Dear Students,
Imagine this: you just discovered a remarkable mechanism for fighting cancer by identifying a little-known protein's interaction with a particular strain of cancer cells (I'm a chemist so I'm kind of making this up – but if this pans out, I want part of the glory!). How do you get the word out about how great this mighty protein is? If you can't communicate out what you've done, your work won't have the impact it or humanity deserve.
Communication, specifically scientific communication, is a skill that has to be practiced. Whether you're writing for a scientific journal, presenting at a conference, talking to a 3rd grade class, or writing your diversity statement for your medical school application, you've got to do it over and over again to hone your skills.
Luckily, there are has several ways you can do this:
- Create a scientific blog. You don't have to write about just science, but practice writing for a number of different audiences.
- Create videos. They can be short (explain gravity in 30 seconds!) or longer (synthesize multiple viewpoints on the ethics of CRISPR in 5 minutes!) that any member of the public could understand.
- Write a piece for Natural Sciences Council's (NSC) student publication, The Catalyst. You can submit your pieces at any time.
- There's even a Science Communication minor offered through the Moody College of Communications.
- As if the above weren't enough, check out all these ideas from the CNS Communications office!
Just this past week Loren Grush, Kenneth Chang, and Joe Hansoncame to talk to the college about scientific communication, and Joe's advice? Just do it – get started somehow. You are all science ambassadors. You've got to tell someone about this amazing thing we all do called Science.
Best,
Dr. Vanden Bout
Joke: Resistance is not futile; it is voltage divided by current.
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