we come from and are we alone in the Universe? If we understand the origins of the chemistry that gave rise to life then we can look for the conditions that produced that chemistry elsewhere in the galaxy and hopefully find life occurring elsewhere in the space.

Comments

  • Photo: Gabrielle (she/her)

    Gabrielle (she/her) commented on :

    I work in a company that holds a lot of human genomes (over 1 million!) and we can use this data to identify potential disease targets for new drugs, or explain why different patient populations might react differently to a drug. It’s really exciting research that uses patient data to guide pharmaceutical development in the most promising directions for future medicines.

  • Photo: Andrew M

    Andrew M commented on :

    Compared to these others my own work is positively mundane. My company prides itself on the environmental benefit of its products but to produce those products, to achieve those gains, we first incur environmental losses – emissions created, energy and resources used. I’m working to make my company as efficient as possible; to reduce the waste, the scrap, the rework; to minimise the environmental cost so that our products acheive the greatest net gain.