Tag Archives: Science communication

Help support my writing through crowdfunding!

16 Thursday Jan 2014

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I’m really excited to announce that I’ve been invited to write at Beacon, an innovative website which crowd-sources funding to support reporting by freelance writers (like me!). The idea is simple. Readers pay $5 a month to fund a writer on Beacon; in exchange, you get access to the writer’s work and every other story by every other writer on Beacon. It’s like Netflix, but for writing. I think it’s a great idea, and I’m really excited to be a part of it, but I need your help to make it happen. Continue reading →

Found while foraging (November 6, 2013)

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

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It’s November! That’s not usually an exciting time for me (Helsinki is cold, dark, and wet in November), but this year is an exception. In just under three weeks, I’ll be moving to another continent and starting to write full time! I’m really excited about the change and eager to get started with the next phase of my life…and I’m also very busy with the process of getting there, so Inspiring Science will be more quiet than usual over the next few weeks. Hopefully I’ll manage to find the time to post something, but in the meantime here are some tidbits to tide you over. (If that’s not enough for you, have a gander through some of the old posts or previous linkfests.) As always, feel free to add more links in the comments!
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Found while foraging (September 23, 2013)

23 Monday Sep 2013

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It’s been a while since my last Found while foraging.  I guess I’ve been busy for the past few months and these posts have somehow fallen by the wayside.  They seem to be popular, though, so I’ll make an effort to keep them up and post link collections more regularly.  I’m also happy to get interesting links from readers, so send me anything you think is interesting and worth sharing.  And as always, though, feel free to add more links in the comments!
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Kickstarter campaign: The Universe Verse

17 Tuesday Sep 2013

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Universe_VerseLast week I got an email from James Dunbar, an author and illustrator, asking me to promote the Kickstarter campaign for his new book, The Universe Verse.  It’s a series of three rhyming “graphic guides” (i.e., comic) covering the origin of the Universe, the origin of life on Earth, and the evolution of humans. Dunbar describes the books as “scientifically accurate” and “targeted at children and fun-loving adults”.  I got a PDF preview of the book; I didn’t read through the entire thing, but the parts I saw looked engaging and educational.  The rhymes and rhythms did feel a bit forced at times, but that’s hardly surprising — I’m sure it’s not easy to keep that up for three whole books!

Dunbar has already met his initial goal ($10,000), but if the campaign reaches $25,000 he’ll release a coloring-book version of all three books as a free PDF.  I think these books could be a great resource for kids and young adults.  Rhymes, pictures, and a storyline can help make the material more palatable and memorable, and I can see that they would be a wonderful way to get kids interested in and educated about science.  I contributed to the Kickstarter because I’d like to see them become available even to disenfranchised communities.  If you feel the same way, consider chipping in if you can afford it.

Click through to see a couple of sample pages…

I’ve been interviewed!

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

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I’m thrilled to let you know that I’ve been interviewed on the Scientific American blog network!  The SA Incubator posts interviews of “young and up-and-coming science, health and environmental writers and reporters”.  I’ve read a couple of the interviews over the last year and was hoping to get interviewed one day, so I was very excited when I got an email last week from Khalil Cassimally inviting me for an interview.  I really enjoyed answering the questions and I hope you’ll enjoy what I had to say.  It’s also a great chance for me to get more exposure, so I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

On another subject, I tried something different in my most recent post on Accumulating Glitches and I’d love to hear what you think — what works for you, what doesn’t, how I could do better.  The post is about ants which practice agriculture and what they might think of the way we farm…

Hauskaa Juhannusta to those of you in Finland!  If anyone will be at the WCSJ 2013 meeting in Helsinki next week, let me know and we can try to meet up!

 

Three things to look for in science reporting

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

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Some time ago I shared some of my thoughts on science communication, including the importance of learning “to approach issues critically, to question and to reason, [so they would] have the wherewithal to challenge fixed beliefs and undermine authority”.  I’ve also written about things like cognitive dissonance and how our social environment can shape the way we conduct research or interpret the results.  In this post,  I’d like to highlight a few of the flaws you might come across in scientific research and what you should look out for when you hear about a new study.  I’ve picked out just three things you can check to help reassure yourself that a science story is on sound footing, but I hope people will chime in with more suggestions in the comments!
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