I discovered a cancer protein in the uterus of a lizard. Weird I know! Scientists had only ever found this protein before in tumours that were very difficult to treat. Then it turned up in a lizard’s uterus?!
Although this discovery was unexpected and weird, it may tell us more about how cancer evolved. Cancer is very good at hijacking the body’s normal molecular pathways. Many of those pathways that are hijacked by cancer are involved in pregnancy and embryo growth. So I think there may be a connection between the evolution of viviparity and how we get cancer. I haven’t tested this yet, but it’s a prediction of mine 🙂
In the last year we showed that we could solve a problem faster by working together on the internet and sharing everything.
A lot of science is done in secret, with people racing against each other. People who do that will sometimes keep important information back from other people, because it’s a race. Who can get to the end first? Well, we decided to not do that. We wanted to manufacture this important drug we work on in a new way. The current drug is kind of bad for you and tastes *terrible* and the new one is not bad for you and tastes of nothing. But to do this was difficult. So we posted EVERYTHING we did in full on the internet, which is totally not what normally happens in science. A bunch of people we didn’t know read about what we were doing and offered to help us out. In particular this company in the Netherlands decided to do a bunch of experiments and helped us with a key discovery. We didn’t pay them, or anyone else involved in the research – people did it because they wanted to solve a problem to, and the internet meant we could work together.
So by doing everything openly, people helped us to solve a problem fast. I’m really excited about what that means for doing other science projects, like finding new drugs.
Hi Mat, it’s really interesting that you’ve been working on this drug in such an open way and getting help from lots of different people. What happens when an important discovery is made? Who gets to slap on a patent? Who will make money from it?
People usually work on their projects ‘in secret’ so no-one else can claim their discovery or get the credit for it. It would be great if everyone was working together instead of competing with each other, but I’m not sure how you decide who the discovery ‘belongs’ to.
Hard to define “best”. My most satisfying discovery was to do with how fuel composition changes over time. It is not the most important or the most useful, but just most satisfying because the experts said it was impossible.
When an arsonist pours fuel to start a fire, the lighter components vaporise more, so the fuel mixture before and after the fire are very different. A colleague was investigating this problem and asked if the equations describing evaporation and could be solved to predict how the fuel composition changes over time. Mathematicians said the equations were unsolvable.
I was driving home after a chemistry dinner and had a real “eureka” moment. We didn’t need the exact time dependence. We just needed the time sequence: before, later and even later. By reformulating the equations in terms of time sequence, instead of real time, I was able to solve the “impossible” equations in about three lines and predict how the fuel mixture changes over time.
This means that when the fire investigators find what the remaining fuel mixture is like after the fire, the equations can be used to predict what the mixture was like, earlier in time and hence identify the fuel or fuel mixture used by the arsonist.
The discovery of chocolate at age six. My life has never been the same since. It’s my favourite food.
Though when it comes to a scientific discovery, unfortunately I am not allowed to talk about it. It was one of those scientific discoveries that are made in secret and I can’t talk about it. All that wonderful science hidden away and it’s sad that I can’t talk about it.
I discovered a cancer protein in the uterus of a lizard. Weird I know! Scientists had only ever found this protein before in tumours that were very difficult to treat. Then it turned up in a lizard’s uterus?!
Although this discovery was unexpected and weird, it may tell us more about how cancer evolved. Cancer is very good at hijacking the body’s normal molecular pathways. Many of those pathways that are hijacked by cancer are involved in pregnancy and embryo growth. So I think there may be a connection between the evolution of viviparity and how we get cancer. I haven’t tested this yet, but it’s a prediction of mine 🙂
1
In the last year we showed that we could solve a problem faster by working together on the internet and sharing everything.
A lot of science is done in secret, with people racing against each other. People who do that will sometimes keep important information back from other people, because it’s a race. Who can get to the end first? Well, we decided to not do that. We wanted to manufacture this important drug we work on in a new way. The current drug is kind of bad for you and tastes *terrible* and the new one is not bad for you and tastes of nothing. But to do this was difficult. So we posted EVERYTHING we did in full on the internet, which is totally not what normally happens in science. A bunch of people we didn’t know read about what we were doing and offered to help us out. In particular this company in the Netherlands decided to do a bunch of experiments and helped us with a key discovery. We didn’t pay them, or anyone else involved in the research – people did it because they wanted to solve a problem to, and the internet meant we could work together.
So by doing everything openly, people helped us to solve a problem fast. I’m really excited about what that means for doing other science projects, like finding new drugs.
0
Hi Mat, it’s really interesting that you’ve been working on this drug in such an open way and getting help from lots of different people. What happens when an important discovery is made? Who gets to slap on a patent? Who will make money from it?
People usually work on their projects ‘in secret’ so no-one else can claim their discovery or get the credit for it. It would be great if everyone was working together instead of competing with each other, but I’m not sure how you decide who the discovery ‘belongs’ to.
0
Hard to define “best”. My most satisfying discovery was to do with how fuel composition changes over time. It is not the most important or the most useful, but just most satisfying because the experts said it was impossible.
When an arsonist pours fuel to start a fire, the lighter components vaporise more, so the fuel mixture before and after the fire are very different. A colleague was investigating this problem and asked if the equations describing evaporation and could be solved to predict how the fuel composition changes over time. Mathematicians said the equations were unsolvable.
I was driving home after a chemistry dinner and had a real “eureka” moment. We didn’t need the exact time dependence. We just needed the time sequence: before, later and even later. By reformulating the equations in terms of time sequence, instead of real time, I was able to solve the “impossible” equations in about three lines and predict how the fuel mixture changes over time.
This means that when the fire investigators find what the remaining fuel mixture is like after the fire, the equations can be used to predict what the mixture was like, earlier in time and hence identify the fuel or fuel mixture used by the arsonist.
1
The discovery of chocolate at age six. My life has never been the same since. It’s my favourite food.
Though when it comes to a scientific discovery, unfortunately I am not allowed to talk about it. It was one of those scientific discoveries that are made in secret and I can’t talk about it. All that wonderful science hidden away and it’s sad that I can’t talk about it.
1