"If only"

From the everyday to the truly spectacular, ideas, moments of inspiration and the improvements we can make with them can transform our world for the better. Just think at one time the internet, space travel and renewable energy only existed as ideas, and then someone thought ‘if only I could make it happen’

Well, now it’s your turn.

We’d like you to tell us your ‘If Only’ ideas, so you can contribute to some of the major changes that may help improve our world. Whether it’s a new idea, or something that you’ve been exploring for a while, you have a part to play. Simply click ‘add your if only’ and we’ll post it on the website alongside others, including those from a host of celebrities.

And if you’ve already started to develop your ideas, why not enter The National Science and Engineering Competition? Open to all 11-18 year-olds, it’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase your science or technology project and be in with a chance to compete for £50,000 worth of prizes and the prestigious UK Young Scientist of the Year and UK Young Engineer of the Year awards in 2010. Click ‘enter the competition’ or visit www.nationalsciencecompetition.org to find out more. Entries need to be received by 30 October.

As 2009 UK Young Scientist of the Year, Peter Hatfield, said: “I’ve often thought about the vast possibilities of space and how we go about exploring it. That was one reason why I developed a cosmic ray detector. I can’t believe that simply by working on a project I was passionate about, my ‘If Only’ came to life and I won the chance to visit the NASA Space Centres in Florida and Houston, a computer and £5,000!”

And as UK Young Technologist of the Year, Chris Jefferies added: “My ultimate ‘If Only’ would be that humans could interact with computers by thought rather than traditional peripheral methods. Then from that, thoughts could be captured and analysed and reproduced.”

What would your ultimate ‘If Only’ be? You know you have amazing ideas, so why not tell us about them?

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Date Published: September 23, 2009