I am concerned about what our civilisation is doing to the environment and to ourselves. When you study the way in which plants absorb chemical nanoparticles in the soil, like I do, you can´t ignore the health and environmental consequences in your everyday life. The more I learn, the more my everyday habits change. I’m wary of what I eat, of what creams I put on my skin and on my daughter’s, the amount of plastic we use or the number of ingredients in products. I feel proud to work at the ESRF, where I have unique, innovative tools for my research and a group where ideas constantly flow. I also have the opportunity to work with an array of excellent collaborators from all over the world to unveil the fate of nanoparticles in the environment. What I do is to put my results on the table, give people the knowledge and open a discussion. With the Extremely Brilliant Source, I will have an even more powerful analytical tools to obtain a more realistic picture of what happens in our environment. For example, if we can learn more about the interactions between bacteria in the soil and plants, we could reduce the amount of chemicals used in agriculture. I believe in smart bio-organic farming and I hope my research can contribute to changing the way we farm in the future.
