• Question: How much would your achievements cost?

    Asked by cupcake149 to Andrew, Daniel, Peta on 24 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 24 Nov 2011:

      To be honest I don’t know the total cost of my experiment. It’s funded by lot’s of different countries, and even in the UK lots of different organisations contribute in different ways.

      I do know, that particle physics funding in the UK costs less than free TV Licenses for OAPs.

      Also, have you seen this, The billion-dollar-o-gram:
      http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-o-gram-2009/

      See if you can find the LHC – the world’s most expensive particle physics facility ever (and the vast majority of all particle physics money spent over the last decade).
      My experiment wouldn’t even make a pixel on that graphic.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 24 Nov 2011:

      I think the main cost is time. Making something work takes a while because you are never sure exactly what problems will crop up when preparing. Then there is the time required for analysis and working out what your measurements really mean.
      In terms of money… a week on my laser would cost about £20,000 so we do take the time very seriously 😀

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 24 Nov 2011:

      Compared to the other guys here, my work is comparatively cheap! That does not mean to say too much is spent on theirs though, research in central science facilities benefits all scientists from many different disciplines.

      I would say in actual costs my studies cost around £10,000 per year. The main costs are using facilities, chemicals and supervision time. This is a massive guess though!

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