• Question: How has modern technology affected the way you work and the way different things are explained. Has it helped you to improved your knowledge of some unexplained mysteries of science?

    Asked by next492sup to oluwaseunakinade, melissau, Louisse M, Jarrod H, Hannah, Fiona G on 10 Mar 2025.
    • Photo: Melissa U

      Melissa U answered on 10 Mar 2025:

      What seem like relatively simple changes have made huge difference to the way vets work and the way I work as a researcher. For example, because they’re now digital, when we take X Ray images or ultrasound scans, with the owners’ permission if we need to get a second opinion from a specialist/expert in a particular disease or problem (who’s based many miles away or even potentially in another country) we can share those via email and get help very quickly, whereas before we would have had to ask the owner to take the animal in person to that specialist, which is much more time consuming expensive and, depending on the size of the animal, difficult to do. Another example is when a vet is managing a dog or cat with diabetes, in the same way that a person can wear a blood sugar monitor on their skin, the animal may be able to do the same – this saves having to manually collect a blood sample for testing, which as you can imagine is stressful for the animal and difficult for the owner to organise.
      When training to be a vet nowadays there are simulation tools which can help with learning about how to diagnose disease and how to do surgery which allow students to build skills before they start to do this in real life. For example, there’s a virtual reality Haptic Cow simulator which helps a student to learn what the inside of a cow’s reproductive tract feels like when you put your hand inside to decide whether she’s pregnant and if she is, how far advanced the pregnancy is (important information for the farmer to know so that he can ensure she’s managed the right way, fed the right diet, anticipate roughly when she’s likely to give birth to her calf)
      As a researcher, I can now get owners to fill in a survey online or via an App and collect the data electronically, whereas when I did my PhD I had to fill in questionnaires on paper while talking to owners and then transfer the data into a spreadsheet myself – it was SO time consuming and there was always a chance I could make a mistake when I did this, so there was lots of checking involved.

Comments

  • Photo: Andrew M

    Andrew M commented on :

    In my own area, it’s access and sharing of data. Modern IT systems allow me to access the wisdom and expertise of colleagues around the world to solve problems more easility. It gives me access to huge volumes of data from our production plants globally in real time, and provides the tools to analyse it. We can now see more clearly what affects our manufacturing and control it better, making much less waste and fewer production failures, so our products, which are sold to create environmental benefit come with fewer environmental costs.