• Question: does your work harm animals or the enviroment?

    Asked by daniel1 to Wei, Verity, Rebecca, Simon on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by bazza110.
    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Hmmm, I guess asking people for blood samples isn’t really harming them.

      But I think bad research and misleading conclusions can do more harm than good.

    • Photo: Rebecca Handley

      Rebecca Handley answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      Yes and no. The bacteria I work on infects animals as well as humans, so it can harm them too. But none of my experiments harm animals, as I have decided that I don’t want to experiment on animals, (a personal decision). My experiments could potentially harm the environment, we use a lot of chemicals some of which are VERY dangerous, like Arsenic and sodium cacodylate, but we always dispose of them correctly so no harm is done. 🙂

    • Photo: Verity Nye

      Verity Nye answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      We’re very careful not to damage the environment; at sea and in the lab we follow strict rules about waste disposal. Part of my work is collecting samples of animals from the deep-sea so that we can find out what they are and study their biology. Unfortunately these animals typically die when they reach the surface because of the pressure so we only take a few and leave the rest down there.

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