Bacteriophage and Antibiotic Resistance: a Mathematical and Imaging Approach (C-DIP enhancement)

在过去的几个世纪里，科学研究通常是由绅士科学家进行的，而现代研究则不同。它需要具有不同技能和不同科学训练的人带着共同的愿景走到一起，解决共同的问题。想象一个大任务，比如造一架飞机。它需要控制工程师、材料科学家、软件工程师、流体动力学家、试飞员，这只是可能涉及的一些人的名字。问问你自己，一个受过编程语言开发培训的软件工程师，比如说，如何与冶金学家或化学家交谈，以解决他们在航空工业中每天遇到的问题？当然，在工业环境中，一个答案在于培训，因为建造飞机的途径基本上是已知的。但在科学领域，没有完善的培训项目，让人们聚在一起解决大问题，我们甚至可能不知道人们为了解决这些问题需要把什么放在一起。所以，我们需要耐心，大量的耐心和信任，但我们也需要资金和帮助，让一个领域的想法渗透到另一个领域。作为一名数学家，当我向生物学家同事表达自己的想法时，他们通常首先告诉我，我疯了，我一定是错了，因为几十年前的实验结果与我的想法相矛盾。然而，随着时间的推移，有了足够的咖啡和耐心，我们可以探索彼此的观点，然后结晶，然后提炼出最基本的想法。然后我们看看数学思维是否真的能给生物学、物理或化学带来一些东西。这可能是个人的痛苦过程，但它是值得的，因为两套思想的融合会导致新的独立思考和新的想法。然而，这不是一个通常由研究委员会资助的路线或方法。在这种情况下，EPSRC明确表达了他们对研究主题的渴望，这些主题旨在弥合学科之间的差距，并真正促进目前很少或根本没有的交流途径。与该奖项相关的资金将用于创造活跃和轻松的研究环境，在这里我们可以表达我们的疯狂想法，并看看它们是否可以很好地用于解决跨越物理，生物和数学等领域的重要问题。如果最近的过去是对不久的将来的指导，我们期望这一努力将导致一些新的和重要的科学见解。

While scientific research was usually conducted in centuries past by loan, gentleman scientists,modern research is different. It needs people with different skills and different scientific trainingto come together with a common vision to solve a common problem.Think of a large task, like building a plane. It needs control engineers, material scientists,software engineers, fluid dynamicists, test pilots, to name but a few of the types of peoplewho might be involved. Ask yourself, how does a software engineer with a training in thedevelopment of programming languages, say, talk to a metallurgist or chemist in order tosolve the problems they encounter on a daily basis in the aeronautical industries?Of course, in industrial contexts one answer lies in training as the path to constructing a planeis largely known. But in science, there are no well-developed training programmes that allowpeople to come together to solve the big problems, we might not even know what people toput together in order to solve them. So, we need patience, lots of it, and trust but we also need funding and helpwith the process of getting ideas from one field to permeate into another.Often, as a mathematician, when I express my ideas to biologist colleagues, they first tell methat I am mad, that I must be wrong because there are experimental results from decadespast that contradict my thinking. However, over time, with enough coffee and patience we canexplore each others viewpoint and crystalise and then distill the idea down to its bare minimum. We thensee whether there really is something that mathematical thinking can bring to biology, or to physicsor chemistry.This can be a personal and painful process, but it is worthwhile in that the amalgam of two sets of ideaslead to new independent thinking and new ideas. However, this is not a route or an approach commonly funded by research councils. In this case EPSRC have been explicit in their desire for research themes that aimto bridge these gaps between disciplines and to really foster avenues of communication where few ornone currently exist. The funding associated with this award will be put to good use to create alively and relaxed research environment where we can express our mad ideas and see if they can beput to good use to solve important problems in a range of fields that spans physics, biology and mathematics.If the recent past is a guide to the near future, we expect this endeavour will lead to a number of new and important scientific insights.