Pedro Ruas

What motivated you most to participate to Odysseus contest?

To be honest, it was one of our group members who managed to motivate us enough to participate in Odysseus II. The prospect of us studying issues far beyond what was lectured in school, along with the contest’s amazing prizes made our debut in it look very appealing to us.

What did you enjoy when you prepared your project?

I personally loved the way we worked together. Putting up this work was an amazing experience because of it. Our teamwork was something I was not expecting to turn out so well. Indeed, the fact that our work was very extensive and demanding did not stop us from doing our best.

What was the most important thing that you learned during the preparation of your project?

The most important aspect was simply the idea that all the areas of human knowledge are strictly connected amongst themselves. In our work, we managed to enforce a strong connection between astronomy and the subsistence of life. In this way, I excelled at balancing my own true scientific loves: biology and space science.

It is, in fact, with great certainty that I affirm that the light of a star can have its effect on life forms in many different ways. Actually, we learned that we can even benefit from our sunlight – of course, this can majorly happen after some upgrades to it.

Has the work done for your project affected your decision for studies in space science?

Indeed, my project enhanced even more my desire to be an investigator in general. It might not be necessarily in an area related to space science. It would be gratifying for me to one day consider myself an investigator (this is applicable to both medicine and astronomy): being able to understand something important to our development as a species means not only that I will improve the lives of millions but also that I will have the power to change the way we think about what surrounds us – there is no greater profession than that.