Question: how many lives have you saved so far?

James Verdon answered on 25 Jun 2012:

Hi dodocrowhurst,
None so far. I’m nowhere near experienced enough to be the one making calls on things like when to evacuate if a volcano is going to erupt. But hopefully, one day the things we do can help save lives. Often in science, that’s the way things are – the problems you’re working on might not be directly applicable to do something today, but could be really important 10 or 20 years down the line.