• Question: If you could make any scientific creation imaginable, what would it be and why?

    Asked by theastarproduction to Chris, Dave, David, Fiona, Jack on 16 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Dave Farmer

      Dave Farmer answered on 16 Jun 2013:

      Hi theastarproduction,

      One thing that I can think of that would revolutionise the world pretty quickly would be a material that is superconducting at room temperature. A superconductor is a material that has zero resistance to an electric current flowing through it. They allow us to manipulate very large electric and magnetic fields without the normal problems of things heating up due to resistance. An example of their use is in the magnets that bend the particle beam around it’s track at the Large Hadron Collider. Currently, we’ve only found ones that work at very low temperatures (I think the record high temperature is -135 degrees!). One that worked at room temperature would, I believe, lead to a leap forward in technology. Incidentally, it would likely make me very rich as well! Although that’s not the reason I do science, I’m sure I could find something to do with the money…

      Dave

    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Hi theastarproduction,

      Probably a quantum computer. A computer that works according to quantum mechanics might be billions and billions (3 followed by 150 zeros) times faster than the best modern computers. Essentially, the human race would have unlimited computing power.

      It’s hard to even imagine what possibilities that might give us. Basically, anything we currently do with a computer would be much faster and easier. It would also make my scientific research a lot easier- I waste a lot of time waiting for computers to work. But it might also lead to possibilities nobody has even imagined yet.

      A lot of scientists think the brain can only be understood with quantum mechanics too, so maybe it would lead to a better understanding of the brain, or even to the development of much better AI.

    • Photo: Jack Miller

      Jack Miller answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Hi Theastarproduction,

      For me, it’d be a nuclear fusion power reactor that actually works. The fusion of light elements together to form a heavier element is the nuclear process that powers the sun, and there’s been a lot of research trying to get it to work on a more down-to-earth scale. Unfortunately, it’s a really hard problem, and it’s only now that people are starting to build nuclear fusion reactors that put out more energy than they take in. If we could just solve the problem, it’d provide a cheap, clean, and very green source of energy that could basically revolutionise our world and help to minimise our dependence on fossil fuels.

    • Photo: Chris Mansell

      Chris Mansell answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Dave, David and Jack have already given great answers.

      Personally, I would really like to build a quantum computer. I think it would be awesome.

    • Photo: Fiona Coomer

      Fiona Coomer answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      It would certainly be something involved in cutting energy consumption, as I think that this is one of the biggest problems facing the world at the moment. We certainly don’t have enough natural resources to continue consuming energy at the rate we are. I think that a room temperature superconductor would be a fantastic thing to discover as it would mean that we could transfer electricity without energy loss, but in the mean time, anything we can find that reduces energy or helps us to develop green forms of energy is a step in the right direction.

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