Science Communication Symposium

Today I atteneded the Science Communication Symposium in the Biotech building. There were many scientists presenting posters of their work, and the first thing I was handed was the criteria they were being judged on. At the top of the sheet was "All presentations should be targeted to a general audience" in bold print. With that in mind, I walked around the room. The posters that I thought did the best job of conveying information were the ones that used effective graphics that were easy to understand. Pictures helped the general public to follow the science when they lost exactly what the words might be saying. Also, those with too much writing tended to lose me, as I found myself feeling like I was reading a novel when all I wanted was the main point of the research. A poster communicating to the scientific community can afford to be a little more wordy, but when addressing the public, being clear and to the point seemed to work best.

What I found made a big difference in sparking my interest in a poster was the presenter's ability to explain it clearly and with enthusiasm. I found myself very intrigued by nanotechnology that can detect chemicals, which is not something I would normally read about, because the presenter did a great job of explaining the research and answering my questions. They hope to get these detecting chips down to the width of a human hair to be used for things like detecting fertilizer distribution and gradients of harmful chemicals in the environment. Really incredible.

By taking a seat at a table full of real adults (aka not undergraduates), I got to see some interesting interactions between different areas of science. For example, a PhD from Cornell was in a discussion with a surgeon from Syracuse about finding a source of tissue samples to do breast cancer research with. He was able to give her the contact information of someone who could potentially help her out. A surgeon networking with a researcher can hopefully come back to help the medical community advance in the long run. It was also interesting to hear about the paths they had taken to get to where they are today in there professional lives.

The final powerpoint presentation by Jeff Nesbit talked about communicating science broadly. What struck me was how many mediums the National Science Foundation is using to get science out to the public. He showed examples of the NY Times science page (the last of its kind, actually), TV programs, websites, and radio. The NSF even worked with the cast of the Today Show to send them to Antarctica to broadcast live. Work has also been done with the cast of the popular TV series CSI to promote real science. The effort being made to reach the public with science is impressive, and today was just a snapshot of that.