• Question: i would just like to say thank you for answering all of my question and if you won what would you do with the prize money?

    Asked by harriettmay to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      You are very welcome harriett! Thanks for asking some challenging questions!
      I would spend the prize money on setting up webcasts and video blogs for the project, so that everyone can see what we are doing. This would allow people to follow the progress and actually get involved with the team, so that you don’t have to wait for a news article or story to find out what’s happening, you can see it happening live.
      It would also mean that people could ask questions (like right here) to members of the team and get them answered. With the internet and a little bit of technology, we can break down the barriers that exist and let everyone engage with our land speed record attempt. 😀

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Cheers, Harriet.

      I’m planning on adding on a schools-directed component of a new website that looks to integrate my area of science (how the body and the brain communicate) with music! For more details, check out our profile pages.

    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Harriett,

      You’re welcome. As I have said on my page on this website I would buy equipment and software to create webisodes of our research to distribute to the public and schools so that you can see and understand what we are doing and also let you give us your views and opinions on our research.

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hi Harriet – you’re very welcome!

      A lot of people don’t really know what scientists do – they often assume that all scientists permanently wear lab coats and never come out of laboratories! TV makes the situation even worse because scientists in films are always about to blow up the world (either because they want to or because they’ve made a huge mistake!). These sort of ideas put people off science subjects without ever finding out the types of jobs they’ll be missing!

      I’m one of the organisers of “Discover!” which is a Saturday club running activities and visits to places like Aberthaw power station and British Airways Maintenance Centre! One of the activities I help out in is helping students to obtain images from beautiful mineral samples like calcite, quartz and even meterorite! Each of the students receives a t-shirt with an image they designed themselves! We work with Professor Richard Weston who developed the technique and is now selling material printed from his own images to Liberty of London! I’ve uploaded the image I had on my t-shirt this year. Other activities include building a prosthetic hand and using facilities in Cardiff which control a telescope in Hawaii!

      Unfortunately this club can only take 30 people at a time – I’d like to buy 2 video cameras so that the students who attend the club can make a film about their experiences which will be available on the web for people who can’t come in person!

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      I would like to make some mini science films to submit to ‘Planet SciCast’ and put on U-tube. I may also try to do some university level films to go on I-tunes U.
      I sometimes do science shows and demonstrations so I’d like to buy some more props for those – maybe even a small portable microscope so I can show people some of my latest work which is very, very tiny.

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