tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77441433566784530712024-03-17T22:03:12.318-05:00Science DecodedOne woman's adventures navigating science and the mediaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-36707336722117740582013-10-06T18:47:00.004-05:002013-10-06T18:47:53.197-05:00It's been fun Blogspot, but I'm moving onI've finally taken the career step of having a website that I can be proud of, that will have all of my information, links, and blog in one place. The new <a href="http://www.erinpodolak.com/">www.erinpodolak.com</a> was designed by Color and Code, and you can check out <a href="http://erinpodolak.com/2013/im-back-back-blogging-groove/">my first post</a> about why I stopped blogging for a while, and why I'm back with a renewed purpose. <div>
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I won't be getting rid of this site, but I won't be updating it anymore. All new material will be over on the other site, so update your feeds accordingly. Thank you and I'm looking forward to continuing conversations!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com99tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-22793212172446798382013-07-22T19:31:00.000-05:002013-07-22T19:31:09.366-05:00Sciobeantown at Midsummer Nights' Science<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N3q9Dm9nBJM/Ue3LL9AnkUI/AAAAAAAABAg/TjTOMA9_L3w/s1600/Picture+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N3q9Dm9nBJM/Ue3LL9AnkUI/AAAAAAAABAg/TjTOMA9_L3w/s1600/Picture+1.png" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">On July 17, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Sciobeantown</a> headed over to the <a href="http://www.broadinstitute.org/">Broad Institute</a> in Cambridge, MA to join in on their four week lecture series: <a href="http://www.broadinstitute.org/partnerships/education/midsummer-nights-science/midsummer-nights-science-2013">Midsummer Nights' Science</a>. Members of Sciobeantown took to Twitter with the hashtags <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23broadtalks&src=typd">#broadtalks</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23sciobeantown&src=typd">#sciobeantown</a> to livetweet the event, which featured a talk from cancer genomics researcher <a href="http://garrawaylab.dfci.harvard.edu/">Levi Garraway</a>.*</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">If you missed the event, a video of the talk called, "Exploring the genome's dark matter** what frontiers of genomic research are revealing about cancer" <a href="http://www.broadinstitute.org/videos/midsummer-nights-science-exploring-genome%E2%80%99s-dark-matter-what-frontiers-genomic-research-are-r">is now online</a>. You can also check out Sciobeantown's contribution to the Twitter discussion with <a href="http://storify.com/aad0329/midsummer-nights-science-exploring-the-genome-s-da?ext=html">this Storify</a> of the event by <a href="https://twitter.com/aad0329">Amanda Dykstra</a>. Thank you to the Broad Institute for setting aside space at this event (which filled the room to capacity) so that Sciobeantown could participate!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">*Dr. Garraway is a researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in addition to his work at the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School. I do cover his melanoma work as <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-job-dana-farber-cancer-institute.html">part of my job</a> at Dana-Farber. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">**Using dark matter as a metaphor for the non-protein coding portion of the genome has been the subject of some science writer snark (possibly from me...okay, from me) but the title of the talk is the title of the talk, folks. </span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-58714776633177185802013-07-09T05:28:00.000-05:002013-07-09T05:32:10.410-05:00World Conference of Science Journalists: Helsinki RecapWell, it finally happened. After nearly a year of planning,
conversations, blog posts, and twitter exchanges <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">the #sci4hels</a> – Rose Eveleth,
Kathleen Raven, Lena Groeger and myself organized by Bora Zivkovic gave our
presentation to the <a href="http://wcsj2013.org/">World Conference of Science Journalists</a>. WCSJ2013 was held
in Helsinki, Finland June 24-27 and included more than 800
journalists from 77 different countries.<br />
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For me, the highlight of the conference was certainly the
opportunity to meet, listen to, and learn from so many different journalists
with such different interests and areas of concern.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWyFC4cZxlk/UdtP0STAfjI/AAAAAAAABAA/gzRdT8Uq9Aw/s1600/IMG_1597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xWyFC4cZxlk/UdtP0STAfjI/AAAAAAAABAA/gzRdT8Uq9Aw/s320/IMG_1597.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset over Helsinki, photo by me</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I kicked off the conference
with a workshop from the <a href="http://www.eso.net/">European School of Oncology</a>, in which there were very
few Americans but several reporters from African countries. It was interesting to hear about the most prominent issues for them regarding
cancer coverage, particularly access to information and the shift from covering
infectious disease to covering a disease that is not transmissible.<br />
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Once the full conference program kicked off, it was a blur
of ideas and activity moving from session to session and bouncing between
ideas. I livetweeted every session I attended, which for me is a great way to
synthesize information and take notes but it did leave me buzzing at times like
all of the information I absorbed was rattling around in my brain. Most of my
tweets were under the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23WCSJ2013&src=hash">#wcsj2013</a> but there were also session specific
hashtags and of course we tweeted with <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23sci4hels&src=typd">#sci4hels</a>.<br />
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One of the most interesting sessions for me was on the topic
of blurred lines between PR/communication and journalism. The speakers for the
session were <a href="https://twitter.com/sasso_anne">Anne Sasso</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/kakape">Kai Kupferschmidt </a>who each took a hard line in favor of
or against journalists doing work that isn’t journalistic in nature ie: getting
paid for writing that represents an organization. After they each spoke their
peace (and both have written great wrap-up posts <a href="http://pitchpublishprosper.com/wearing-many-hats-how-to-preserve-independence/">here</a> and <a href="http://kaikupferschmidt.de/2013/07/lets-talk-about-ethics-part-i-saints/">here</a>) everyone in the room was asked questions, what would you do type
scenarios. Everyone was asked to move around the room based on whether they
would or would not take the assignments in question. <br />
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To me, it seemed that everyone in the room highly valued
journalistic ethics, but when it got down to the nitty gritty the lines were in
fact much more blurred than people might have wanted to admit between what they
would and would not do when the money is right. While most of us are not in the
position to be worrying about accepting champagne and free trips in a private
jet, it is still highly likely that we’ll all have to decide in the course of
our career where we draw the ethical line. What about writing for a university?
Other non-profits? Is it okay if you never cover them in a journalistic
fashion? What if a major story breaks at the organization, can you use your
connections to cover it better than other reporters? Is it right to do so?<br />
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It was a very
spirited session and as someone who works for a non-profit I found it
interesting to hear how a job like mine is viewed by other journalists. It
really ran the gamut from people thinking I’ve already wrecked my career and
compromised my ethics and impartiality, to people supporting the path I’ve
taken and encouraging me to continue to do what I’m doing with all the
transparency and honestly that is already a part of the writing I do here on
the blog and elsewhere.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lMjBCvFIlzU/UdtQgMduyKI/AAAAAAAABAI/mwLqSscWFzU/s1600/Hel_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lMjBCvFIlzU/UdtQgMduyKI/AAAAAAAABAI/mwLqSscWFzU/s320/Hel_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prepping for our panel, photo by Bora Zivkovic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our #sci4hels panel was on Wednesday of the conference and
pulled in a fairly good crowd (at least, we weren’t talking to ourselves which
was my great fear.) After introductions from Rose, I kicked things off talking
about the sense of community that has taken root with the newest generation of
science writers. I don’t think you could talk about community and not bring up
the fantastic Robert Krulwich <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeW4XyJBevA">graduation speech</a> to UC Berkley in 2011 where he
introduced the concept of <a href="http://horizontalloyalty.com/#/title">horizontal loyalty</a>. <br />
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To me, a major difference in being a new journalist trying
to break into the field today compared to the past is that you have to have so
many different skills, or at least be able to pull off projects in many
different mediums. One way to do this is to be able to partner and collaborate
with other people who have a passion for things like video, audio, or graphics
(to name a few of the things that are not my cup of tea.) This collaboration,
the idea of making things together rather than trying to stand alone works well
with the rise of journalist “tribes” or “packs” groups of journalists who meet
regularly to swap stories, share ideas and support one another.<br />
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As more and more people go the freelance route and don’t
have regular contact with their colleagues the tribe seems to be growing in
prevalence and importance. I also spoke about the work that has gone into
getting <a href="http://sciobeantown.scienceonline.com/">Sciobeantown</a> up and running and what it means to be a part of the
<a href="http://scienceonline.com/">ScienceOnline</a> community, which is an incredible network of people interested in
science communication, not just journalism, which is something I love about the
group. <br />
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After I gave my brief introduction to these topics, Lena
spoke about code and using data and graphics to help tell stories. Kathleen
presented on social media, particularly Twitter. After that, we opened things
up to questions. I thought it was a fairly productive question and answer
session, so thank you to everyone who came and participated (you can catch up
with the types of questions we were asked at the hashtag #sci4hels.) I did not
tweet at all during our panel, and believe me, it was a challenge for me to
unplug, but it was also fun to check in after it was all over and see the
stream of tweets coming in. It was great to see so many people interested in
what we had to say. <br />
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Upon returning from Finland post-conference we found
ourselves and our panel to be the topic of a column by Nicolas Luco in <a href="http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2013/07/01/13103/Rubias-que-distraen.aspx">El Mercurio</a>, a publication in Chile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This column focused on Kathleen and I having blonde hair, and how young
the four of us are more than on the content of what we said about journalism
and our careers. Even the take-away point Luco gathered from what I'd said, that good journalism is good journalism regardless of what multimedia you augment it with, was spoken by a "blonde no more than 25." I don’t have to tell you that this was disappointing and
frustrating. But I’m not going to dedicate any more space to the issue, I have
no need when Janet Stemwedel did such a fantastic job of describing our
communication with Luco and why it was problematic in a post on her <i>Scientific American</i> <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/doing-good-science/2013/07/03/addressing-unintended-disrespect-in-your-professional-community/">blog Doing Good Science</a>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KEjvy_m2LiY/UdtPjsNcedI/AAAAAAAAA_4/1PxTWRFEDZg/s1600/IMG_1589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KEjvy_m2LiY/UdtPjsNcedI/AAAAAAAAA_4/1PxTWRFEDZg/s320/IMG_1589.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sci4hels post-panel, photo by Arjan Raven</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Overall, my experience at the World Conference of Science
Journalists was a largely positive one. I enjoyed meeting different people, and
had a blast with the #sci4hels and other science writing friends (and new
friends!) I learned quite a bit, both about the profession and about myself and
my career as we handled both praise and criticism. It is hard for me to believe
that it really is over after such a build up and great experience, but it is.
So thank you again to everyone who supported our panel, to the great friends
new and old who made Helsinki such a fun trip, and of course to Rose, Lena,
Kathleen and Bora for being great colleagues. Here’s to WCSJ2015!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-82933869326034966622013-06-20T12:10:00.002-05:002013-06-20T12:10:35.476-05:00Wake Up Sweetheart, You're A Feminist (Book Review: The Good Girls Revolt)I hope you read that title with the sarcasm with which it was meant, and that you never try to call me sweetheart. It won't go well. It's been a while since I did <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-mastermind-in-defense-of-dr.html">a book review</a> here at Science Decoded (mostly because I don't have the time to read that I used to) but I just finished Lynn Povich's <a href="http://www.lynnpovich.com/_i_the_good_girls_revolt_how_the_women_of_newsweek_sued_their_bosses_and_changed_111485.htm"><i>The Good Girls Revolt</i> </a>and it spurred me to want to write this post which has been kicking around in my brain for months now. The <i>Good Girls Revolt</i> is the story of the first all female class action lawsuit filed by the women who worked for <i>Newsweek</i>.<br />
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Even just two years ago, if you had asked me if I was a feminist I would have told you no. Back then the idea that women needed to form a movement to be treated equal seemed extreme. Equality isn't hard, it's a pretty simple concept really. So who wants to be all extreme and label themselves and fight for...what...what are we fighting for? I didn't know. I had plenty of opportunities, I interacted with professional women a lot. It didn't feel necessary. Besides, I like shaving my legs (though you should <a href="http://www.cassandraelton.blogspot.com/2013/05/going-au-natural.html">read this post about choosing not to</a>). I have a closet full of dresses and high heels. You're unlikely to catch me outside the house without makeup. I was vice president of my sorority for crying out loud. Feminist? Psh. But you know what feminism isn't about? Those things. Any of it.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9MwA-c2wico/UcM11DA1e8I/AAAAAAAAA_M/wyrk5DIif9U/s1600/DownloadedFile.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9MwA-c2wico/UcM11DA1e8I/AAAAAAAAA_M/wyrk5DIif9U/s320/DownloadedFile.jpeg" width="210" /></a></div>
Coming from a relatively well-off, educated background where I was always expected to go to college and then work, I never thought of myself as a feminist. My Dad's attitude toward my career as a science writer has always simply been, go get 'em. I have surrounded myself in life by people, men and women, who value my intelligence and drive to succeed. Growing up I never felt like I was being compared to my brother or any other guy. I never felt like I was less or that less was expected of me. Feminists were an other, and if anything made me feel intimidated. The judgement of other women is scary, sometimes it feels scarier than the idea of walking into a room full of men to tell them what's what. But, spending a little time in the world, talking to people, and reading things like Povich's book or <a href="https://medium.com/ladybits-on-medium/e2f0083f19a9">Dr. Isis' Feminist Awakening</a> has a wonderfully eye opening effect.<br />
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I think most women in the workplace have a so-and-so said this absolutely jack ass comment to me about xyz story, at least I do, and I've heard many stories in a similar vein. The types of things that make people look at you like you've got six heads because surely someone didn't actually SAY that. You might not even have realized it, because at the time I didn't really see it as sexism. I knew I was upset that good ideas were being shot down. The thought that anyone would take the way I look and my gender and use that to gauge my ability as a writer before actually reading anything I wrote was so completely absurd to me, that I didn't even realize at first that it was happening.<br />
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In hindsight, this made me blame myself - maybe it really isn't that good an idea, maybe I'm not working hard enough, maybe if I'm here later and put in more hours, maybe if I prove myself...no. I want to grab unpaid intern Erin and shake her and say don't you dare write that crappy story that you know is bullshit while the paid male intern gets the better story. Walk out. Leave. You're better than that. I've heard it said before that my generation is lazy and entitled. Well in my not so humble opinion, myself and my friends and other young people like us more often assume deeply personal responsibility for failure. If I don't get that story it's because I did something wrong. Me. I'm not good enough. How could it ever be that there is a system ingrained in society that is going to hold us back? This is 2013. It can't possibly be true that we're still dealing with this.<br />
<br />
Povich's book chronicles events from the 60's and 70's, we can't still be having this same problem? No, no we're not. The problem back then was flagrant, out in the open, so egregious that it couldn't be ignored. That is still happening, <a href="http://www.upworthy.com/a-bunch-of-sad-insecure-dudes-attacked-a-woman-and-everyone-got-what-they-deserv">oh, does it happen</a>. But there is also a subtle sexism - a mild slight, a passing comment, a raise that's just a little less, a promotion that takes a little longer to get. These are the things that are harder to pinpoint, harder to blame on sexism, but are ultimately what made me wake up to the fact that I'm a feminist. Part of Povich's book focuses on today, on three women from my generation working for <i>Newsweek</i>: Jessica Bennet, Jesse Ellison and Sarah Ball and the story they wrote in 2010 "<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/03/18/are-we-there-yet.html">Are We There Yet?</a>" questioning if the battle of the sexes is really over. Their experiences resonated with me a lot.<br />
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Since I entered college and started writing and trying to get my work published, I've been lucky in that the sexism I've faced has been mild. Sad state of affairs that it makes me feel lucky, but it does. Right now where I work my superiors are all women - my boss, her boss, her boss' boss, her boss' boss' boss...but my awesome situation isn't common (and believe me, I don't take it for granted.) But that doesn't mean that sexism isn't still here, and that other people aren't dealing with much worse on a regular basis. I'm a feminist for myself because yes, I want a fair shake, I want to be recognized for the value of my work and not whether or not my hair looks shiny that day. But, adding my voice to the other feminist voices out there is about more than just me. I've got it pretty good. I'm not trying to argue that I don't. But I can support the women out there who are dealing with overt sexism, who are being attacked. I can try to be an ally. That to me is the real value of feminism, of standing together.<br />
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It's my opinion that a lot of the yelling that happens on the internet (if you could only hear how loudly I am typing!!) happens because we've gotten so wrapped up in judging the world based on our personal perspective that we can't see the things that happen outside ourselves. I've never encountered sexism therefore sexism doesn't exist. We have GOT to shake off this way of invalidating the experiences of others. Once you start listening, I think you'll find like I did that the need for feminism is impossible to ignore. Participating in <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">#sci4hels</a>, and working with Rose, Lena, and Kathleen (follow us in Helsinki next week!) is another thing that has driven home for me the need for women to support each other. We've already used our platform to have <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/sci4hels-question-time-3-ladybiz-edition/">a conversation about being female science writers</a>, and I hope that discussion is one that will continue in the future.<br />
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Feminism, for me, is a way to recognize that we've come a long way but we still have a long way to go. We still need to get out there, and support each other, and continue having these conversations because equality might be a simple concept, but that doesn't make it any less evasive. I've had these conversations a lot lately, and have been asked, "do you think people don't take you seriously because...you know...you're good looking?" Typically, I answer something along the lines of making smart decisions is optional, and if anyone doesn't take me seriously for any reason that's their mistake to make. I don't think it's a bad answer, but until that answer is a resounding "no" we're just not done yet.<br />
<br />
So, if you've been in the journalism business for less than 20 years, <i>The</i> <i>Good Girls Revolt</i> is a must-read. Hell, if you've been in the business for more than 20 years, it's still a good read. Recommended.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-47838019590066134142013-06-06T11:29:00.000-05:002013-06-06T11:29:15.233-05:00Overheard at Sciobeantown with NESW<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On June 6th, <a href="http://sciobeantown.scienceonline.com/">Sciobeantown</a> and the <a href="http://neswonline.com/">New England Science Writers</a> teamed up for a joint mixer at Boston's <a href="http://www.beehiveboston.com/">Beehive</a>. If you couldn't join us, here are a few snippets (taken 100% out of context) to show you what you missed. If you have any questions about Sciobeantown, feel free to contact me, or any of the other organizers: <a href="https://twitter.com/haleybridger">Haley Bridger</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/biochembelle">Biochembelle</a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/ASKlabsAlberta">Alberta Chu</a>. You can also check out the <a href="http://sciobeantown.scienceonline.com/">website</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/sciobeantown"> twitter</a>, and <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/sciobeantown">googlegroup</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s just say I’m cautiously optimistic...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, the Mighty Ducks is actually all about class warfare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wait, since when am <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> the youngest?!?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There’s so much scicomm, we’re going to need to coordinate these dates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You’re tweeting this aren’t you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I went right home after you mentioned it and convinced my boss I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had</i> to go to <a href="http://scienceonline.com/2013/02/03/scienceonline-oceans/">ScioOceans</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You lied, we could totally still register!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Biochem AND a Belle... wow, that’s intimidating.</span></div>
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You <em>weren't </em>at the <a href="http://storycollider.org/">Storycollider</a>? It was so good!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just cover one story, really, really well, that’s how you get a Pulitzer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I came to Boston for all of the astronomy, there is an amazing amount here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You just have to look at the statistics!</span></div>
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Just assume the doctor stance.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wait, there are liberal antivaxers?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You might want to look at that study again, it might not be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">total</i> bullshit</span></div>
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Are the science writers about to throw down?</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Look, I flail when I talk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, everyone knows Bora. </span></div>
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Well now you're just making stuff up. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tweet from <a href="https://twitter.com/sciobeantown">@sciobeantown</a> in Finland, we’ll cheer you on!</span></div>
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What exactly makes you <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2013/05/28/sci4hels-what-makes-one-a-killer-science-journalist-of-the-future/">a killer</a>?</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/mermaids_aren_t_real_animal_planet_s_fake_documentaries_misrepresent_ocean.html">Mermaids</a>? I mean how was that even a thing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Try to describe something without using any adjectives! At all!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Your career is your oyster...or something like that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ooh, is there going to be music?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We’ll see you in July!</span></div>
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Thank you to NESW for sponosring this event, and to everyone who came out to share ideas and build our Sciobeantown community!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-76170727439419114572013-06-03T07:07:00.000-05:002013-06-03T07:07:37.182-05:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month Sarah Boon<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Science For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on Science Decoded for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23iamscience&src=typd" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#iamscience</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">(also</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">a Tumblr</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">) and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23realwomenofscience&src=typd" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#realwomenofscience</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">two hashtags on Twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Hello first graders. I cannot believe that is it June already! This school year I've loved introducing you to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;">our scientists of the month, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-penny-higgins.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Penny</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-philipp.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Philipp</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/12/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-anne-marike.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Anne-Marike</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Pete</a>,</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-rebecca-wragg.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Becky</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/03/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-michael-dickey.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Michael</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/04/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-jennifer-laaser.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Jenny</a> and <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/05/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-david-tarpey.html">David</a>. We have one more scientist to meet before school's out for the year - I'm happy to introduce you to Dr. Sarah Boon, a hydroecologist. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;">I asked her questions about her job as a scientist to learn more about what she does. I hope you enjoy learning about her work! Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask her any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><!--StartFragment--></span></span></span></span>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What type of scientist are you?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I’m a hydroecologist, which means I study where water comes from, where it goes, and how it interacts with living things. I’m particularly interested in how snow interacts with trees, and what happens to streams – and the fish in them – when snow melts. I study how healthy trees catch snow compared to trees killed by mountain pine beetle or wildfire. I also look at how melting snow changes the temperature of mountain streams, and what affect that has on at-risk salmonids like bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Erin: Where did you go to school, and what did you study?</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xdO2_rflgEY/UavnV5A4nQI/AAAAAAAAA-0/-q0gTAxtvvU/s1600/ScioftheMonthPic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xdO2_rflgEY/UavnV5A4nQI/AAAAAAAAA-0/-q0gTAxtvvU/s320/ScioftheMonthPic.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. Courtesy of Sarah Boon.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I did an undergraduate degree in Physical Geography with a minor in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, on Canada’s Vancouver Island. I took a lot of courses about landscapes and how to measure and observe them. I wish I’d taken some biology courses – but I didn’t realize at the time that I’d get into that kind of work. I did the co-operative education program, which means you work for 4 or 8 months and then go to school for 4 months. This was really helpful in getting great job experience, meeting new people, and paying for my tuition. After five years in Victoria I moved to Edmonton, Alberta to do my PhD in Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. I finished in 2003 and now live in Lethbridge, Alberta (after 2 years in Prince George, British Columbia as a ‘substitute’ professor). </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Erin: Where do you work, and what does a typical day at work entail?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I work as a university professor, so I do research, teach classes, and supervise grad students. This means I spend part of my time in the office and part in the field. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When I’m in the office, I stare at the computer screen a lot more than I’d like. I write research grant applications, send emails, write lectures for each of my classes, and much more. When I’m not at my computer, I’m either in a meeting or in front of a class, teaching. Most of my office days zip by really quickly, and I wonder where the day went and why I didn’t get more done.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I’m in the field once every two weeks during between late fall, just before the snow comes, to late spring when the last of the snow has melted. These are the days I enjoy the most about my job. I stay in a cabin near the field site with my research assistants and/or grad students, and am up early making plans for the day, including what kind of work needs to be done, what kind of gear is required, and how to access the site with all that gear. Once that’s all worked out (and breakfast has been eaten and a good lunch packed up), we either hike, ATV and/or snowmobile to the field site. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Once we get to the site, we take a lot of different measurements. We download the our automated stations, which are recording temperature, rainfall, stream water level, and more. We also collect snow cores, measure tree height and diameter, take photographs of the forest canopy, dig snow pits, and measure how fast the stream is moving. The best part is that you get to spend the days outside in the woods, enjoying the outdoors.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">At the end of the day, back in the cabin, we go over our notes and the files we downloaded. We talk about what seems to be going on based on our measurements, and about what we need to do the next day. Then we play cards or go to the pub.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I became a scientist because, at the time, I thought it was the one thing that I needed someone else to teach me. We can all read history books, novels, poetry, and political theory, then discuss these books with friends and colleagues to figure out what they mean to us and how they’re important to our lives. But the scientific mindset is something you have to train your brain in. I also felt science was more credible than humanities. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Having spent 18 years in science, I now realize that humanities and science can be equally credible. Also – while you do need to train your brain to think scientifically – it needs to be trained to work in the humanities, as well. And finally, you likely won’t get far in understanding certain books and theories if you don’t have someone to work with who can guide your inquiry. So the main reasons I became a scientist – which made sense at the time – actually aren’t entirely true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: Being outdoors, observing the landscape and trying to understand how it works. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Erin: What is something about your job that would surprise us?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I</span></span> actually don’t get summers off. A lot of people think that professors only work from September to May, and have holidays from June to August. Since I’m so busy with office work and field work during the school term, the summer is my time to catch up on writing research papers, spend time with my grad students in the field, and prepare some of my classes for the fall.</div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Erin: What are some of the things you like to do for fun?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah: I like most things outdoors as long as they’re not extreme – for example, I prefer cross-country skiing over downhill skiing, and hiking over trail running. I enjoy nature photography, and am a science writer in my spare time. As a writer, I also love to read: novels, mysteries, memoirs, non-fiction – if it’s good, I’ll read it. I do a lot of gardening, and get a kick out of eating food that I’ve grown myself. I also have hunting dogs (flat-coated retrievers) that I enjoy training and working with.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What do you think first graders? Do you have any questions for Sarah about her work as a scientist? Like always, be sure to leave them in the comments!</span></span></div>
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Now that we've come to the end of the school year, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who volunteered to participate in the Scientist of the Month segment. Everyone who participated did so with their own personal time, and was incredibly thoughtful and dedicated to answering the kids' questions and finding ways to explain their work. I enjoyed working with everyone and learning about all of your research myself! Doing these interviews was so much fun that I've decided to make the Scientist of the Month a regular segment next school year too, so it will be back in the fall with a new batch of students and scientists!</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-52313700214341554752013-05-09T18:19:00.001-05:002013-05-09T18:19:59.220-05:00Sciobeantown Storify: Bird Migration with Brad WinnI put together a storify of tweets from the May 8th #sciobeantown event:<br />
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<script src="//storify.com/ErinPodolak/sciobeantown-with-brad-winn.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/ErinPodolak/sciobeantown-with-brad-winn" target="_blank">View the story "#Sciobeantown with Brad Winn" on Storify</a>]</noscript>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-966065026715778282013-05-07T10:29:00.001-05:002013-05-09T17:38:56.740-05:00#Sci4hels Question Time #5 - What is the obligation of a science journalist when it comes to education?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m manning the <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">sci4hels</a> ship this week for question time. For question #5, we’ve decided to talk about whether science journalists have an extra obligation to educate compared to journalists who focus on other areas. We’ll be entertaining this topic on twitter at the hashtag #sci4hels on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thursday 5/9 at 1pm EST</b>. I hope you’ll be able to join us, so, you know, I don’t end up talking to myself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This question has me particularly excited, because for me it ties back to the larger questions of “why am I doing what I’m doing?” and even more importantly “what do I <u>want</u> to be doing?” Since I turned 25 two months ago I’ve been joking a lot about having a quarter-life crisis, but several things have gone on in my life recently that spurred me to take stock of just about everything, including my career. </span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-McVhKeCCbG0/UYka9zmcnTI/AAAAAAAAA-c/9h1qsh0fs60/s1600/1280px-Science_books_in_Senate_House%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" mwa="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-McVhKeCCbG0/UYka9zmcnTI/AAAAAAAAA-c/9h1qsh0fs60/s320/1280px-Science_books_in_Senate_House%255B1%255D.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I often grapple with questions about whether I can consider what I do journalism, whether I’m okay with not doing journalism, if what I even want is to be a journalist, and where those boundaries are – but those are questions for another discussion (and in fact are being tackled in some capacity by <a href="http://wcsj2013.org/wearing-hats-preserve-independence/">another panel at WCSJ13</a>.) Still, it relates to whether or not education is or should be a part of science journalism. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If I do want to help educate the public about science, and if that is an important part of what I want to accomplish in my career does that mean I should be a science journalist? Why not be a teacher? (Oh, so many reasons.) I could work at a museum and educate the public. I could be a public information officer and help educate. I could be an outreach officer for any number of scientific organizations. If you want to educate, why do it through journalism?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are a lot of questions related to this including: are there other aspects of being a journalist, specifically a science journalist that compliment being an educator? Does being an educator play a role in science journalism that it doesn’t for business or political writers? Writing scientific explainers is definitely journalism – but is it just one kind of journalism or is it something that pervades all science journalism? One of my favorite take-aways from Scio13 came out of the session on explanatory journalism where Carl Zimmer made the comment (which I'm paraphrasing) that good science journalism should never read like you are dropping a textbook on someone. I think that ties in well with this topic, because if you want to be an educator and you want to do it through journalism - well then how do you do that effectively?</span></div>
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While you could approach this question in a lot of different ways, I would really like to hear from people about whether being an educator was part of what made you want to become a science journalist, and what role you think education plays in your work. Bora has tackled this question before in the blog post/on Twitter with <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2011/10/12/is-education-what-journalists-do/">Is Education What Journalists Do?</a> Again, I'll be posting this question to Twitter on Thursday 5/9 at 1pm EST at the #sci4hels hashtag - I hope you'll join in.<br />
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<b>Update 5/9: </b><br />
So what happened? Here's the storify recap - it was apparently both useful and not useful, but a lot of people had a lot to say, so thank you for participating everyone!</div>
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<script src="//storify.com/ErinPodolak/sci4hels-question-time-5-education-and-sci-journo.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/ErinPodolak/sci4hels-question-time-5-education-and-sci-journo" target="_blank">View the story "#sci4hels Question Time #5 - Education and Sci Journos" on Storify</a>]</noscript>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-91372117059305324612013-05-06T06:54:00.000-05:002013-05-06T12:52:03.386-05:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month David TarpeyScience For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on Science Decoded for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23iamscience&src=typd">#iamscience</a> (also <a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/">a Tumblr</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23realwomenofscience&src=typd">#realwomenofscience</a> two hashtags on Twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.<br />
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Hello first graders. Happy May, I'm excited for spring and warm weather, aren't you? This month I'm pleased to introduce you to David Tarpey, PhD. David is an entomologist (he studies bugs!) at North Carolina State University. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;">Like I did with our other scientists, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-penny-higgins.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Penny</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-philipp.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Philipp</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/12/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-anne-marike.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Anne-Marike</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Pete</a>,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-rebecca-wragg.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Becky</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/03/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-michael-dickey.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Michael</a>, and <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/04/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-jennifer-laaser.html">Jenny</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> I asked him questions about his job as a scientist to learn more about what he really does. I hope you enjoy learning about his work! Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask him any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Erin: What type of scientist are you?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">David: I'm an entomologist, a scientist who studies insects. There are lots of types of bugs though, so most entomologists specialize in different areas. My speciality is honey bees, so my area of expertise is named apiculture. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Erin Where did you go to school, and what did you study?</span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDacYnBJ3og/UYa-NyEAMjI/AAAAAAAAA-A/N7_U4LiJ4UA/s1600/Bees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pDacYnBJ3og/UYa-NyEAMjI/AAAAAAAAA-A/N7_U4LiJ4UA/s320/Bees.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of David Tarpey</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">David: I got my undergraduate degree at Hobart College, my Master of Science at Bucknell University and my PhD at the University of California, Davis. While an undergrad I actually got my first experience in research while on my junior year abroad at Oxford University in England studying the learning behavior of birds (starlings to be precise). I took that experience back to Hobart and did a different project for my senior thesis on the mating behaviors of Hawaiian drosophila, the picture-winged fruit flies, which was my first introduction to insect science. I then started my masters project on honey bees, and ever since then I've been hooked! My MS project investigated the fascinating process by which a new queen takes over the colony from the old mother queen, which involves rival sister queens fighting each other to the death until only one remains. My PhD project also involved research on queens, studying why they mate with an unusually high number of males, or drones. I've continued research on that same question ever since. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Erin: Where do you work, and what does a typical day at work entail?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">David: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">I'm in the Entomology Department at North Carolina State University, one of the largest and arguably the best entomology department in the country. My typical work day is anything but typical, as I do many things in my position. Some days I teach a large class of non-science majors about how cool bees are, using them to learn about biology in order to appreciate the process of science. Other days I work with beekeepers, teaching them how to best manage their beehives to keep their colonies healthy and productive so the bees can pollinate all the crops that we eat every day. Still other days, I work with other members of our lab to do research on why honey bees do what they do, and how they go about doing it. We use lots of different ways to address these questions, including genetics and glass-walled observation hives so we can watch what's going on inside.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">David: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">I've always known I've wanted to be a scientist. It may be in part because my father was a research psychologist so I've always been in academia, or it may be because I've loved exploring and tinkering in the outdoors since as early as I can remember. But what really got me excited about science was the first time I opened up a beehive containing ~50,000 bees and a single queen. Realizing how surprisingly peaceful they were and how they worked together for the greater good was so fascinating to me, I just had to understand more!</span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jjWbN6PR_kE/UYa-a9RE2mI/AAAAAAAAA-I/86v-3jHxNDY/s1600/SunThruComb2.JPG+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jjWbN6PR_kE/UYa-a9RE2mI/AAAAAAAAA-I/86v-3jHxNDY/s320/SunThruComb2.JPG+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of David Tarpey</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">David: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">I really enjoy all the different aspects of my job. Teaching students the fascinating biology of bees constantly renews my love and admiration for them, as does my working with beekeepers to help perfect their management of their beehives. Researching how colonies function is also very rewarding, as I feel like a detective trying to figure out an infinitely complex and interesting puzzle.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Erin: What is something about your job that would surprise us?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">David: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Being the honey bee expert in North Carolina, one of the more surprising things that I do every year is help the NC State Fair judge all of the entries for honey, wax, and hive products. Beekeepers have many rewards, and they love to compete with each other to see who can bottle the best honey and make the best candles. We therefore help decide who wins the blue ribbon every year!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: What are some of the things you like to do for fun? </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">David: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">I love sports, so I play a lot of racquetball and basketball, and I also help coach my son's soccer team. I'm also an avid hiker and enjoy camping in the outdoors. I also wish I could be as hands-on with beekeeping as I used to be, since I enjoy playing with the bees as much as I can.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">***</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">What do you think first graders? Do any of you ever see bees in your backyard or at the park? What are some of the things you know about bees? Do you have any questions for Dr. David? Be sure to leave him a comment! I think he has a pretty cool job, don't you?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Thank you, David for being our May Scientist of the Month!</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-75857529205831103872013-04-24T16:49:00.000-05:002013-04-24T16:53:12.799-05:00Book Review: Mastermind (In Defense of Dr. Watson)<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the biggest perks about attending <a href="http://scienceonline.com/">Science Online</a> in person this year was that all attendees received complimentary books. I got my first choice in the book lottery – Maria Konnikova’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.mariakonnikova.com/book/">Mastermind</a></i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to Think like Sherlock Holmes</i> – and I thought it was great. However, if anything, reading up on how to think like the famous detective caused me to react in a way that is the complete opposite of Holmes, full of sentiment, attachment and personal bias. I failed miserably in this first test of Holmesian thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reason I say I failed is because I spent Konnikova’s entire book wanting to leap to the defense of Dr. Watson, Holmes’ companion throughout his many adventures. Holmes is admirable, entertaining, and his mental process is fascinating. Of course it is interesting to try to dissect the way that he looks at the world and deduces so much information from such seemingly obscure details. The fact that he uses his ability for good is particularly impressive, but Holmes is also kind of a jerk. Endearing, but still obnoxious.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RqlYhFfaFiI/UXhS84VBCWI/AAAAAAAAA9o/l0MEe-GYsu8/s1600/Mastermind-cover-new-pipe-198x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RqlYhFfaFiI/UXhS84VBCWI/AAAAAAAAA9o/l0MEe-GYsu8/s1600/Mastermind-cover-new-pipe-198x300.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Holmes is arrogant and closed off. He keeps other people in the dark because it amuses him to see them struggle for the clarity he so quickly attains, all so he can have his dramatic unveiling at the end of every case. He takes extreme satisfaction in the dramatic unveiling of the solution to each puzzle. He lets the police take credit, yes, but not until he has fully satisfied his desire to see Lestrade or Gregson squirm. His disdain for the average person seeps through the stories. There is also that minor issue of the heroin addiction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Watson doesn’t operate with the same mental dexterity as Holmes, but he is the character that I actually like. Holmes is the one I would hire to solve my next personal crisis, but Watson is the one I’d want to take out for a beer. It might be fun to imagine being Holmes, but I can actually relate to the human folly of Watson. He thinks like the rest of us do, and on top of that he’s a loyal friend and always bravely standing by at Holmes’ request with his pistol at the ready. He’s a soldier and a doctor – occupations I’ve always admired and respected.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet in spite of all of Watson’s good qualities, Konnikova throws him right under the proverbial bus. She makes no bones about her lack of admiration for the good doctor, even describing the “system Watson” way of thinking as:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Think of the Watson system as our naive selves, operating by the lazy thought habits” (Konnikova, 18.) I understand what Konnikova is getting at, Watson is the perfect example<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> of </span>the average person, but I bristled at the word lazy. Not because it isn’t correct – she fully backs up her reasoning with examples of Watson’s behavior in the various Holmes stories – but because I’ve attached myself to Watson the way you would a friend. How dare you call my friend lazy (even if he is!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found myself battling my sentimental attachment to Watson for most of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mastermind</i>. One of the parts that riled me the most was Konnikova’s take on how Watson makes assumptions about Mary Morstan in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sign of the Four</i>. When I read the story, I thought Watson and Mary’s attachment to each other was romantic, especially the scene where the lights cut out and they instinctively reach for each other’s hand in the darkness even though they’ve only just met. Then Konnikova has to go and totally burst my bubble by dissecting Watson’s initial impressions of Mary, which I hadn’t realized were totally superficial (at best):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Right away the good doctor has jumped from a color of hair and complexion and a style of dress to a far more reaching character judgment. Mary’s appearance suggests simplicity; perhaps so. But sweetness? Amiability? Spirituality? Refinement and sensitivity? Watson has no basis whatsoever for any of these judgments. Mary has yet to say a single word in his presence. All she has done is enter the room. But already a host of biases are at play, vying with one another to create a complete picture of this stranger” (Konnikova, 41.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well okay then, so much for romantic. It only gets worse. As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mastermind</i> progresses Konnikova lays out an entire array of examples of Watson being confused, getting defeated, and settling for less than the most rigorous truth. In the shadow of Holmes, Watson is far from deserving of our praise, and certainly not one to be emulated. I see that the overall message of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mastermind</i> is that all of us have an inner Holmes we can train, and if we work hard we too can possess those same mental abilities. Still, I walked away feeling a little slighted, much like the good doctor. I didn’t really want to see the character in that light. It is naive I suppose, but I could have done without Watson going under the microscope. Alas, once one's eyes are open, they are open. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If we take my sentimental attachment to Watson out of the equation, Konnikova’s book is an incredibly fun read that adds a wonderfully colorful context to Holmes’ thought process. I enjoyed it immensely and it really did open my eyes to the many ways we box in our own thinking. Recommended, although maybe not if like me, you find some solace in the sentimental way we react to our favorite characters.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-74249663296557596682013-04-08T11:35:00.000-05:002013-04-16T14:19:30.500-05:00#Sci4hels: The Killer (Female) Science Journalists of the Future<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--uHNDiCltM0/UWK8s67i63I/AAAAAAAAA9Y/1-BIsPR_p9Y/s1600/Sci4hels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" mta="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--uHNDiCltM0/UWK8s67i63I/AAAAAAAAA9Y/1-BIsPR_p9Y/s1600/Sci4hels.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myself, Kathleen, Bora, Rose, and Lena at Scio13<br />
Photo by Russ Creech</td></tr>
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Confession time, folks: all of the sci4hels members are women. Young women, at the start of their careers in science journalism. To date, nothing <a href="http://roseveleth.com/">Rose</a>, <a href="http://www.lenagroeger.com/">Lena</a>, <a href="http://kathleenraven.com/">Kathleen</a> and I have done in the lead up to our panel discussion at the <a href="http://wcsj2013.org/">World Conference of Science Journalists</a> has addressed this fact, including <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">our website</a>, <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/essential-readings/">blog posts</a> or <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/welcome-to-question-time-with-sci4hels-ask-us-something/">question time</a>. Why should it? The topic of the panel has nothing to do with gender. In case you've missed me talking nonstop about sci4hels in the last six months here is the panel description: <br />
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The 'Killer' Science Journalists of the Future: "The science media ecosystem has never been as big, as good or as vibrant as it is today. Many young writers are joining the ranks of veterans each year- and they are good! Many of them have science backgrounds. They all write really well. And they are digital natives, effortlessly navigating today's online world and using all the tools available to them. But some of them are going beyond being well adapted to the new media ecosystem - they are actively creating it. They experiment with new forms and formats to tell stories online, and if the appropriate tool is missing - they build it themselves. Not only can they write well, they can also code (well, some of us), design for the web, produce all types of multimedia, and do all of this with seemingly more fun than effort, seeing each other as collaborators rather than competitors. I'd like to see the best of them tell us what they do, how they do it and what they envision for the media ecosystem they are currently building." - Bora Zivkovic (panel organizer)<br />
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Being female isn't a part of that description. Yet, the panel is all female. Bora <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/23/sci4hels-killer-science-journalists-of-the-future-ready-to-take-over-the-world/">chose us</a> by sifting through the work of dozens of new science journalists, by narrowing down his list slowly to make sure that he chose three panelists and a moderator whose experience and interests would make the best lineup. He ended up with four women. As four women who now have an international platform to discuss our profession, should we address our gender or not? Is it the proverbial gorilla in the room? Do we have some kind of duty to use our powers for good to try to tackle feminism and journalism just because we can? Are we putting some kind of target on our backs for criticism by calling attention to our gender?<br />
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I've been thinking about this a lot lately, with a mixture of excitement and dread because we've made the decision to go there - to talk about being female science journalists. For me, even though I have my concerns about incorporating our gender into the official sci4hels discussion I don't see how we can avoid talking about it. It comes up all the time behind closed doors, and if we're going to commiserate and try to help each other tackle it, why shouldn't we open it up to our larger community? So, the next sci4hels question time (what, you missed <a href="http://roseveleth.com/blog/sci4hels-question-time-1-recap-beats-and-corn-gods/">question #1</a> and <a href="http://roseveleth.com/blog/sci4hels-question-time-2-how-do-you-get-noticed/">question #2</a>?) is going to set out to constructively answer: how do we get more women to the top of the masthead?<br />
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In the words of conversation moderator Rose Eveleth: "There are tons of women in science journalism, but very few at the very top. This isn't a journalism specific problem, obviously, but in a field where the early and mid-career ranks are full of women, what can we do to even the numbers at the top? And, pertaining to our panel, what can the younger generations of science journalists do about it?"<br />
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We're going to be discussing this on <strong>Thursday 4/11 at 10 am EST</strong> on Twitter at the hashtag <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23sci4hels&src=hash">#sci4hels</a></strong>. I'm excited for what I hope will be a value filled conversation about how women can rise to the top of the journalism hierarchy. I'm more excited to see what advice there is for young women particularly because trying to establish credibility is hard for everyone, but being new and being a woman is like a double whammy when it comes to trying to convince someone you know what you're doing. If you don't have your PhD or a Pulitzer to wave around to tell people you know your stuff, it is that much harder. We tackled how to break into the business with question #2, so I think this is a logical progression: once you're in, then what? How do you continue to push your career forward and not plateau at deputy associate editor for XYZ?<br />
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With the first two questions I at least had some kind of an answer or advice to offer to the conversation. I don't have as much to give about this topic. Aside from the painfully obvious, yet still painfully necessary advice to be professional - which includes writing polite and appropriate emails, meeting deadlines, and communicating with your editors should problems arise - I'm not really sure how you go about positioning yourself to rise through the ranks. All the more reason why I think this question is a necessary one. So here's hoping we can accomplish more than just feeding the trolls, I'll let you know how it goes.<br />
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Update 4/16 - So how did it go? Well, Rose Eveleth <a href="http://roseveleth.com/blog/sci4hels-question-time-3-ladybiz-edition/">has your recap here</a>, with a lot of interesting points. Thank you to everyone who participated!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-89158694178648862582013-04-02T05:23:00.000-05:002013-04-02T05:26:01.442-05:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month Jennifer Laaser<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Science For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Science Decoded</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23IamScience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#iamscience</a> (also a <a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Tumblr</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23realwomenofscience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#realwomenofscience</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> two hashtags on Twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Hello first graders, another month, another scientist! I want to introduce you to our April scientist of the month: Jennifer Laaser. Jenny is a physical chemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> we actually took a class together about communicating science when I was in grad school! </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;">Like I did with our other scientists, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-penny-higgins.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Penny</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-philipp.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Philipp</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/12/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-anne-marike.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Anne-Marike</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Pete</a>,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-rebecca-wragg.html" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Becky</a>, and <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/03/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-michael-dickey.html">Michael</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> I asked her some questions to find out more about what she does as a scientist. I hope you enjoy learning about her work! Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask her any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What type of scientist are you?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: I'm a physical chemist. Now, I don't know what you think of when you think of a chemist - I picture someone who works in a lab and wears a white lab coat and mixes colorful chemicals together. But that's not what I actually do! I actually only do chemical reactions once in a while. Instead, as a physical chemist, I mostly study why reactions happen, the way they happen and why atoms and molecules behave the way they do. I do this using lasers. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The reason I use lasers to study chemical reactions is that chemical reactions happen incredibly, incredibly fast - way faster than you can watch with a video camera. Individual chemical reactions also involve atoms and molecules that are so tiny you can't see them, even with a powerful microscope. So the laser acts sort of like a super fast camera that asks the molecules, "what are you doing? what are you doing now? and what are you doing now?"over and over and over. Then we can use this information to figure out how the reaction works. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm currently using our lasers to study how different types of solar cells work, and how we might make them better. Other scientists in my lab also use the lasers to study things like how proteins in certain cells clump together and cause diseases like diabetes and Alzheimer's disease - they hope that if they understand how this stuff happens, they might help other scientists figure out how to stop it from happening and cure these diseases. So, I think we do a lot of really cool stuff!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Erin: What did you study in school, and where did you go?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQvaTFiE-mc/UVon0zux0jI/AAAAAAAAA8w/wMdUQrJhRq8/s1600/IMG_0621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQvaTFiE-mc/UVon0zux0jI/AAAAAAAAA8w/wMdUQrJhRq8/s320/IMG_0621.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of Jennifer Laaser</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: I studied chemistry in college, though I took classes in a lot of other interesting things too. I grew up in California, then I went to college at Yale University, and now I'm a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: Where do you work and what does a typical day at work entail?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: I work in the chemistry department at UW-Madison. My "typical" day at work depends a lot on what I'm trying to get done that day - some days, I spend almost the whole day in the lab, working on the laser and setting up experiments. Other days, I spend most of the day sitting at my desk, doing calculations, analyzing my data, and writing papers about what I've learned. I think one of the reasons I enjoy my job so much is that it really never gets boring. I do something different everyday!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: Oh, good question! I've always wanted to know how things work, and I've always loved doing experiments even just silly experiments in the kitchen or in my parents' backyard. So, I don't think I ever decided to become a scientist; I've just always been one. (If you like asking why things work and testing your ideas out, you might already be a scientist too!)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I chose to study science in school because I thought it was fun and interesting. But, I liked so many different types of science that it was kind of hard to pick just one. when I was six or seven years old I wanted to be an astronaut. I thought it would be super cool to go to outer space. When I got a little older, I discovered I was really good at math, and so I thought I might be a mathematician. When I went to college, I was pretty sure I was going to be a physicist. But then I took a chemistry class, and I decided I really liked it and I've been doing chemistry ever since. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: Well, playing with lasers is pretty cool. But really, my favorite thing about my job is that I get to work with a ton of really smart, fun people. We work together and help each other out a lot - for example, we help each other figure out how to fix experiments that aren't working, we talk about how to interpret the results from our experiments, and we design completely new experiments. So, I learn a lot from them and that makes doing science more fun. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Another really cool thing about my job is that I get to travel to a lot of interesting places to meet with other scientists and talk about our work. Scientists have lots of meetings and conferences so that they can get together and discuss their experiments and it is fun to learn from these other scientists. It is also fun to get to travel to new places for these meetings - I've gotten to visit cities all across the United States (from Seattle to Boston) and even a few places outside the US. Last year, I even went to Switzerland for a conference. Can you find Switzerland on a map, it is really far from Wisconsin and where you are in New Jersey too!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8kdAz57wOQU/UVooG0WKDaI/AAAAAAAAA84/0a7ndavRMiE/s1600/2011-12-15+20.26.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8kdAz57wOQU/UVooG0WKDaI/AAAAAAAAA84/0a7ndavRMiE/s320/2011-12-15+20.26.10.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of Jennifer Laaser</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What is something about your job that might surprise us?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: Well, I already told you that I don't actually do much with chemicals, even though I'm a chemist. But another thing that might surprise you is that the lasers in my lab don't look like lasers in the movies. The lasers I use are big and boxy and bolted to large tables in order to prevent them from moving. If they move even the tiniest bit, our experiments won't work at all. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The picture above is me standing next to one of our lasers. Normally, this laser has a cover on it, but sometimes we have to take the cover off to fix parts inside that are broken. In this photo you can actually see some of the mirrors and lenses that make the laser work!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Erin: What are your favorite things to do for fun?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jenny: There are a lot of things I like to do for fun! I love to cook and bake, knit, and take photos. But I think my favorite things to do is dance. I started taking ballet classes when I was four years old, and I've been dancing ever since. This year, I even performed in the Nutcracker with my local ballet company. Have any of your ever seen the Nutcracker? Any guesses which role I danced this year?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">***</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What do you think first graders? I think Jenny's work seems really fun and interesting. Did you expect a chemist to work with lasers? Do you have any questions for Jenny? Be sure to leave them in the comments!</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-62485787373146413332013-03-14T14:12:00.001-05:002013-03-14T14:12:46.651-05:00Are There Any Sci Comm Superheroes Among Us?You cannot do everything. Neither can I, none of us can. A few weeks ago I attended both the <a href="http://scienceonline.com/">Science Online</a> and <a href="http://www.aaas.org/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> (AAAS) conferences. An issue that kept coming up in discussion is how to be better at science outreach and communication. For scientists and communicators (and the many people who are both) it was clear to see that everyone wanted to be better. But, I noticed people getting frustrated, and sometimes even a little heated when it came down to the nitty gritty of HOW to be better.<br />
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No one person or group is, or can be, solely responsible for science communication. Science communication is an ecosystem that includes journalists, writers, bloggers, comedians, cartoonists, artists, video and audio producers, storytellers, social media enthusiasts, and scientists. What unites us is our end goal, we all want to share a love for science that explains, while also exciting people about science. How we go about achieving that end goal is different for all of us - and it needs to be. I would argue that the reason the science communication ecosystem has evolved to include so many different types of communicators is because we have a need for different voices communicating about science in different ways. The more quality communication out there, the better.<br />
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That doesn't mean any one person can be a regular sci comm superhero and do it all. I can't be a journalist, writer, blogger, artist, comedian, cartoonist, video and audio rockstar, etc. I don't know about you, but I don't have time for that. I don't know anyone who does, and communication is my main focus. I think it's a little bit crazy to expect scientists to be scientists and also communicators, but on top of that layer on every type of communication. You alone can't reach everyone, that is why we need all of us out there communicating in different ways. It is the only way we can reasonably expect to reach a wide audience.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vFuxqyIBLys/UUIff0k400I/AAAAAAAAA8I/b2f_os2mFQ4/s1600/507px-Placeholder_female_superhero_c.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vFuxqyIBLys/UUIff0k400I/AAAAAAAAA8I/b2f_os2mFQ4/s320/507px-Placeholder_female_superhero_c.png" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who are you, mystery sci comm superhero?<br />Credit: Vegas Bleeds Neon via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Placeholder_female_superhero_c.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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I've seen a lot of conversation lately about the idea of scientists writing lay friendly abstracts for their scientific papers. I'll be the first to admit lay abstracts are helpful. I recently sat with a researcher who made a graphical abstract to represent the research in pictures, it was awesome. But, I've seen the lay abstract idea get pushed even further into scientists writing full articles for the public. Where do we draw the line? If all the scientists get out there and start writing lay-friendly whole articles for publication in the mainstream...well then what the heck am I supposed to do all day? This isn't about jargon (please, please, let's not have the jargon fight again) I certainly don't think that all scientists are bad at communicating. Some are very good at it, and some aren't so great. But you know, I would be a lousy scientist. I'm not trained to be a scientist, those aren't the skills that I have. What I am trained to be, is a writer.<br />
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Writing well is something that requires certain skills and know how, in addition to a little bit of talent. It is something that develops over time, the more you write, often the better you'll get at it. All of the other modes of communication, audio, video, etc. include their own skill set. Sometimes I feel like people take for granted that everyone should be able to write and communicate well. There is a distinct lack of appreciation for the level of skill and dedication it can take to communicate well. That's not to say people can't learn how (or that for some, it will come much easier than it does for others) - but the same way I can't just snap my fingers and be a great scientist, I don't think you can just wish to be a good communicator and make it so. It takes time, which is the one thing that is in short supply for all of us.<br />
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I don't want or expect scientists to do my job for me. I want to write, I just need the help of scientists so that I can. One thing, in my opinion the most important thing, that scientists can do to be more involved in outreach is to make themselves available to science communicators so we can ask our questions and then synthesize the material for a public audience. It takes time to sit with a writer, I know, but it is time well spent. It is also time that doesn't require developing an entirely new skill set.<br />
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If scientists have the time to learn how to communicate well and then get out there and do it, that's great. Direct from the scientist themselves communication is awesome. I value it highly. But I also don't think it's fair to expect scientists to do their job and then also do my job. Not when being a scientist is itself basically two jobs because in addition to being a scientist, most are also professors and teaching itself is it's own career. I'm all for stepping down from "the ivory tower" but that doesn't have to mean becoming a master communicator yourself. Outreach, like communication, comes in many shades.<br />
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If you don't think you have the skills to write well, and you think your time could be better spent elsewhere, then fine. If you'd rather give a talk for an audience or demographic that you normally wouldn't reach because that's what you feel comfortable doing, then do it. If you'd rather sit with a journalist for an hour and just talk about your research so that they can go get the article in the media, then great. If the best way you think you can reach the public is by joining twitter and then adding value to conversations about your field of expertise, then do that. If you want to sit in front of your computer and film a short video of you summarizing your work, do it. I'm all for doing something, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything.<br />
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I've said before in blog posts about <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-question-of-code-revisited-i-think.html">learning to code</a>, that I don't think journalists should be required to excel at every different type of communication. Try, sure. Try out new things. Try new ways of communicating and reaching people. Be open. But there is a difference between trying new things to see if you enjoy or are good at them, and a blanket expectation that you have to use every single means of communicating out there. Similarly, I don't think you can expect scientists to do every different type of outreach. Some outreach, sure. Scientists can be open to new things too, and try them out to see how they fit. But just like I don't enjoy code, some scientists might not like Twitter. It's okay to not like Twitter. I choose to communicate in ways that I am good at and enjoy. I love Twitter, that's why I use it. I don't see why scientists shouldn't have the same rule of thumb when it comes to outreach. There are so many different ways to get a message to someone. We need all of the ways, and we need different people to try them.<br />
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I'm not a sci comm superhero. I don't do it all. Mostly because I like to sleep, and I like my sanity but also because I'm not very good at certain things. I can't draw to save my life. You're never going to catch me trying to be a sci scribe. I'm okay with that, because drawing isn't how I communicate. It's not what I do, and it doesn't have to be. Scientists don't all have to be writers. There are other ways to get your message across without having to be a sci comm superhero. I'm not saying don't try, but let's just be realistic here. Yes, scientists need to communicate about their work, but I'm not going to expect scientists to communicate in every way when I don't even do it myself.<br />
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You don't have to do it all just to do something. Even if that something is just talking to someone who does want to write, that itself is a positive step. So maybe, rather than trying to do all the things all the time by ourselves, we could just try to do a few things, and rely on each other to fill in the gaps. That way we as the science communication ecosystem can reach the most people in the best ways. Is that too idealistic? Maybe. But I can hope can't I?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-4063276254505522802013-03-04T05:17:00.001-06:002013-04-01T18:55:40.131-05:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month Michael DickeyScience For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Science Decoded</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23IamScience" style="text-decoration: none;">#iamscience</a> (also a <a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Tumblr</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23realwomenofscience" style="text-decoration: none;">#realwomenofscience</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> two hashtags on twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Hello first graders! I'm so excited to introduce you to our March scientist of the month Dr. Michael Dickey. Michael is a chemical engineer at North Carolina State University. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;">Like I did with our other scientists, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-penny-higgins.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Penny</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-philipp.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Philipp</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/12/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-anne-marike.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Anne-Marike</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Pete</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" lang="EN-GB" span="" style="line-height: 18px;"> and <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-rebecca-wragg.html">Becky</a>, I asked Michael some questions to find out more about what he does. I hope you will enjoy learning more about him and his job. Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask him any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments!</span><br />
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Erin: What kind of scientist are you?<br />
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Michael: I'm a chemical engineer. To understand the importance of chemical engineers, just consider your day-to-day life or look around you. The electronics you play with, the paper your books are written on, the paint on your walls, the plastics and fabrics in your car, much of the food you eat....these are all made or improved upon by chemical engineers. In general, chemical engineers take materials and substances and turn them into things that are valuable. In the past, a common example might be digging oil out of the ground and then separating and processing the chemicals in the oil to turn them into things like gasoline, fuel, chemicals, and plastics. These days, chemical engineering is much more diverse and chemical engineers work on many different problems from biology, the environment, clean energy, and nanotechnology, just to give a few examples.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8GgiivwphLU/UTPUfI0l5RI/AAAAAAAAA7k/MgZJX-xNfiQ/s1600/Michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8GgiivwphLU/UTPUfI0l5RI/AAAAAAAAA7k/MgZJX-xNfiQ/s320/Michael.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Michael Dickey.</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Erin: Where did you go to school, and what did you study?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: I grew up in North Carolina and went to school there until college. I went to Georgia Tech for undergraduate, Texas for graduate school, and did a post-doc at Harvard. All of my degrees are in chemical engineering.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: Where do you work, and what does a typical day at work entail?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: I work at North Carolina State University as a professor. The job is fun, but incredibly demanding. I usually tell people it is like doing 2-3 jobs at a time. Teaching is a part of my job, but the thing that takes the most time is running a research group and mentoring students. The job involves raising money to support the students and to buy equipment and supplies, managing the research money, and mentoring students. I don't often get to work in the lab, but I enjoy talking about science with my graduate students. A typical day for me involves a lot of meetings with colleagues and students. I also spend a lot of time on my computer replying to emails, reading, and writing.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8GgiivwphLU/UTPUfI0l5RI/AAAAAAAAA7g/iw7tlKskLPs/s1600/Michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8GgiivwphLU/UTPUfI0l5RI/AAAAAAAAA7g/iw7tlKskLPs/s1600/Michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> </a>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: I always liked math and science, it it was something I wanted to do for a long time. It probably became more clear to me in high school that those were my best subjects in school.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FEmgIVn2iHY/UTPVOKtpWFI/AAAAAAAAA7o/IS80RAUWiAY/s1600/dickey+in+lab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FEmgIVn2iHY/UTPVOKtpWFI/AAAAAAAAA7o/IS80RAUWiAY/s320/dickey+in+lab.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Michael Dickey</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: I like the freedom of the job, the fact every day is different, the intellectual satisfaction, and the ability to work with (and help) young people.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: What is something about your job that would surprise us?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: There is a misconception about professors. Most people think it is an easy job, but most of my colleagues work all of the time because the job is so demanding. I "only" teach one class each semester, but the teaching represents a very small portion of my job responsibilities.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Erin: What are some of the things you like to do for fun?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Michael: I have two daughters that are two and four years old. They are so much fun to play with. I also love going to basketball and football games. I enjoy playing guitar and exercising, although it is often hard to find time to do either these days. I also like movies and reading, but again, I don't have much time these days to do those things!</span><br />
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What do you think first graders? I think it is pretty interesting that a lot of scientists are also professors, and work at universities or colleges like Michael does. Do you have any questions for him about being a chemical engineer and a professor? Let him know in the comments.<br />
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For more information check out these awesome videos showcasing some of the research from Michael's lab:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfAOEt1eNFU">Self-Healing Stretchable Wires</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlVuIK5wAj0">Ultra Stretchable Wires</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKRWZG67dtQ">3-D Objects, Just Add Light</a><br />
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Thank you Michael for being our March Scientist of the Month!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-39840383167976415932013-02-13T12:00:00.001-06:002013-02-14T12:31:12.593-06:00We're All Worth $20,000If you're a science writer chances are <a href="http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/204136/jonah-lehrer-apologizes-makes-everyone-angrier/">you're pissed off right about now</a>. I am. What has me and so many other writers pissed off is this: The Knight Foundation recently paid disgraced journalist Jonah Lehrer $20,000 to speak about how he lied, plagarized and basically stomped all over journalism. <br />
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His speech was <a href="http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/204005/jonah-lehrer-talks-about-plagiarism-at-knight-lunch/">a lousy apology</a>. I mean, it's not his fault he made so many mistakes, he's just too smart for his own good guys. I agree that watching him talk while a public flogging took place on Twitter <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/the-next-humiliation-of-jonah-lehrer">on a screen behind him</a> was awkward, but are we really supposed to just look at the situation and say, welp, everyone makes mistakes? No. That time I killed the dinosaurs several million years too late because I forgot the zeroes on a date was a mistake. A mistake that came from sloppiness, that I apologized for, and learned from. I was forgiven for that mistake (which was even in an article I wasn't paid to write.) Fabricating quotes, plagarizing, and lying in multiple publications, for a prolongued period of time, that isn't an, "everyone makes mistakes" scenario. That is a, you have fundamental character flaws that should prohibit you from doing this job, scenario. <br />
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A lot of the science writers I know, young, new, established - it doesn't matter - were and still are up in arms about the Knight Foundation paying Lehrer $20,000 for his "apology" speech. I'm mad too, I'm mad for every single good journalist out there staring at their bank account wondering if they'll be able to pay this month's rent. I'm mad because $20,000 could fund a lot of amazing journalism and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/02/12/knight-foundation-president-lehrers-20000-not-controversial/">the Knight Foundation paid it</a> pretty much just to get people riled up and talking about the Knight Foundation. I'm mad because good journalists are giving up because they can't make enough money to stay alive in this business. Giving up. But we're going to keep Lehrer's career alive. That's insane.<br />
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I have a full time salaried science writing job - it makes me feel lucky on a daily basis that I'm getting paid to do something that I enjoy. Still, as a science writer for a cancer center I've been told that I'm a sell-out. I've been told that I can't consider myself a journalist anymore because my objectivity and integrity is tainted by being associated with an organization. Any organization. It doesn't matter if it happens to be a decent, hell even a good, organization. I took a job in science communication rather than chasing a career in pure journalism because it makes me happy. While in graduate school I started having serious doubts about whether my personality was cut out for journalism. I took a long hard look at what I loved about science writing and decided that the act of communicating, of explaining, of seeing the impact of helping people understand was most important to me. It wasn't a decision made based on money, but obviously the fact that I could get a paying job doing communication when there are no guarantees in journalism made the decision easier. The decision I made still gets to me sometimes though. It REALLY gets to me when I think about the fact that people contend I can't consider myself a journalist anymore, but Lehrer can. Lehrer gets to be a journalist. Really?<br />
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Where do we even start to try to address the problem here? Can we ever even hope to convince the people who have the money to pay up for writers that are actually worth $20,000 (and really so much more?) I don't know. But, I think the science writing community did a great thing by reacting to the whole $20,000 debacle by tweeting the names and articles of good writers using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23worth20k">#worth20k</a>. The suggestion came from <a href="https://twitter.com/vero_greenwood">@vero_greenwood</a> and was Tweeted by <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/blog/not-exactly-rocket-science/">Ed Yong</a> - who is worth far more than $20,000 himself - and ended up creating a list of pretty fantastic writers who deserve a lot more financial support for their work than they're getting. <br />
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I wanted to add my two cents, but twitter is a medium for brevity and I feel like I need to explain WHY the fact that the following people exist means the science communciation ecosystem doesn't need someone who lies, plagarizes, and then tries to tell us it's just because he's so smart. And arrogant. Can't forget the arrogance. I could never list everyone whose work is worth20k, so this just a few people who inspire me, or have had an impact on my career in some way. I hope you'll <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23worth20k">check out the hashtag</a> itself for more, and as Bora Zivkovic said on twitter the whole <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/02/were-all-worth-20000.html">SA Incubator</a> is a list of people who are worth20k, so editors - help a new science writer out!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MyXLLP65dmM/URvNshuKvJI/AAAAAAAAA6s/P5ZCiWBzw5c/s1600/worth20k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MyXLLP65dmM/URvNshuKvJI/AAAAAAAAA6s/P5ZCiWBzw5c/s400/worth20k.jpg" uea="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture created by Maki Naro <a href="https://twitter.com/sciencecomic/status/301444479469109249/photo/1">@sciencecomic</a></td></tr>
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<strong>#worth20k (and so much more)</strong><br />
Jennifer Ouellette - I've been pretty open about the fact that I've never taken a physics class, barely scraped my way through high school chemistry with a D, and never took a math class higher than Algebra III (which I and everyone else in my high school knew was math for the dumb kids.) I've pretty much always wanted to write about science, but there was a moment in there when I wanted to be a scientist, (straight A's in biology might have had something to do with it) - but I decided against science itself because I didn't think I'd ever be smart enough to pass the classes. When I was just starting graduate school for Journalism focused on science writing I was really intimidated by writing about things I'd never studied. Enter Jennifer Ouellette. She came to UW-Madison as the science writer in residence and talked to us about how she taught herself physics. She blogs at <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/">Cocktail Party Physics</a> and has written several books on physics and calculus. Whenever I start feeling like I'm in over my head and I'm just not going to get something right, I think about that talk. I dive back into the paper, or look up the answers and I figure it out. I remember that I can do this. I remember that I'm smart enough. TELL ME THAT'S NOT WORTH $20,000.<br />
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Steve Silberman - Last year UW-Madison hosted a conference on <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/04/thoughts-on-science-writing-in-age-of.html">Science Denial</a>. I was just sitting pre-session drinking my coffee when Steve Silberman sat down next to me. As we started up a conversation in my head I really couldn't help thinking, "this is the most unassuming guy ever" because he clearly had no idea that I'd been trying to think of something inteligent to say to start up a conversation with him since the conference started. I've admired his writing for a while now, I always enjoy his <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/">PLoS blog</a> and am so looking forward to his book! He always impresses me with the bravery and honesty in his writing. He tackles issues that might make people uncomfortable or be controversial and he does so with grace and eloquence. Worth $20,000.<br />
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Maggie Koerth-Baker - Maggie is someone I only recently got to meet (cheers, scio13) but whose work I've admired since I came across this fantastic explainer she wrote following the Fukushima nuclear incident. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/03/12/nuclear-energy-insid.html">Nuclear Energy 101: Inside the "black box" of power plants</a> is an awesome example of how to explain something that can be really complicated so that people take away the key information they need. I write a lot of explainers in my job, and I come back to this piece often as an example of how to get things right. Worth $20,000.<br />
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Rose Eveleth - The fact that since Science Online I have had people say to me, "wait, so you actually KNOW Rose?" totally just shows how amazing and admired Rose Eveleth is in the science writing community. She is a thoughful and creative science journalist who is busting her ass to make the science communication ecosystem better. You know what I would like you to do? I would like you go put her Kickstarter for <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roseveleth/science-studio/posts">Science Studio</a>, a project with Ben Lillie and Bora Zivkovic, over the $8,000 goal so that they can sort through the best science audio AND video for us. Please. Only needs $8,000 but is SO WORTH $20,000.<br />
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Ivan Oransky - The man behind <a href="http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/">Retraction Watch</a> and <a href="http://embargowatch.wordpress.com/">Embargo Watch</a>, Ivan inspires me as a science writer because he saw a need in science communication and he did something about it. He started the blogs, and they've become a great resource and forum for talking about serious issues in science and communication. He made something, that we needed and benefit from - and he just does it so well. Be inspired. Create new, awesome things. Worth $20,000.<br />
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The rest of #sci4hels - Bora Zivkovic, Lena Groeger, and Kathleen Raven - All of you, and of course Rose, leave me pretty much feeling honored that I get to be associated with you. Whenever I talk about our panel at the World Conference of Science Journalists and people ask me "so why are you going?" I always reply with "I have no idea" because I really don't feel worthy compared to all of you. I admire all of you so much, I did before all this <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">#sci4hels killer science journalists of the future</a> business, and I know I'll continue to admire you after. Bora - our brave leader and the blogfather, not afraid to say what needs to get said, a never ending source of support and one hell of a writer. Check out <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2013/01/28/commenting-threads-good-bad-or-not-at-all/">his post on commenting threads</a>, just the latest in a long line of awesome, thoughtful posts. Lena - her work at Propublica consistently impresses me, check out the awesome data visualizations used <a href="http://projects.propublica.org/pipelines/">to track oil and natural gas pipeline accidents</a>. I always love reading Kathleen's articles, just one example is <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=david-blaines-electrical">David Blaine's Electrical Stunt Could Create Harmful Ozone</a>. You are each worth $20,000 and then some.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-81029956001964261652013-02-10T10:16:00.002-06:002013-03-18T18:48:33.181-05:00Highlights from Science Online 2013I recently had the privilege of attending the <a href="http://scienceonline.com/">Science Online</a> conference in Raleigh, NC. The conference, hosted by North Carolina State University, has been described as "returning to the mothership" for bloggers, social media enthusiasts, journalists, writers and scientists passionate about communicating online. I heard a few people this year saying they didn't feel that way, but I guess I drank the kool-aid, because I certainly did.<br />
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Attending Science Online in person was something I wanted to do because blogging and social media isn't a part of my full time science writing job, but it's still extremely important to me. Communicating effectively means using whatever platforms fit the story the best, and I feel like I do some of my best writing on this blog. I get to be my own editor (which comes with some pressure) but I also get the freedom to explore whatever I feel like I need to talk about, to share what I love and to hopefully help other people learn new things or be encouraged to try writing themselves.<br />
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I owe so much to <a href="http://twitter.com/@boraz">Bora Zivkovic</a>, blogs editor at <i>Scientific American</i> and co-founder of Science Online, for bringing me and my little blog into this community. Attending Science Online in person really did feel like coming home. I know a lot of people have said that before, but for me it was actually the first time I felt like I belonged in such a large group. I've been on teams, in clubs, in a sorority, in a grad program, and have held jobs where I've gotten to work alongside other science writers - I say with all sincerity that I've never felt so comfortable being my true self around so many different people, and that's coming from an extrovert.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SDkrupfgtCE/URfEFiqFWOI/AAAAAAAAA5c/O162oRaYkU0/s1600/sci4hels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SDkrupfgtCE/URfEFiqFWOI/AAAAAAAAA5c/O162oRaYkU0/s400/sci4hels.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sci4hels team together at Science Online: Me, Kathleen, Bora, Rose, and Lena<br />
Photo by <a href="https://twitter.com/RussCreech">Russ Creech</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, now that I've established that I'm all-in on the love-fest aspect of Science Online, what were the highlights?<br />
-As a first time attendee, I was completely floored and honored by everyone who came up to talk or say hello. It was wonderful to meet in person people whose writing I've admired and been inspired by. One of my favorite comments that I received was that I have a good twitter avatar because online me looks like real me, so I was fairly easy to spot.<br />
- Actually rallying the nerve to take the microphone and talk about my own experience keeping up my blog and twitter while working full-time for an organization. I was in the session on what to do when people start taking your online rambling seriously, and I added the point that when looking for a job I actually used my blog and twitter as part of my resume. I've never tried to hide my online activities, so I still feel comfortable being myself online, even though I now also represent my employer.<br />
- Attending the session on using personal narrative to tell stories really got me thinking about how much of myself I put into my blogging and social media. One of the most important points is that personal narrative can be effective, but it needs to serve a purpose ie: don't put yourself in the story just to have yourself in the story.<br />
- On a similar note, I thought the session on thinking beyond text was also really valuable and I took away the same idea: multimedia needs to serve a purpose. Don't use audio, video, etc. just to use it, make sure it helps the story. One of the ideas that I tweeted was that you don't have to do all of the things all the time - I'm a firm believer in doing what you enjoy the most. I am, as Ed Yong said, "a committed text-monkey" so it makes sense to partner with people who love multimedia when I want to tell a story in a different way.<br />
- From the session on fighting bullshit in the science communication ecosystem (aside from some fantastically tweetable one-liners, see below) I took away the idea that to counteract inaccurate stories, or you know stories that are mind bogglingly ridiculous, we as a community need to be as loud as the people who are spreading the bad story. We need to amplify our impact when we do debunking.<br />
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- I had several great conversations about my decision to take a job in communication rather than pursue a standard journalism job. My ideas on this are still percolating (and I suggested it as a session at #scio14 with <a href="https://twitter.com/kprengaman">Kate Prengaman</a>) but it has been bugging me for a while that there is this perception that journalism is somehow better than communication, and that if you take a communication job you can never ever go back to being a journalist ever again. Ever. One reason it bugs me is because by that definition I am, already, an epic failure. Wasn't exactly my life goal. I do something I love, so clearly I don't agree with that, and I'm tired of hearing it. Especially for stressed out grads or recent-grads, it feels like your entire career hangs in the balance if you don't land that perfect journalism job right out of the gate- I think that's ridiculous.<br />
- It was really interesting to me to witness the unraveling of the session on explanatory journalism with of all things, what I interpreted as miscommunication between the points that were trying to be made by well, I think everyone? It felt like the scientists and journalists in the room were spinning their wheels after a while, and I can't wait to see how the conversation evolves in the future.<br />
- One of the things I enjoyed the most throughout the conference were the people who followed along with my tweets, and replied to me or added to the discussion. You are all awesome.<br />
- Listening to Diane Kelly tell the story of the first time she met Carl Zimmer when they were in their 20's was awesome. It really drove home for me how the friends and colleagues I make now could end up as life-long connections. You should also check out her <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/diane_kelly_what_we_didn_t_know_about_penis_anatomy.html">TEDMed talk</a>, because it is great.<br />
- I am so excited at the idea that is floating around to start a regional Science Online in Boston. If you're interested in joining us to try to get this off the ground check out <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23sciobeantown&src=typd">#sciobeantown</a> on Twitter and make sure to <a href="https://twitter.com/kTraphagen">let Karyn know</a> you are interested.<br />
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A few other things:<br />
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- Remember that time on the first night I ended up in a conversation with Ed Yong, Carl Zimmer, and David Dobbs? At. The. Same. Time. It might have included an inner dialogue that went something like: "you can do this, they are just people, say words."</div>
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- I put my livetweeting skills to the test, ended up in battle, and emerged victorious (though, there was talk about it being a draw by those nicer than I, also a few accusations of intimidation - which I know nothing, absolutely nothing about.)<br />
- After receiving copies of <a href="http://www.davidquammen.com/spillover"><i>Spillover</i></a> by David Quammen, <a href="http://brianswitek.com/books/my-beloved-brontosaurus/"><i>My Beloved Brontosaurus</i></a> by Brian Switek, <i><a href="http://www.mariakonnikova.com/book/">Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</a></i> by Maria Konnikova and <a href="http://jessicawapner.com/the-philadelphia-chromosome/"><i>The Philadelphia Chromosome</i></a> by Jessica Wapner I might just have to revive the book reviews section of my blog.<br />
- I am perfectly dreadful at origami.<br />
- I was able to meet Michelle Banks (aka Artologica) and bought an awesome painting. There is some great stuff in her <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/artologica">Etsy shop</a>.<br />
- We managed to squeeze in a great <a href="http://sci4hels.wordpress.com/">Sci4hels</a> brainstorming session, and I am so excited for Helsinki and our panel on the Killer Science Journalists of the Future (it was also awesome to have Bora, Lena, Rose, Kathleen and myself in the same place for the first time!)<br />
- One of my favorite things to witness was <a href="https://twitter.com/experrinment">Perrin Ireland's</a> live storyboarding of the session discussions, it was completely amazing.<br />
- Pie is a serious issue, and I can read a dessert menu with the best of them.<br />
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As a last thought I want to take the time to say thank you to Karyn Traphagen, Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker because this conference takes a lot of work, and it is run with so much dedication and care. I want to thank everyone in this community, whether you made the trip to Raleigh or not, because you make my life so much better by sharing your thoughts and insights. A last thank you to everyone who shared a story, let me share my own, and had a good laugh with me - meeting you was truly the best thing about Science Online.<br />
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Also, this:<br />
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For more posts on the conference check out the list from the <a href="http://scio13.wikispaces.com/Blogroll+%26+Media+Coverage">Scio13 Planning Wiki</a>. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-73584525766851620522013-02-08T13:10:00.000-06:002013-02-08T13:10:52.609-06:00Blogging 101 Here's What I KnowNot that I expect anyone to want to take the 20 minutes to watch a video that is essentially just me talking, but I recorded this interview about tips for bloggers who are just starting out so I thought I'd share it here. This was done as a prelude to a guest lecture that I gave in a Life Science Communication class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The students asked some great questions, that I figured were also worth answering here on the blog. If you have questions about getting started as a blogger or want to add some wisdom (please, do!) definitely let me know in the comments.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O7g30YyURDE" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Questions from the class:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Has your strategy for promoting and writing the blog changed
since getting a full-time job?</span></div>
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Absolutely, I have less time to maintain the blog than I did when I was in school, so I have to be more strategic about what I do. I'm down to writing one post a week and I spend a lot more time on Twitter. </div>
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How do you find and pick which topics to write about?</div>
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For a more detailed answer about this one, you can check out <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/filling-empty-page-reading-to-write.html">Filling the Empty Page: Reading to Write</a> where I talk more about how I get story ideas from the things that I read, and how important it is to write about what genuinely interests you. </div>
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If there is one thing you could have done differently what
would it be?</div>
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I would have (and still should) comment more on other blog posts. This is a case of not practicing what I preach, I'm well aware of the benefits of commenting and getting involved in other forums, I just don't do it nearly as often as I should. </div>
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Is there a certain way you suggest commenting? As in: ask questions, critique, converse, praise, etc.</div>
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Comment however you want to, just make sure you are saying something that contributes to the conversation in some way.</div>
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How do you make yourself seem credible when writing about a
serious matter?</div>
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If you check your facts, use the right sources, and are thoughtful and dedicated to getting the post correct then you are credible. People will see that. </div>
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Are you using other social media sites besides Twitter to
grow your blogging audience?</div>
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I just started using Google+ more, I'm intrigued to see what comes of it. </div>
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Any advice in finding your blogging voice?</div>
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Blog a lot. When I first started Science Decoded, I wrote a lot more than I do now. You need to try it out, try different kinds of posts, explore different topics and eventually you'll figure out what feels right to you. Give yourself time to develop your voice, you aren't going to have everything exactly how you want it right out of the gate. </div>
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Any tips for reaching out to influential stakeholders, it
seems intimidating.</div>
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If tweeting or commenting to someone well established in your field, I think the best advice I can give is to just go for it - but have something of substance to say. If it really makes you uncomfortable, practice interacting with people you consider your peers first to get a better sense for how it all works. </div>
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After you established a professional blog did you ever
find yourself posting off topic of your specific aim because it was just so
interesting you had to share it?</div>
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Absolutely. I kept Science Decoded fairly open ended in the first place because I knew I wanted the ability to write blog posts about a variety of topics. Even so, I've written posts that haven't been related to science like when I went on a rant about supporting philanthropic causes or explained my fascination with Amelia Earhart. In my opinion, you can go off topic once in a while and you shouldn't have a problem.</div>
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How do you keep your ideas confined to a tweet?</div>
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Tweeting short hand is tricky, it takes practice to instinctively distill ideas into a tweet but you'll get the hang of it. </div>
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What aspect of your writing has improved most over the
years? (being concise, structure, etc.)</div>
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I would say the thing about my writing that has improved most since I started blogging is the ease with which I write in my own style. Like I said in answer to another question, your voice develops and becoming comfortable with my own voice is I think the best take-away from blogging. </div>
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If you have any tips of your own, or if you have any other questions you'd like me to try to answer leave it in the comments! </div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-26504071966392494002013-02-04T08:53:00.001-06:002013-02-04T12:54:00.341-06:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month Rebecca Wragg Sykes<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><i>Science For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Science Decoded</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><i> for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23IamScience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#iamscience</a> (also a <a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Tumblr</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23realwomenofscience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#realwomenofscience</a></i></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> two hashtags on twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.</span></span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Hello first graders! I'm so excited to introduce you to our February scientist of the month Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Becky is a palaeolithic archaeologist (I'll let her explain what that means). </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Like I did with our other scientists, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-penny-higgins.html">Penny</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-philipp.html">Philipp</a>, <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/12/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-anne-marike.html">Anne-Marike</a>, and <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html">Pete</a> I asked Becky some questions to find out more about what she does. I hope you will enjoy learning more about her and her research. Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask her any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments!</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: What type of scientist are you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Researchers on a field survery in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">South </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Africa in 2004 (photo by Dr. Sykes)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;">Becky: I’m a Palaeolithic archaeologist, which means that I study how people lived during the Stone Age by looking at the things they left behind. “Palaeolithic” actually means ‘old stone age’, and I specialise in the Neanderthals, who were an ancient type of human living in Europe and parts of West Asia between about 300 thousand and 30 thousand years ago. There were four ices ages in the enormous length of time they were around, as well as periods when it was warm like it is now. You will have up to 4% Neanderthal DNA inside you, depending on where your own ancestors come from in the world.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I try to work out how these very successful humans lived, by looking at how they used different types of stone technology to survive (for example they made the first glue, from birch bark pitch), how much they moved around the landscape and what kinds of social networks they had: how often did they meet up with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: What did you study in school, and where did you go?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Becky: I loved learning a lot of different things, including literature, history and science. I also enjoyed art. But when I chose my A-levels (final high school subjects) I took Ancient History (Roman and Ancient Greek), French and English Literature. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">My school (Graveney School, London) was a comprehensive (not fee-paying) school with a great mix of students from many cultures and backgrounds. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">I did my first archaeology degree at University of Bristol because they had a rock art course, then I decided I enjoyed human origins and did a Masters in this at University of Southampton. My PhD on the British Late Neanderthals was at University of Sheffield.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: Where do you work and what does a typical day at work entail?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Becky: Right now I work part-time to support my family while I am writing a book and articles on my PhD research. This June I will be starting my first proper science job at the Université Bordeaux in France, thanks to a European fellowship (the Marie Curie program). I will be working with many other specialists from around the world who all study human origins too.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My project is looking at the Neanderthals who lived in the mountains and valleys in South-West France, trying to match the stone tools that come from open-air sites with those we have already studied from caves with lots of deep layers of artefacts and animal bones. By looking at the kinds of rock the tools are made from at each site, and where those rocks come from, you can start to map out the territory of Neanderthals in the landscape. From this you can begin to work out how far they travelled, whether they exchanged tools with each other, and how complex their relationships with each other must have been. These are the Big Questions in human origins research!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">As a stone tool researcher, my day could be spent measuring and recording features on lots and lots of artefacts; later on I use computer programs to look for patterns, like which kinds of stone were preferred for which types of tools. After this, I spend time writing about my findings so everyone can understand about our amazing ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Becky: I’m a scientist for the same reason that you are all interested in the things you like: everyone has something they’re fascinated by, that they want to know more about. Asking “How?” and “Why?” are things we should never stop doing, and being a scientist means you get to find these things out about the stuff that interests you most. Since I was very young I loved history and imagining what living in the past would have been like, so when I found out that being an archaeologist meant I could do that, I decided that this was the job for me! </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;">If I hadn’t become an archaeologist, my other dream job would be an astronomer or a wildlife researcher.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Becky working with colleague Geoff Smith, a </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">mammoth </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">specialist, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">on a museum collection.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Becky: I think two things are my favourite. One is that as an archaeologist I get to be outside excavating sites which is a lot of fun, especially if the weather is nice! I also get to become really great friends with people who I dig with for weeks, and finding something incredible never gets old! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other thing is that working in science means I get to meet amazing people from all over the world who are interested in the same thing as me, and we can share our passion and find new ways to work together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: What is something about your job that might surprise us?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Becky: Even though it’s true that archaeologists spend time digging, we also spend many hours back at our office or lab, for example I’ve spent months and months studying thousands of stone tools. Even though collecting my data like this can get a bit boring, sometimes it hits you that a real Neanderthal who lived and laughed and enjoyed the sun also held this tool when there were still woolly mammoths and glaciers (ice sheets) a mile thick. That’s pretty awesome to touch the past like that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erin: What are your favorite things to do for fun?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Becky: I love getting out into nature especially watching birds (I’m writing a book about birds in prehistory). I enjoy writing about science on my blog, and taking photographs. I really like to play games on the Xbox with my husband, and I have a weakness for science fiction novels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you think first graders? I think Becky's work is pretty cool, do you have any questions for her? Be sure to leave them in the comments. For any adult readers you can catch Becky on twitter </span><a href="https://twitter.com/LeMoustier"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">@LeMoustier</span></a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-64787280462970563902013-01-27T12:28:00.003-06:002013-01-27T12:28:45.142-06:00Jorge Cham: The Science GapI recently watched this TED talk given by Jorge Cham, the creator of <a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php">PhD Comics</a> (Piled Higher and Deeper) and I wanted to make sure I shared it here because he makes some great points about science communcation. I don't think anything he brings up would really come as a shock to someone who pays attention to science and the media, but I do think that his use of humor and cartoons is very effective.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AzcMEwAxSP8" width="640"></iframe><br />
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The traditional way that scientists get their research in the form of an academically published article out to the public is "sub-optimal?" Not exactly a shocker, but an important point nonetheless. Sometimes I think we (and by that I mean me) have a tendency to get so wrapped up in the science communication world that you can almost forget that so many people are really far removed from the issues and research that we tackle on a daily basis. As a science writer it is my job to be a bridge between scientists and the public, so it is always a good reminder to think about the level of understanding and interest of your audience.<br />
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There are a lot more points to make about this one, but I'm short on time for blogging this week, so I'm just going to take my own advice from <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/filling-empty-page-reading-to-write.html">last week's post</a> and not push myself to think things when my brain is tired. (Better to put my brain cells toward thinking about <a href="http://scienceonline.com/">#scio13</a>!) But, if you have thoughts, by all means I'd love to know what you think!<br />
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Before I just leave this here, Cham mentions the cartoon he made at the request of Daniel Whiteson to explain what the Higgs Boson is in the TED talk so I thought I would also post that for those who are interested. It really is a great explanation of the Higgs... something I know a lot of science writers including myself have struggled with!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="656" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/41038445?portrait=0&color=c8b3df" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br /></div>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/41038445">The Higgs Boson Explained</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/phdcomics">PHD Comics</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-1122472320985956432013-01-20T08:41:00.000-06:002013-01-22T11:33:43.537-06:00Media Consumption 1/13/13-1/20/13Once again just sharing a few things that I read last week that stuck out to me... as always, let me know if you have a favorite story that you want to share!<br />
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Pick 1: Cancer/Medicine Coverage<br />
<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509901/study-highlights-the-risk-of-handing-over-your-genome/">Study Highlights the Risk of Handing Over Your Genome</a> – Susan Young MIT’s <em>Technology Review</em><br />
With genome sequencing for biomedical research on my mind, I think this is a really interesting story for all of us to be paying some attention. A new study showed that researchers were able to deanonymize genomic data – essentially take genetic information that had been made anonymous and figure out whose data it was using information that was publicly available on the Internet. It raises a lot of questions about regulations, and questions of security for people who allow their genomes to be sequenced for research.<br />
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Pick 2: Scientific Study<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ebola_virus_particles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" oea="true" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ebola_virus_particles.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ebola virus: PLoS Pathogens<br />
<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebola_virus_particles.jpg">Thomas W. Geisbert, Boston University School of Medicine</a></td></tr>
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<a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/01/now-where-did-i-put-that-ebola.html">Now Where Did I Put That Ebola?</a> – Helen Shen for <em>Nature</em> <br />
“In the first study of its kind, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled statistics on problems related to the handling of hazardous biological agents, such as Ebola, SARS, and anthrax, at hundreds of academic and government research centers.” Forget Outbreak or Contagion, this one will make you want to break out the hazmat suit – unless of course the “inadvertent release” of pathogens isn’t as horrifying to you as it is to me.<br />
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Pick 3: Writing Pick<br />
Should You Be a Writer or an Editor? <a href="http://www.theopennotebook.com/2013/01/15/should-you-be-a-writer-or-an-editor-part-i-the-writers/">Part One: The Writers</a> and <a href="http://www.theopennotebook.com/2013/01/16/are-you-an-editor-or-a-writer-part-ii-the-editors/">Part Two: The Editors</a> – Christie Aschwanden for The Open Notebook<br />
This was a really great two part article, which tackles an issue that I think all writers face at some point in their careers – is what you are best at and what you should be doing to write or is it to edit? The natural career progression goes from writer to editor, but if you just want to write or just want to edit? How do you tell what fits for you? Some great writers and editors weigh in with their experiences. Also, if you’ve never heard of The Open Notebook, take the time to explore the site a little. I can’t stress enough what a great resource for writers it is. <br />
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Bonus Pick:<br />
<a href="http://boingboing.net/2013/01/14/sherlock.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co">Sherlock Holmes and the Infamous Brain Attic</a> – Maria Konnikova on BoingBoing<br />
Partly chosen because I have a recent fascination with Sherlock Holmes, but also chosen because Konnikova is an awesome science/psychology writer (you can normally catch her over at <em>Scientific American</em> writing the <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/">Literally Psyched</a> blog) and I’ve really been looking forward to her first book “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008EKOSXS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=boingbonet-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008EKOSXS">Mastermind: How to think Like Sherlock Holmes</a>” which is out this month. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-84009284419173407922013-01-16T05:43:00.000-06:002013-01-16T05:44:18.994-06:00Media Consumption: 1/6/13-1/12/13<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">A few choices from what I read last week - as always feel free to share with me some of the things you've been reading lately. </span><br />
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I'm leading with the bonus pick this week, because I don't even do research (but I certainly read enough research papers) and I found the <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23overlyhonestmethods&src=typd">#overlyhonestmethods</a> tweets hilarious. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://storify.com/ingorohlfing/overly-honest-methods-in-science?utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_source=t.co&awesm=sfy.co_cCSw&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_campaign=" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">#overlyhonestmethods</a> - Storify<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This week a hashtag on Twitter (which is used to join/catalog tweets) was circulating about overly honest methods in science research. Most of these were pretty funny, some were a little scary in terms of the things that really go on in the lab and why decisions are made to run an experiment a certain way. Pretty much scientists on twitter had a field day with this. What I’ve linked to is a storify of the tweets, if you’ve never seen storify you should check it out, it is a web platform that you can use to pull tweets on a specific topic together so that they read like a story.</span></div>
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Cancer/Medicine Pick:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/health/pap-test-may-prove-useful-at-detecting-more-types-of-cancer-study-suggests.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=afternoonupdate&emc=edit_au_20130109&utm_source=Hootsuite&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=HHMINEWS-Twitterfeed&" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Pap Test Could Help Find Cancers of the Uterus and Ovaries</a> – Denise Grady, <i>The New York Times</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This week the cancer research story that made a big splash online was this research led by Dr. Luis Diaz out of Johns Hopkins University. The study provides evidence that pap tests which are done to detect cervical cancer could also be used to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries – thus screening for three cancers with a single test that is already being done.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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Science Pick:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/01/tarbosaurus_bataar_smuggling_case_dinosaur_fossil_dealers_steal_bones_from.single.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Million Dollar Dinosaur Scandal</a> – Brian Switek, <i>Slate</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Switek is an awesome science writer/blogger (he writes Laelaps for the new National Geographic network Phenomena, and previously blogged at Wired) and is a go-to for context and debunking on dinosaur stories. This is a long read, but I thought the world of fossil smuggling was fascinating so that’s why this is my science pick of the week!<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Writing Pick:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.scilogs.com/communication_breakdown/interview-prep-reporters/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Preparing for an Interview, Part One: Reporters</a> – Matt Shipman on SciLogs<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Great advice here from Deborah Blum, Jeanna Bryner, and Tom Breen on how they prepare before an interview with a scientist.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-76912474547128677502013-01-14T18:27:00.000-06:002013-01-14T19:12:48.069-06:00Filling the Empty Page: Reading To WriteYou've started a blog. Congratulations. Now what?<br />
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Of the many things I learned while in Journalism school, perhaps the bit of advice that I echo the most is that if you want to write well, you must read good writing. I've found this to be particularly true when blogging. If you want to blog about a topic it is extemely adventageous for you to be aware of what others have already said on the subject. It doesn't do you or anyone else any good for you to produce content that is already out there (especially if your audience is smaller, and definitely if you don't cover the topic as well as your peers.) <br />
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It has been my experience as a science blogger for three years that what you write doesn't have to be the most timely, exciting thing on the Internet. Sure, those studies and stories that are making waves are great to write about, and when I blog about things like <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/05/farting-dinosaur-debacle.html">dinosaurs farting themselves to death</a> I get a decent amount of traffic. But why would anyone care what I think of a study on dinosaurs when they could head over to <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/blog/laelaps/">Laelaps</a> and read what Brian Switek has to say about it? Why would anyone care what I think about an infectous disease story when the world has Maryn McKenna's <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/superbug/">Superbug</a>? Or any chemical story when Deborah Blum has that beat <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/elemental/">superbly locked down</a>? <br />
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I don't think there is much value to writing about things that others have already covered, and covered well, unless there is some angle or something I feel like I can bring to the conversation. For the record, "I agree" doesn't add much to the conversation - unless a topic is controversial and someone is getting attacked by the trolls and you want to show solidarity. If I do have something to say, in most of those cases it would probably be more beneficial as a blogger (especially a new bloger) to add a comment to those existing posts and jump into the conversation than sounding off in my own diatribe. There are, of course, exceptions when I do think it is worthwhile to toss in your two cents about a topic. But, in general if you aren't going to blog about the latest splashy story, then what ARE you going to blog about?<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KBeL7onzKSI/UPSg-gqX71I/AAAAAAAAA4A/9TjLFWtcVw0/s1600/bestsciencewritingonline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KBeL7onzKSI/UPSg-gqX71I/AAAAAAAAA4A/9TjLFWtcVw0/s320/bestsciencewritingonline.jpg" width="212" /></a>What has made the traffic on my blog spike, and has increased my profile as a blogger more than anything else that I've done is to write about what interests me the most. Simple, I know, but I think when you are just starting out as a blogger it can be easy to feel like you need to be talking about what everyone else is talking about. The way to get noticed isn't to join the herd, the way to get noticed is to do something that no one else is doing. Writing about what you feel most passionate about, regardless of everyone else, will make you stand out. Writing about something that matters to you, and gets you fired up, is in my humble opinion the key to writing an exciting post. If you're excited, it will bleed through your writing.<br />
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Offer readers something they can't get elsewhere - whether that is a manifestation of your <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/06/finding-amelia-earharts-plane-new.html">childhood obsession with Amelia Earhart</a>, a <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2013/01/sfsyo-scientist-of-month-pete-etchells.html">series of interviews</a> with people you find interesting, or ramblings on your <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-question-of-code-revisited-i-think.html">love/hate relationship with learning to code</a>. Find answers to the questions that are bugging you, like when I decided to find out why the Scientific American blog network is <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/05/sa-incubator-helping-hatch-science.html">so supportive</a> of fledgling science writers. Your blog is your corner of the Internet, so carve it out for yourself. Make yourself at home. You wouldn't decorate your home in a style that everyone else likes just because they like it, so don't do it to your blog.<br />
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All this isn't to say that the ideas are just going to start pouring onto the page. Just about every week I spend too much time staring at the empty screen trying to figure out what it is I want to say, and what matters enough to warrant a post, and throwing out all my bad ideas before I hit on something with a spark. Which brings me back to the advice I started with: read good writing. The idea for this post came from reading a collection of blog posts called <a href="http://books.scientificamerican.com/fsg/books/the-best-science-writing-online-2012/"><em>The Best Science Writing Online 2012</em></a> (fomerly known as the Open Laboratory) the brainchild of series editor <a href="http://books.scientificamerican.com/fsg/books/the-best-science-writing-online-2012/">Bora Zivkovic</a> and 2012 edition guest editor <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/">Jennifer Ouellette</a>. The collection gets my sincere recommendation - if you have any interest in being a science blogger, you should check it out. Reading the posts in the collection inspired me, and reminded me how important it is to worry less about what you think everyone wants to read, and more about what you want to say. <br />
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The sheer diversity of topics, of styles, and of voices in this book is pretty astounding, and drives home the point that writing about what excites you is so important to having a successful blog. Reading all of those posts didn't make me want to blog about any of the topics, but it did make me want to emulate every one of those writers' ability to draw on what interests them and write about it in a way that is beautifully their own. Whether than means giving a voice to a <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/09/07/tinea-speaks-upa-fairy-tale/">fungus fairtale</a>, telling us <a href="http://kimberlygerson.com/2011/08/romeo-a-lone-wolf%E2%80%99s-tragedy-in-three-acts/">a tragedy worthy of Romeo and Juliet</a>, or getting pissed off about <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2011/09/16/observations-why-do-women-cry-obviously-its-so-they-dont-get-laid/">the way the media ran with a story</a> - all of the writers in <em>The Best Science Writing Online 2012</em> gave me a piece of themselves in their posts. They are all great writers to be sure, but what makes the posts effective, makes them resonate, is the excitement and interest that they have in their subject whether they are writing about <a href="http://www.empiricalzeal.com/2011/07/14/what-it-feels-like-for-a-sperm/">sperm</a>, <a href="http://sciencegeist.net/i-love-gin-and-tonics/">gin</a> or <a href="http://www.anthropologyinpractice.com/2011/05/unraveling-fear-o-jolly-roger.html">pirates</a> (really, you should read this collection.)<br />
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If you want to write a blog, find the time to read. I get ideas from other writers and other blogs all of the time. It's never about copying the subject matter, the inspiration comes from putting my own twist on trends and ideas and figuring out what I want to say. I want to talk about what I read, so I write <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/03/book-review-power-of-habit.html">book reviews</a> (even <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/06/book-review-jurassic-park.html">grossly out of date</a> ones) and have started collecting weekly links of my <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/10/weekly-picks-round-one.html">Media Consumption</a>. I want to share my passion for science so I interview researchers for <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/09/science-for-six-year-olds-introducing.html">Science For Six Year Olds</a>. When I wanted to talk about <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/01/final-countdown-part-i.html">grad school</a>, and the <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/05/final-countdown-time-to-panic.html">job market</a>, I did. When I wanted to write about <a href="http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2012/06/perverted-penguin-paper.html">pengiun sex</a> (and then mention it in a job interview) I did. You don't have to write about current science news to have ideas that are relevant and worth talking about. Reading other science blogs is the best way I've found to figure out what kind of science blogger you want to be and to figure out what fits for you. <em>The Best Science Writing Online 2012</em> is a great place to start. <br />
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If you were to go back in the archives of my blog and see what I wrote about when I first started, it is really nothing like the Science Decoded that I have today. I started out writing a daily post about a science story plucked from the media. I almost never do that anymore. These days I blog more about issues related to being a blogger and a writer than I do about actual topics in science. I think this shift happened because right now I feel more passionate about sharing my experience as a writer than I do about actually doing more science writing (I am priviledged enough that science writing is my day job, afterall.) That's not to say that I won't shift back to writing more about scientific research, or to writing about current science news. There is absolutely a need for that type of analysis and for having those conversations online, but I'm not going to force myself to have an opinion about something when there are so many other topics that I actually do have an opinion on. As <em>The Best Science Writing Online 2012</em> reminded me, your blog should never be a chore. If you always write about what interests you, it won't be. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-57884447801719171042013-01-06T14:19:00.001-06:002013-01-06T14:21:35.487-06:00Media Consumption 12/31/12-1/5/13Back to rounding up weekly picks of some of the best/most interesting things I've read in the past week. I hope you'll enjoy them, and feel free to leave me links to your favorites!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Animation by Rose Eveleth for Nature Publishing Group. Found this great video on twitter this week (actually, found all of these links on twitter) about research papers and how a paper comes to be published in a journal like <i>Nature</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2013/01/01/scientists-use-cells-to-fold-origami/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Scientists Use Cells to Fold Origami</a> – Joanne Manaster for PsiVid at <i>Scientific American</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Short but informative post about the latest in biotechnology for tissue engineering, which is something we’re all going to be hearing more and more about.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/2013/01/be-careful-in-reporting-on-composite-outcomes/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Be Careful in Reporting on Composite Outcomes</a> – Kevin Lomangino for HealthNewsReview.org<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is the most recent in HealthNewReview’s <a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/toolkit/tips-for-understanding-studies/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Toolkit and Tips for Understanding Studies</a>, which I think everyone might find helpful. This topic covers how to tell what conclusions should really be drawn from a study about a treatment’s effectiveness.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://pressthink.org/2013/01/loyalty-and-obsession-are-intimates-andrew-sullivan-goes-independent/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Loyalty and obsession are intimates: Andrew Sullivan goes independent</a> – Jay Rosen on Press Think<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Popular blogger Andrew Sullivan announced this week that he is taking his blog independent (not only self published, but no advertisers) this post by Jay Rosen dissects the decision and the gamble that Sullivan is taking by asking his readers to actually pay for his writing.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/02/will-panda-blood-solve-the-antibiotic-crisis-unlikely/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Will Panda Blood Solve The Antibiotic Crisis? Unlikely.</a> – Ed Yong for Not Exactly Rocket Science at National Geographic's new blogging network Phenomena<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mostly chosen because Ed Yong says he’ll eat a panda. Also chosen because it highlights National Geographic’s new blogging network (for which they scored several high profile bloggers, including Yong, from other places) and also tackles an interesting topic that shows the need for critical thinking and debunking in the way that some media outlets cover research.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-60039612825013278512013-01-01T14:52:00.000-06:002013-01-01T14:52:23.034-06:00SFSYO: Scientist of the Month Pete Etchells<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><i>Science For Six-Year-Olds (SFSYO for this school year) is a recurring segment on </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Science Decoded</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><i> for Mrs. Podolak's first grade class at Lincoln-Hubbard elementary school. This year the posts are inspired by <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23IamScience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#iamscience</a> (also a <a href="http://iamsciencestories.tumblr.com/" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">Tumblr</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23realwomenofscience" style="color: #2f00cc; text-decoration: none;">#realwomenofscience</a></i></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> two hashtags on twitter that drove home for me the importance of teaching people who scientists are and what they really do.</span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Hello first graders! Happy New Year! I'm so excited to start 2013 with our January scientist of the month. This month we have Dr. Pete Etchells, a psychologist. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #212121; line-height: 18px;">Like I did with our other scientists I asked Pete some questions to find out more about what he does. I hope you will enjoy learning more about him. Below you can read our interview, and if you'd like to ask him any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments!</span><br />
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Erin: What type of scientist are you?<br />
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Pete: I'm a psychologist, which means that I'm interested in how the human mind works. More specifically, I'm a biological psychologist, which is a broad area of psychology that uses biology to understand human behavior. My research covers all sorts of things - from how we make eye movements when looking at things that are moving, to how people perceive the way others walk, or how video games might influence our behavior when we're growing up.<br />
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Erin: What did you study in school and where did you attend?<br />
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Pete: I studied for all three of my degrees at the University of Bristol in the southwest of the United Kingdom. My undergraduate degree was in Experimental Psychology, and I loved it so much that I stayed in the same department for a Master's in Research Methods and then a PhD in Psychology. All together, I spent seven years in University!<br />
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Erin: Where do you work, and what does a typical day at work entail?<br />
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Pete: I'm actually about to start a new job as an assistant professor at Bath Spa University, but I've been doing a bit of teaching there since September. My main job for the past two years has been as a research assistant at Bristol University. I’ve been working on a really cool project looking at why certain types of walking movements might be seen as attractive by others, and whether or not parts of someone’s personality can be seen in the way that they walk. For example, if I rate myself on a questionnaire as being a really anxious person, if I showed someone a video of me walking along, would they similar think that I looked anxious? It’s a really big project, so an average day might involve collecting data from participants in the morning - I work in a motion capture lab, which is the sort of technology that they used when filming movies like Avatar! Testing someone takes about 3 hours, and after that we have a lot of video, motion capture and questionnaire data that we need to collect together and tidy up, so I’ll probably be in my office doing that at my computer. Two days a week, I teach classes at Bath Spa University on Biological Psychology, so I’ll head over there in the daytime to give the class, and then rush back to Bristol to finish off my work for the day. It’s pretty hectic!<br />
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Erin: Why did you decide to become a scientist?<br />
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Pete: I don’t think I ever decided to be a scientist - I think I’ve always been one. You don’t need any qualifications to be a scientist, you just need to be interested about how the world around you works. I’ve always been excited by trying to figure out how stuff works, so doing a science degree at University was a natural choice for me. <br />
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Erin: What is your favorite thing about your job?<br />
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Pete: The best part of my job is that it’s so varied - some days I might be in a dark lab running experiments, while other days I might be in a coffee shop working on a paper. It means that I don’t get stuck doing one thing for too long, which I think would make me bored. Also, I love teaching - I love giving classes on how the brain works, because it’s such a huge and fascinating subject that’s relevant to everyone listening. <br />
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Erin: What is something about your job that might surprise us?<br />
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Pete: Lots of people think of scientists as stuffy old men in white coats who never leave their labs. One thing that you might find surprising (apart from the fact that we don’t look like that!) is that we get to go all over the world to talk about our work. Every year, we have conferences where scientists in a specific area get together and tell each other about what they’ve been researching over the past year. Since I started my PhD, I’ve been lucky enough to go to Naples in Florida, Albuquerque, Philadelphia, Montpellier in France, Laussanne in Switzerland, Holland, and lots of other exciting places! In 2014 I’m hoping to go to a conference in Brazil, which would be brilliant because I’ve never been.<br />
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Erin: What are some of your favorite things to do for fun?<br />
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Pete: I’m a gamer, so I play lots of video games in my spare time - Halo, Professor Layton, World of Warcraft, all sorts of things! I also play guitar to relax and unwind. I also have two lovely little kittens called Louis and Molly, who spend a lot of time causing trouble that I have to clean up afterwards. <br />
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What do you think first graders? I think Dr. Pete has a really interesting job. Is there anything you'd like to ask him about his research or being a scientist? Be sure to leave any questions in the comments!<br />
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For my adult readers you can catch Pete on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DrPeteEtchells">@DrPeteEtchells</a>, and if you are interested in being a scientist of the month feel free to DM me <a href="https://twitter.com/ErinPodolak">@erinpodolak</a>. Thanks so much for volunteering Pete!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744143356678453071.post-7334740517540761452012-12-17T13:20:00.000-06:002012-12-17T14:00:44.587-06:00Crowdfunding A Library<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before you read this you should know that for this post I interviewed a personal friend, Cassi Elton, whom I have known since the sixth grade (we've come a long way since 1999.) I’ve supported her project financially, so obviously I’m not an impartial voice. However, the purpose of this post isn’t to raise funds for the <a href="http://antelopelendinglibrary.tumblr.com/about">Antelope Lending Library</a> – it is to take a closer look at the structure of the project. With grants harder and harder to obtain, harnessing the power of the Internet as a community is playing a larger role in taking a project from enthusiasm to reality. Crowdfunding is something that is already being done to support science research, education, and other community projects so I asked my friend to share her experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First things first, who is Cassi Elton and what is the Antelope Lending Library? I’ll allow her to explain using their fundraising video:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elton is a graduate student in the <a href="http://slis.grad.uiowa.edu/">School of Library and Information Sciences</a> at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. She saw a need in her community for a library on the southeast side of Iowa City – located closer to several schools so that students can go there regularly rather than needing parents to take them downtown to participate in events at the main library. As you can see from the video, the people involved in this project are certainly not short on ideas and excitement – or on books. They already have stacks of donated books. What they need is a physical space. So where does the money for that come from? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While there are grants and funding opportunities for educational, community based projects, according to Elton they usually support programming. So, it is a lot easier to find a grant that would support classes for STEM education, than it is to pay for a building to hold them in. This is something that I’ve heard echoed by scientists and researchers as well – not that they need a building, but that getting started is becoming harder and harder because to get a grant for research you need to have already done research. A lot of work goes into getting to the point where a project could compete for a grant. It reminds me of the employment dilemma so many of us are facing today: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to get experience you need to already have experience. To get financial support, you need to have proof that your research or project is worth funding.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So if a grant isn’t an option to fund the physical space needed for the Antelope Lending Library, what else is there? Private philanthropy is a possibility, but the Antelope Lending Library is a small endeavor. These are graduate students trying to do something to make an impact in their local community. Finding a philanthropist willing to give the library $20,000 as a lump sum is highly unlikely, I mean how many people do you know that would give that kind of cash to a library that doesn’t actually exist yet? What is far more probable is that if Elton, along with her fellow graduate students and members of the community start reaching out to their personal networks the sum needed for the library’s rent can be cobbled together from smaller gifts – everything from $10 to $1,000. That’s where the Internet comes in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Antelope Lending Library is hosting their fundraising on Indiegogo – which some people who read this blog may already be familiar with, since it is the website used by Matthew Inman of <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/">the Oatmeal</a> to raise over $1 million for <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/teslamuseum">a museum dedicated to Nikola Tesla</a>. But Indiegogo is just one platform for launching a project like this. <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a> is another popular crowdfunding website. For scientists there is also <a href="http://www.petridish.org/">PetriDish</a>, and <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/">RocketHub</a> which hosted evolutionary pharmacologist Ethan Perlstein’s successful <a href="http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11106-crowdsourcing-discovery">campaign to crowdfund a methlab</a> (for science, of course.) One of the things Elton says she likes about <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/">Indiegogo</a> is the fact that through flexible funding the Antelope Lending Library will still get whatever funds are raised even if they don’t hit their $20,000 goal. Although, with more than $6,000 raised to date the question of what to do in that situation is a complicated one, “It is stressful because if we don’t reach our goal then what are we going to do with the money we get?” said Elton, “Push forward or try to come up with a different project? We’re responsible for these donations and we take that seriously.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I asked what the experience of trying to raise rent money through crowdfunding was like, Elton has positive and negative feedback. On the positive side, putting the project on the Internet took the community from individuals in Iowa City, to individuals across the country. “Something really great about the Internet is that the community can extend beyond your physical location,” said Elton, “A lot of the donations are people from all over the country who value books and libraries so it’s great to get their support for a project that isn’t in their town – but that they still value.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although, Elton was quick to point out that calling on existing relationships was the first thing they did to start getting the word out about their campaign, “We have gotten donations from strangers – at least they are strangers to me, but the majority of the donations so far have come from people that I or my family contacted,” said Elton. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another positive (or negative, depending on how you look at it) aspect of crowdfunding the library on the Internet was the ability to make in impression using multimedia. If you watched the video above, you’ll see that Elton shot it herself at home – but even this homemade endeavor is more appealing than a simple block of text. “The multimedia aspect is really great, but it was really intimidating to make a movie,” said Elton. “To make a movie is easy – to make a GOOD movie, that is harder.” Elton says it took roughly two months to get the movie together in part because volunteers balancing timing with other commitments presents a challenge, but also because a video itself is a project and trying to be ambitious and do a great job with it can consume a lot of time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The video isn’t the only way you are letting people know about the project, so it’s not the end all be all you are also letting people know what other sites to go to, and the written summary is also important,” says Elton. “Let people know through your own social media, the video is a part of it, but it’s not all of it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While incorporating multimedia was its own rewarding challenge, Elton says there are some downsides to fundraising on the Internet. According to Indiegogo it can take seven interactions with a cause before an individual will consider donating. So, the Antelope Lending Library has to get their campaign in front of people over and over to be effective – but they also have to balance getting out there with being overwhelming or annoying. “It’s hard to ask people for money,” says Elton. “With this you have to ask them for it several times that can be a lot.” Elton also says that with a campaign that spans 60 days, building up momentum and continuing to be excited, getting the word out, and keeping those who have already given up to date on the campaign’s progress is a big time commitment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another tip Elton has for anyone interested in crowdfunding their own project, is to make sure that when people ask you, “Why are you doing this?” (Which they inevitably will) you have a solid answer ready. It is also important to have an open conversation with other similar organizations in the area. The public library in Iowa City is aware of the Antelope Lending Library and has no opposition to a library opening on the southeast side of town – especially since the public library doesn’t have the resources for a location in that area. “Keep conversations going and stay open to collaborations,” says Elton. It makes it easier for the community to support a project that they know other organizations in their community also support. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elton also highlighted social media – their website is hosted on <a href="http://antelopelendinglibrary.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, they also have <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AntelopeLendingLibrary">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://pinterest.com/antelopelibrary/">Pinterest</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/antelopelibrary">Twitter</a> pages – for getting the word out about the project. “Ultimately, I think that person to person outreach is the most effective,” says Elton. “As you get people on board, they talk to people so it’s still a one on one interaction but it expands.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With grants more competitive than ever, I think we’ll see more and more projects like this turning to the public for help. The Antelope Lending Library <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/AntelopeLendingLibrary">project</a> is just one example of how crowdfunding can work – if you’ve been involved in a project that used the Internet to raise funds, I’d love to hear about your experience.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10615368861635447747noreply@blogger.com4