• Question: What do you think is the most important discovery in the last decade and why?

    Asked by gigglebot4 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 15 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by josieb123.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Wow – that’s a great question – very tough.
      Probably graphene – its a single atom thickness of carbon – and incredebly strong and a very good conductor of electricity. I think I’ve read a layer of graphene is strong enough to withstand the weight of an elephant focused onto the end of a pencil. Its use is probably going to revolutionise the electronics field making flexible thin screans etc. Its also got great potential in things like medical devices and batteries that need to be very small.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 17 Jun 2012:

      Hi gigglebot4! Hm – from a slightly biased viewpoint, I think that the new mass spectrometers we work on are a great step forward. With them we can now measure 1/1000th of the mass of an atom accurately! This makes research on complicated things like figuring out the chemistry of life much much easier and allows us to find new drugs and treatments that would take us centuries otherwise. Do you have a favourite discovery?

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Can I have two?!
      I would have to say the mapping of the whole human genome, which means that now have a complete map of all the different genes in humans. Now we just need to work out what all the genes do!
      My second one would have to be the development of induced pluripotent stems cells. This is a technique that means we can now reprogram cells into any other different type, which has revolutionised medical therapies. This means that skin cells from someone can be reprogrammed to be nerve cells to treat a brain injury in the same person, or that’s the hope!

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