I now work in an area called Science and Technology Programs — and that is exactly what we do. We run government programmes to support scientific research (mostly medical research),  technology-related companies, and the making of practical, “real” products based on scientific research (such as a new drug or a radar system for cars). A lot of what we do is handing out money to universities and companies with which to do “good stuff” — but that is harder than it sounds!

But until a couple of years ago I used to do research in astronomy. I worked on something called “gravitational lensing”. Light normally travels in straight lines, but gets bent by gravity. This allows astronomers to work out all sorts of interesting things about galaxies (and about strange stuff called dark matter) by looking at how light from far-away galaxies gets bent.

Here is a picture to explain what gravitational lensing is. This is a pretty building:

If you were to put a very heavy tennis ball (as heavy as Saturn) in front of the building, you would see this:

Now, of course that isn’t a real-life example. But the effect is real: here’s a real picture of gravitational lensing:

(a bigger version is on-line here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0301/abell1689_hstacs_full.jpg)

When you look at this picture, you see some thin circular arcs going around the centre. Each one of those thin lines is actually a galaxy that is actually pretty much round, but appears like a thin line because gravity has played with the light.

I spend a lot of time writing, giving formal advice to ministers and senior public servants. I also have to check up on people (nicely!) to whom the Government has given grants (money) to run programmes, making sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing with the grant. Best of all, I send a roundup of science and technology news to my colleagues each day, which means I get to read about all the latest interesting science news during work time instead of my own time.

When I was an astronomer, however, I’d spend a lot of time dealing with mathematical mumbo-jumbo like this:

but also prettier diagrams like this:

As I work for the government, it would be a bit tricky for me to accept the prize money to use for my own “pet project”, even if that project is for “a good cause”. 🙁

What I can do, however, is to give the money to one of the other Food Zone scientists so that they can do some of the wonderful things that they’ve suggested. 🙂