Posted on by Joey Hulbert · 1 Comment

Part 1: four reasons to improve your #scicomm skills

Most people aren’t scientists. And scientists love to split metaphorical (and literal) hairs amongst themselves, creating a barrier of jargon and statistics between themselves and the rest of the world. But in the current era of information overload, all people create their own hypotheses, their own ideas, and draw their own conclusions based on whatever unverified information is out there. And, more and more, this means that the average person does not trust the average scientist.

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It is becoming crucial for scientists themselves to speak up, because science should not be hidden, mysterious, unintelligible. Below I have listed four reasons for improving our science communication skills, effectively improving the accessibility of science. If you have more reasons, I encourage you to comment below.

Improve democracy

The success and effectiveness of democracy depends on the education of the voters. The more innovative, skillful, and knowledgeable the voting population is, the stronger the democracy. Making an effort to increase the accessibility of science will enhance the education system, inform more decisions, and promote innovation. Science also provides opportunities to improve citizenship. Involving the public in, or effectively sharing about the scientific process will improve democracy.

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 Inspire the next generation

Many of the tips for communicating science (e.g. less jargon, shorter sentences, etc.) essentially lower the reading level required for understanding science writing, thereby improving accessibility and reaching younger audiences. Thus, improving our science communication skills will enable us to reach and inspire a younger audience.

In addition, social media is widely recognized as a tool for communicating science and has been described as the language of the youth. Mastering outreach on these platforms requires improving science communication skills (e.g. introducing a paper with only 140 characters on Twitter), but will likely reach youth that wouldn’t have known about our research otherwise.

Adapt to shifts in funding

More and more, the importance of this skill is being recognized, with top-down calls for more science engagement and ‘science for society’. Requirements from grant-funding agencies are, right now, changing! For example, many project proposals have to commit to disseminating the outcomes to society or incorporate ‘broader impacts’, such as mentoring a student or conducting educational outreach.

I was first introduced to the ‘broader impacts’ requirement when applying for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program in the US. Each proposal required a section titled ‘Broader Impacts’ where I was meant to explain how my project would immediately benefit society, aside from the results of the research. Educational outreach and public engagement are ideal criteria for this section, and both of these activities heavily depend on science communication skills. To my knowledge, the NSF now requires a statement of broader impacts on every proposal.

Ensure accuracy

The final reason I suggest improving your science communication ability is so that you can share your own research yourself. Regardless of how good external science communicators are (science journalists, media specialists, marketing agents, public relations, etc.), the scientists that did the research have the best understanding of its significance. Inevitably, like the ‘telephone’ game we played when we were children, the message gets distorted the farther it gets from the source. Results are commonly reported inaccurately in media because the writers aren’t scientists, and they want to sell issues rather than report results. Generally, the results aren’t distorted, but the relativity, representation, and implications are.

The personal justification for me to spend time practicing and improving my science communication comes from the same part of the heart as my passion for research. If you are like me, having pursued a career of research as a means to make a positive impact on the planet, I am confident fine-tuning your ability to communicate science will increase the size of that impact. Together we can improve the face of science in the public eye, inspiring others and informing more decisions, while learning to make the most of the world we live in for the people around us.

Posted on by siphomabusela · 1 Comment

The Climb!

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Ever heard of the Chinese phrase, “Outside of this mountain that you’ve marveled at or climbed, there’s a taller one waiting for you somewhere”? If you have, then you can most certainly relate to this blog post. That saying seems to be resonating through me as I write this blog entry. It makes me think about the different objectives that we pursue, not just in research but also life: it’s almost like life is this never-ending hike, with hill after hill after hill that we need to climb if we want to reach the top of the final mountain. Just like Miley Cyrus says in her song, The Climb. “There’s always gonna be another mountain, I’m always gonna want to make it move. Always gonna be an uphill battle, sometimes I’m going to have to lose, it’s not about how fast I get there, it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb”.

Personally, the past few weeks have been filled with incredible triumphs (see my previous blog). I’ve just conquered the peak of data collection and analysis for my MSc. Unfortunately, there isn’t time to relax and bask in my glory and I’m sitting in the shadow of another looming mountain.  That latest mountain is reporting, discussing, concluding and formatting my dissertation.

Few scientists choose this career because they like writing and communicating…. and I guess that makes me a typical scientist. I have been somewhat struggling with writing up my dissertation. I do believe that the brisk pace that I have been working at might just have an effect on that struggle.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I feel like there is a need to make amends for not submitting my dissertation last year. One way of doing that was to work on my document and submit it as soon as possible. That’s all well and good, but I reckon that one thing that I did not consider was that writing up in a hurry would affect the quality of my work. “It’s not about how fast I get there, it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb.” So it means the process of writing up is more important than just submitting.

You’d think that after years of listening to those lines, they would actually mean something to me by now!

Only after many attempts to submit my chapters to my supervisor and getting them back with lots of unpleasant red ink, have I finally decided to slow down, to pause and think about what I want to do before doing it. Because when I keep rushing rushing rushing to just put something – anything – on paper for her, I lose sight of my real goal; I’m getting somewhat lost. And I don’t want to keep wandering aimlessly, after all.

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Just had a flashback of a book called “Think Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman that I bought a few months back. I haven’t finished it by the way, but I’ve read enough of it to grasp the concepts echoing through the book. Sometimes you have to make fast and instinctive decisions and, sometimes, you have to be reflective and more deliberative in your approach. The dark tunnel phase of my research has passed, the phase where had to move fast and instinctively. Now I need to slow down and be more purposeful in my approach, I need to read the results, be one with them and discuss them as they are.

Easier said than done though, right? Like I said in my earlier blog, not a lot of work has been done on Moringa oleifera seeds and egg laying chickens. This too is a mountain that I have to move. I guess it’s called “Masters” for a reason. It’s not about just feeding chickens and getting eggs but also about the scientific consequences of that. Because no matter how solid your research may be, if you don’t publish it, don’t grapple with the methods and conclusions yourself, then it’s as good as never having being done. In the scientific world, it doesn’t exist.

I’m a little bit of a twitter fan, so whilst I was there, minding other people’s business, I saw a post shared by one of my fellow student, Nobuhle Sharon Lungu. The post said, “We Screenshot_2016-06-03-20-16-19win every day but we don’t appreciate, we only celebrate when we win big”.

I hope this blog will change this mindset; you must celebrate every victory, every small mountain top that you reach. I had to take joy in finishing data collection, or else I would not have had energy for this current slog. So, yes, every peak you reach, celebrate it — even if you think it’s not too high; because it is those small hills that make us stronger to fight and reach the ultimate peak.