• Question: What has been your greatest achievement in the science industry?

    Asked by jonty2600 to James V, Davie, Gemma, James P, Nuala on 2 Jul 2012. This question was also asked by littlemisstiger.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi jonty,

      It’s a little bit technical, but I’ll do my best to explain. If there are fractures in a rock, then when a seismic shear wave travels through it, it becomes polarised (just like light becomes polarised when it travels through a polarising lens). So by measuring this polarisation, we can work out whether an area of rock below the surface has fractures in it, and if so, how many and in what direction.

      Knowing about fractures can be really important in many situations. For example, in volcanoes, magma will travel through fractures to reach the surface. In coal mines, a highly fractured area will be far more likely to lead to a collapse. In oil reservoirs, oil can flow more easily through fractures, so you can get the best production if you drill in fractured areas.

      So along with my colleagues in Bristol, we developed an improved method for making these polarisation measurements, and showed how this can be applied in number of settings. It’s been quite a successful new technique for us, and a number of people, both other scientists and people in the oil industry now use it, so I’d say that has been my best achievement so far. I hope my explanation made sense, because it is quite technical thing.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Hi jonty2600 and littlemisstiger,

      I am working on an improved estimate for a function of the climate called Climate Sensitivity, which is the amount of temperature change we get for a doubling of carbon dioxide. Presently we estimate this value to be 2°C to 4.5°C with a middle value of 3°C. If I can achieve the big goal of my PhD I will get a better estimate for this value which will help us understand how much warming we will get from climate change and what we have to do to avoid it being bad. If I do that, it will be my greatest achievement.

      But, for now as I am at the start of my career in science, my greatest achievement is that I am here, doing a PhD and able to talk about my science to people like you. Just getting where I am today has taken a lot of work, some good fortune and a couple of sacrifices, but it has been very much worth it and I am loving every minute and delighted with myself that I went for it, when it would have been possible to not go for it.

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