how would you be willing to help man kind and the environment?

Question: how would you be willing to help man kind and the environment?
- Keywords:
  environment,
  help,
  mankind,
  people
Asked by naqvint01 to Richard, Prateek, Liz, Jim, Amelia on 13 Jun 2011.
- Jim Caryl answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  I’m actually a bit of an eco-warrior and spend a great deal of time trying to encourage people to recycle, compost and grow their own vegetables. I also try to cycle rather than drive. I hate unnecessary packaging on foods and products as it’s usually so unnecessary. One of the big issues in science research is that we use a LOT of plasticware (tubes, dishes, containers, tools), which we often have to dispose of after a single-use because they are contaminated.
  
  In the old days many biology labs used more glassware, which could be cleaned and re-used. In our lab we continue to use glassware, and where possible I use tools that can be sterilised and used again and again. It’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to.
  
  At a larger scale, the field of bacterial genetics and microbiology has an important role to play in the de-toxifying of human waste. We use bacteria to process sewerage from cities, and we also develop bacteria that can breakdown plastics and other toxic chemicals, or use bacteria to make useful materials from waste materials (called biodegradation and bioremediation). I used to work in a lab that studied a natural bacteria that could eat oil, and they have sprayed this bacteria onto oil spills to help clean it up.
  
  There are many ways in which a knowledge of genes and bacteria can help protects and clean up our environment, so this is one of the reasons I love my field so much.
- Prateek Buch answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  A really very important question – and one that isn’t asked often enough! There are two ways to reduce man’s impact on the environment, one is to reduce energy demand and the other is to make the energy supply greener – and science can help with both!
  
  Doing the simple things – recycling, insulating your home, cycling and using public transport – may seem like a tiny step and something not that significant – but if everyone took steps to reduce their energy demand by doing these things we’d be a lot less likely to damage the environment. Plus things like growing some of your own food is immense fun!! Science helps on the demand side of things by developing new ways to recycle, new insulation methods, better fuels and better ways to grow food.
  
  Science also helps clean up our energy supply – Jim’s better placed to tell you about this I suppose but there is on going research into how green algae-like organisms could produce hydrogen for use as a fuel.
  
  It’s vital that science addresses how we make out planet greener – I hope you’re one of the next generation of green scientists!
- Lizzard O'Day answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  I’m all about being “green”. I’m big into recycling and being as nice to our friend planet Earth as possible (there’s only one you know- we probably shouldn’t mess it up too bad). Even in my fashion company- despite making everything incredibly more expensive all my clothing is eco-friendly- some of my T-shirts are even made from recycled beverage containers!
  
  From a science stance- helping man kind is kind of the point. I try to discover new insights into disease and hope to use the info to design better drugs and all and all make the world a better place. Although my primary goal is to cure cancer- a lot of other people’s research goes into environmental science. For instance, in the lab next door they are trying to make more eco-friendly fuels or use corn to power cars! Pretty rad.
- Richard Badge answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  I am a big fan of “think global act local”: I try to recycle as much as possible and cycle to work every day. Jim is right the a lot of lab based science is not very green, in that things are used only once… Then again in some cases the tests that we do are so sensitive that any contamination would invalidate the results – I once went to a factory producing plastic tubes for research… all the factory staff had been DNA fingerprinted so that if any of their DNA gets into the plastic they can trace it back!
  
  I do my best in the lab to reuse and re-cycle things, but it is difficult… Most of the things we use are made of polypropylene, one of the more recyclable plastics, so I’d like to find a way to safely and cleanly recycle this once we scientists are done with it…
  
  Richard
- Amelia Markey answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  I agree with Richard, it’s very important to help future generations by protecting the environment but sometimes it can be quite hard with our work. Our building does regularly recycle cardboard, paper etc but I’m sure more could be done. I try my best to recycle as much as possible at home and I like to think my role as a scientist is in some way helping mankind by furthering our knowledge.

Question: how would you be willing to help man kind and the environment?

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