Is your work making everything better?

In these peculiar times, where everything seems so relentlessly contingent, justifying science – despite the political parties harping on about knowledge economies and the like – can be tricky.

Sure, you can spend time and money on a piece of research – but unless you can point to an outcome and say “see, this is how my work will make everything better!” then you could be in for a rough ride. Budgets are tight, patience is thin and perceived indulgences are like kindling to the fire of public outrage. If a piece of research seems like a simple case of ‘cor blimey, what a waste of time’ then heckles immediately rise.

It is understandable – science is expensive and time consuming. But the problem comes in knowing what is frivolous and what is not. What could yield something spectacular, and what is a simple whim. Very often something which can seem ridiculous – or is presented in that way by the mass-media – holds incredible potential for real-world applications. So, without further ado, time for us to perform intellectual alchemy as we turn two pieces of ‘cor blimey, what a waste of time’ research into pure applicability gold.

First up, sniffing bugs and a joke...

My Escherichia coli has no nose. How does it smell? Surprisingly well… due to a biomechanically complex system of histidine kinases.

Since a study back in 2010 we have known that bacteria, incredibly, share with us a sense of smell. Now, in a new study published in Science, an international team has proposed the mechanisms for this. Using X-ray crystallography they managed to crack the molecular ins and outs of the NarQ protein from E. coli – which belongs to a universal class of sensory histidine kinases. It is these which act as the molecular nose for bacteria allowing them to glean information about their environment.

So far so what, bray the crowd. Ah, but look as we pull back the magician’s cloth and reveal before your very eyes a potential substitute for modern antibiotics. Shazaaam! Once you have a handle on the mechanisms of how bacteria sense, you can essentially trick the bacteria into a harmless state. We could, potentially, make superbugs smell their way into an inert state. Leader of the study, Ivan Guishchin of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology: “With a better understanding of the mechanisms of signal transmission, we can expect to learn how to manipulate such cells, and in particular, to try to weaken or neutralise the harmful effects of pathogenic microorganisms.”

Next up – cockroaches have personality... oh, and its consistent You’ll never do it… too much, TOO MUCH! Scientists from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Manchester have suggested, in the pages of PLOS ONE, that cockroaches’ personality stays consistent. Individual Pacific beetle cockroaches (Diploptera punctata) were placed in a novel environment and their tendency to leave a safe shelter and explore was measured, as both young nymphs and adults. It turns out a bold nymph will make for a bold adult.

Altogether now – ‘cor blimey, what a waste of time!’ Not so. Witness, as we once again nudge base toward noble.

Our first move is to highlight the sheer wonder that organisms as neurologically, well…basic, as a cockroach have such differences in response to their environment. Next is to understand that knowing this could uncover some of the deepest secrets of evolution. The role that traits like this play in the adaptive evolution of individuals and species is revealing much about the nuts and bolts of natural selection. Personality, it turns out, is an important tool in the game of life and has implications from medical research to animal welfare.

And there you have, with a dramatic flourish of our cape, the profundity buried within the apparently banal. It isn’t alchemy of course, just attention – any piece of peer-reviewed science, if given due attention, holds incredible potential. Each a step on the long ladder of human understanding – a ladder that may have no end, yet is always worth the climb.

And if all that sounds frightfully pretentious, then we can only apologise and blame the boldness of our personalities… we were, after all, such precocious nymphs.