ANNA HARVEY is saving the world one sock at a time.

The ecotextiles scientist is investigating the way in which antimicrobial agents are absorbed into textile fibres. Clothing companies use these chemicals to produce clothing that’s supposed to stay fresh and clean for longer.

However, the promise of odour-free toes comes with an environmental drawback. “When you wash these products [the chemicals] often get into the water system and that can affect the natural bacteria in water and eventually kill wildlife,” Harvey says. There is also some speculation that it may lead to a rise in superbugs in the wild.

It was these environmental concerns, combined with experience in the fashion industry, that drove her to examine how these chemicals bond to fabric, with the hope that she can-then help manufacturers to make the process more envi-ronmentally-friendly.

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“I realised that the fashion industry is very damaging to the environment and I felt I could use my engineering and scientific knowledge to help with that,” she says.

When it comes to damaging the environment, our love affair with cars also has a lot to answer for. But from the perspective of a green scientist looking for a career, cars are a very good place to start. “Right now the automotive industry has a tremendous demand for half-and-half hybrid engines using both fuel and electricity,” says Dr Greg Offer, a research associate at Imperial College London.

The fuel cell specialist, currently involved in the development of a zero-emission racing car, has always been determined to have a career that helped to save the planet.

“As a child I used to watch the news and saw loads of articles on the ozone layer and glo-bal warming. I didn’t really understand so I would lie awake in bed at night crying. Ever since then I wanted to do something about it.”

However, science can do only so much — there need to be behavioural changes as well, he says. “A fuel cell is not inherently environmentally-friendly. It can be used in a good way or in a bad way. The cheapest way to make one is by using coal, but you can also make it using electricity from a wind farm.”

Fossil fuels — or, strictly speaking, the avoidance of them — are a feature of Aman-da Chmura’s work as well. The Bath-based American is working on catalysts that can be used in the manufacture of bio-degradable plastic from corn or other starch-producing plants. “The overall aim is to bring the cost down to make it competitive with fossil-fuel-based plastics,” she says.

“When I was looking for a PhD I didn’t see many projects I could relate to, but this subject has a real-world context.”

Seeing the impact his work can have in the real world is also important to Dr James Logan, an insect communications expert based at Rotham-sted Research, an agricultural research centre.

“It’s a bonus when something that you are extremely interested in has beneficial effects as well,” he says. “Go-ing to places like Africa and seeing how [insects] affect people’s lives is amazing.”

He is working on identifying volatile chemicals that can be used to control pests.

“My main interest is mosquitoes and other insects that bite humans and animals, and why some people get bitten more than others. People who don’t get bitten seem to be producing higher levels of certain key chemicals that repel the mosquitoes.”

He and his team have identified these chemicals and are now developing a more natural mosquito repellent. This in turn could have an enormous part to play in preventing diseases such as malaria, he says.

www.noisemakers.org.uk

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