Question: why not do research on the universe?how is your research useful?

Susana Teixeira answered on 16 Jun 2013:

My research is on finding the structure (shape, composition, etc) of molecules, and then finding how this relates to how they behave, or how they can carry out a certain function. So in a way I do research the universe! A tiny tiny part of it though….
Sometimes it is obvious to me how my work is useful: for example, we can see how a certain drug can block an enzyme that causes a disease, because we see how it fits into the enzyme (a bit like a key & lock kind of thing, finding what shape best matches the door we want to open!).
Many other times, however, it is not so obvious how research applies to things we can relate to in our daily lives and Scientists like myself do find it difficult to explain their reasons (and even loose track of them!). Some types of research have even been called “blue sky” because they seem to be answering “out of the blue”questions, nothing important or urgent. And yet: that is one of the exciting things about Science and being a Scientist! If you are curious about how things work and the whys of everything around you, you will try to find answers even when there is no obvious gain from it. Just for the satisfaction of understanding, cause there is a scientist in you. By doing that you add one more piece to the puzzle, and gradually we build a global picture of the world around us. Plenty of very important discoveries, like X-rays for example, were made almost by accident. And we now use X-rays for very useful purposes!