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Asked by anon-316755 on 10 Mar 2022.
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Alistair McShee answered on 10 Mar 2022:
I work in the search to produce safe, carbon-free, and practically unlimited clean energy. Every time you turn on a light, plug in your phone, or leave the TV on in the background, you are using electricity which is most likely generated from burning coal.
Not only do we only have a few years’ worth of coal left, but the impact this fossil fuel has on the planet is awful; notice the number of storms we’ve had in recent years? Yep, that’s climate change.
This needs to stop as soon as humanly possible, and I am working in the race to help that!
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Jamie Smith answered on 10 Mar 2022:
Hi, thanks for your question!
My work allows JET – a Nuclear Fusion reactor – to keep running.
Nuclear Fusion is the process of joining two atoms together and producing energy. We are hoping that we can use this as a way of producing clean energy in future. The problem at the moment is we put more energy into the reactor than we get out.
There is a new reactor – ITER – being built in France at the moment. This has been designed to produce more energy than is put in. This would prove that fusion is a possible energy source. But in order to design it and be confident that it will work, we need to get as much information as we can using JET.
In the future, we hope that all of our work will reduce our need for fossil fuels and meet the increased energy demands as more machines convert to electric.
Hope this answers your question!
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Luke Humphrey answered on 10 Mar 2022:
I work fusion energy research, for the same organisation as Alistair and Jamie above, so I won’t repeat their excellent answers! My job specifically deals with creating digital tools. These are simulation and diagnostic tools that allow for designing and operating future fusion reactors.
This is important, because as fusion is a totally new technology, there’s going to be a lot of room for improvement for many years to come, and lots of design questions to consider when creating a new machine or component. Computational methods can really expand the “space” of designs that we can explore. Cutting edge techniques like physics-informed neural nets are game changers for this.
Around the world, lots of companies and government research organisations are trying different approaches to fusion. Some are quite conventional, others are a bit different. I think this is great because for a totally new technology we need to try lots of different approaches. I work on one such approach, which aims to build a more compact “spherical” reactor. It’s called STEP.
If you want to know more, there are some good videos on youtube if you search for STEP on the UKAEAofficial channel.
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Daisy Shearer answered on 10 Mar 2022:
My job is as an applied quantum physics researcher which means I spend my time creating nanodevices (really small devices) and testing them as well as experimenting on materials to understand their quantum properties.
I think that research is really important so that we can keep solving world problems. My research helps us develop new technology like quantum computers. Once we’ve worked out how to build a reliable quantum computer, they could (in theory) have a profound impact on lots of areas of research and society. For example, they might help us do better climate change models so we can find better ways to reduce our impact on the climate and it could also be used in pharmaceuticals to help develop new medicines as a quantum computer could fully simulate the quantum mechanical effects of molecules and compounds!
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Victoria Fawcett answered on 10 Mar 2022:
I am an astronomer, which means we investigate the mysteries of the universe (which I think is pretty cool!).
Why I think studying the universe is important is that the more we know about the universe, other galaxies and other planets, the more we know about our own planet and how we came to be. I think it is also human nature to be curious and ask the big questions such as: ‘where did we come from?’, ‘are there other universes out there?’, ‘is the universe going to around forever, or will it end?’ and ‘is there other life out there?’. Hopefully we can answer some of these in astronomy!I also think, with global warming, it is good to have a backup plan, which could mean moving to another planet! We have already discovered a number of “Earth-like” planets that we think we could be able to live on.
Finally, a lot of the technology that astronomers develop have lots of benefits in other sectors such as engineering, medicine and biology.
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Martha Hilton answered on 10 Mar 2022:
My research is in particle physics, the fundamental building blocks of the universe. It matters to me to understand the universe at the most fundamental level, like why we are made up like we are and what happened at the big bang. In order to do this we need cutting edge technologies at particle accelerators which have also resulted in some spin-offs such as the world wide web which was first invented at CERN where I work!
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Lucy Lawrence answered on 14 Mar 2022:
A brilliant question! ✨🥼
My work matters because once scientists have done the work, they need people like me to get their work out there into the world!
I speak with scientists around the GLOBE to tell others about the great work that they’re doing.
This is because scientists are very clever at what they do, but they often don’t have the best networks to shout about their achievements, other than if it get picked up in the national news or on the BBC? But that’s rare. So that’s when I step in and help them tell more people about it.
They like to do this because, often if they shout about the work they’ve done, they’ll have people who see this, and approach them and want to work with them, or they find new ways to research, OR sometimes they even get money through it too.
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