• Question: why do u want £500 how about more such as 69 million then u can do more tests and scientist stuff

    Asked by ultimateb34st to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      That much money would be awesome – I’m not sure I would know what to do with all that though. The average 3-year research project costs about £300,000, so with that much you could run over 200 projects at once, or run a one-man lab for 600 years. 😀

      Or you could buy a big bit of kit – perhaps about one quarter of the Diamond Light source synchrotron near Oxford.

      £500 is just the right amount of money to set me up to take my talk on the road.

    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I can barely imagine how much money £69 million pounds is!

      The £500 prize for this isn’t for us to use on our research. It’s to be used to help communicate science to a wider audience. Which is why I want to donate it to a really worthwhile charity that allows kids in Africa to get practical science experience before their school exams.

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      That’s an oddly specific number you picked there. I don’t think I’d even know where to start with the money. Most funding for science is done through research councils and funding bodies. They get money from the government, charities and probably many other places and labs submit research proposals to try and get some of that money to do their research. I’d much rather be in the lab growing bacteria and firing X-rays at things that deciding who gets what of £69 million.

      As Ben said, the money is for us to help communicate science. I would like to buy a small portable netbook to replace my huge laptop which is on its last legs and a camera to take pictures of all the science stuff I see so I can blogg about science on the go. Anyhting left Over I’d love to get the name of that charity from Ben as it sounds great.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      More money is always welcome, easiest thing in the world is to spend it, but talking to people about our work and helping others understand is also part of “scientist stuff” and I happen to really enjoy it.

      500£ would allow me to meet some of you with a brand new Mic and have you star on my very first Science Podcast, to start a series that would aim to communicate Science and inspire students to dive into it. I would choose to visit those of you who asked me the most interesting questions 😉

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