• Question: What is a current problem that YOU think needs more attention?

    Asked by jeremyhatt to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Ed Lowe

      Ed Lowe answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Alternative or renewable energy sources. Medical research is great (and fascinating) but will not be as useful as it might if we either run out of energy or make the planet uninhabitable.
      I’ve helped with some research aimed at designing biological fuel cells, which would be a start. Ultimately I think we’ll figure out a way to use solar power efficiently, but it may be a way off.

    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Water availability.

      Water availability is already a big problem and with more people using more water all the time it’s a problem that’s set to continue.

      So if sea levels are set to rise, we may as well find a way of efficiently removing the salt from sea water to make it drinkable/suitable for watering crops.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Ed and Ben have great ideas – but I think that the biggest problem we currently face is food – not for us, but for people in the third world where it is more difficult to grow food.

      We have so much food here that we waste hideous amounts of it – if we were more clever with how we share food we could wipe out starvation overnight.

      Not easy, but possible.

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Just to add another problem on top of the energy, water and food problems the others mentioned. There are plenty of diseases out there that don’t get their fair share of attention, a lot of the time because they are in third world countries and pharmaceutical companies can’t make a lot of money from them. Diseases like sleeping sickness and Chagas disease which are more common in African Countries for example is very under funded.

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