Science Outreach and Framing Science
10.21.09 by Daniel Gaddy
Yesterday I wrote about influenza and the influenza vaccines. In this post, I referenced two articles demonstrating how popular talk show hosts, on both sides of the political aisle, are irresponsibly promoting irrational fears of the influenza vaccines. I believe this is, at least in part, due to some issues that FundScience was founded to address. Throughout human history, it seems that science has been demonized. Over the past few decades, this has become particularly relevant. As science attempts to address important problems that affect all of us, from climate change to influenza pandemics, science is met by stubborn yet impassioned resistance from people who have no idea what they are talking about!
While writing yesterday’s post, I was reminded of two important articles I read a couple of years ago. The first was written in 2007 by Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, entitled When Did Science Become the Enemy? In this article, Dr. Shostak attempts to trace the origins of the “mad scientist” perception of scientists. While these perceptions have likely been around throughout recorded history, they have become particularly prevalent over the past few decades due largely to Hollywood.
The peculiar thing is that American heroes aren’t often very good at science. Indeed, in much popular culture, it’s only the villains who’re conversant with Maxwell or Einstein. The “mad scientist” has become such a cultural icon that the Royal Society held a special lecture on the subject. Some of the mad men of science (and they are, overwhelmingly, men) are just evil characters intent on destroying the world, taking over the world, or simply rearranging the world according to their personal predilections. Dr. No and Dr. Evil come to mind, as do Lex Luthor, Dr. Octopus, the overly Teutonic Dr. Strangelove, and the Green Goblin.
Science2009
10.13.09 by FundScience
The University of Pittsburgh’s Science2009 event happens this Thursday and Friday. The event is free and open to the public, and includes lectures on a variety of scientific topics, including cutting edge technology such as microRNAs, evolutionary biology, renewable energy, and infectious diseases. Anyone in the area should take a look and consider attending sessions they are interested in.
FundScience will have a presence at Science2009 in the form of a booth where you can meet FundScience members and obtain more detailed information about our mission and our upcoming funding opportunities. We are excited to meet members of our community and share the progress we have made over the past few months, so please stop by and, as always, spread the word!
Science2009—Unplugged, the University’s ninth annual celebration of science, technology, and research, is coming on Thursday and Friday, 15 and 16 October, to Alumni Hall (with two special preview events on Wednesday, 14 October). Here are six great reasons to attend:
1. Highlighting the program will be plenary lectures by four distinguished scientists: Victor Ambros, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School; Michael Graetzel, PhD, of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Cori Bargmann, PhD, of the Rockefeller University; and Bruce Beutler, MD, of The Scripps Research Institute.
2. Pitt and Carnegie Mellon researchers will present Spotlight Sessions on a dozen timely topics in which they are actively engaged. Likewise, five Science at Work Sessions will draw on expertise from local industry.
3. Some of the latest laboratory equipment that makes today’s research possible will be on display at the Science2009 Supplier Showcase from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, 14 October, at the Petersen Events Center.
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What would science look like if it were invented today – part II: knowledge structuring
09.30.09 by Daniel Mietchen
Editor’s Note: This is the second of two parts of a guest post for the Euroscientist, the blog of Euroscience.org. Part I can be found here. FundScience.org cross-posts this article, as well as forthcoming installments, because of our passion to promote open science and collaboration, not only between scientists, but between the scientific community and the public.
Part II: What would knowledge structuring look like if it were invented today
Science is already a wiki if you look at it a certain way. It’s just a highly inefficient one — the incremental edits are made in papers instead of wikispace, and significant effort is expended to recapitulate existing knowledge in a paper in order to support the one to three new assertions made in any one paper. (John Wilbanks)
There are many ways to structure knowledge. One is via coordinated cellular activity in your brain. Others may involve spatial arrangements of sheets of paper or numeric arrangements of digital documents. Here, we will focus on the difference between the latter two, building on a previous outline.
Structuring scientific knowledge online
Let us first consider some practical aspects of organizing scientific knowledge in online environments:
- Newly incoming information can be inserted at any time later, independent of press runs — some call this micropublication. For example, part I of this post has already been “published” on the blog, but its wiki version can still be updated with references that were not available at the time. This may not be relevant for blog posts, but consider it as a proof of principle for writings in general, including scholarly reviews on a topic.
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What would science look like if it were invented today?
07.13.09 by Daniel Mietchen
Editor’s Note: The following is an article by guest blogger Daniel Mietchen, PhD, originially written up for the Euroscientist, the blog of Euroscience.org. This first part of a two-part series on “What would science look like if it were invented today?” deals specifically with the implications of the transition from paper-based to electronic communication for the process of knowledge creation. It delves into the importance of collaboration and openness in science. FundScience.org cross-posts this article, as well as the forthcoming second installment, because of our passion to promote open science and collaboration, not only between scientists, but between the scientific community and the public. Note that the drafting takes place in a wiki, so you can join in.
The Internet represents an opportunity to change this system, one which has created a 300-year-old, collective long-term memory, into something new and more efficient, perhaps adding in a current, collective short-term working memory at the same time. With new online tools, scientists could begin to share techniques, data and ideas online to the benefit of all parties, and the public at large. (Robert J. Simpson, paraphrasing Michael Nielsen)
Sure, it is hard to imagine you reading this blog post in a world which hadn’t yet engaged in science but the question “What would email look like if it were invented today” was recently addressed during the presentation of the Wave protocol, and entertaining some similar ideas on reinventing science may perhaps be worthwhile: how would a system have to be designed that creates and structures knowledge such that these two complex processes can effectively feed on and adapt to each other, making use of the most appropriate technologies at hand? Both processes are highly interrelated but to facilitate the discussion, we will first consider them separately (in this and the next issue of the Euroscientist), and then provide a synthesis (to which you can contribute).
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FundScience Enters Social Media
06.23.09 by FundScience
Social media is not new. Sites like MySpace and Facebook have been around for years, and social media is increasingly becoming a meeting place for professionals seeking to connect and network with other professionals from around the world. As science continues to move toward more openness, more and more scientists and research organizations are embracing social media for its limitless opportunities to network and share ideas. Collaboration is the most efficient method of doing science, and open science is the future of scientific research. Providing a mechanism for open science is one of the primary goals of FundScience. We will be discussing this topic much more on this site in the future. Until then, you can connect with FundScience on Twitter @fundscience and on Facebook.
More resources for scientists in social media:
Social Media for Scientists: Video Resources for Life Science Researchers (via San Diego Biotechnology Network)
Social Media for Scientists (via San Diego Biotechnology Network)
Social Media for Scientists (via Sciencebase)
Scientists and social media (via Pharma Strategy Blog)
Scientists Use Social Media (via The Scholarly Kitchen)
Twitter links scientists, writers, geeks and more (via examiner.com)
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