How to Describe Obscure Technical Measurements

At a workshop today on communicating science to government audiences, my colleague talked about the importance of avoiding technical measurements when talking to lay audiences.

That is, avoiding sentences like “this needle is 50 microns in diameter” or “this fossil whale is 20 meters in length”.

The measurement simply isn’t as amazing as you think it is, if your audience has no idea or no context of what that measurement means.

One tip I have on this is to use the semantic search engine Wolfram Alpha to translate measurements into more relatable scales.

Here is a screenshot of my query for “50 microns”:

Copyright Wolfram Alpha LLC. Source: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50+microns

Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of

Who ever says scientists are the only people prone to speak in dense, uninterrupted prose, do remind them that thinkers and pundits of all fields are equally guilty.

Consider this recent interview by Stephen Colbert with Matthew Guerrieri, a classical music critic and contributor to the Boston Globe.

Skip to the 1:45 mark:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423445/january-31-2013/matthew-guerrieri
(Screenshot credit: Comedy Central/Viacom)

Guerrieri admitted to being a little nervous ahead of the interview — though really, who wouldn’t be facing an interviewer like Colbert? And I don’t mean to criticize Guerrieri’s performance nor his expertise as an arts critic.

But I did smile as I watched Guerrieri’s nearly two-minute, mega-soundbite explaining the thrust of his new book, First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination, and how the German Romantic movement embraced Beethoven and his Symphony No. 5 as the embodiment of their ethos.

How Twitter Amplifies Your Reach: Example from the “School of Athens” Post.

At the science communications workshop held by the Delta Stewardship Council today in Sacramento, I had a chance to speak to postdocs and graduate students about how social media tools can benefit a research career. You can read my notes in my recent post, Social Media: A Virtual “School of Athens” for Researchers.

Afterwards, Dr. Lauren Hastings, deputy executive officer for the council, said it would be great to see a visualization of how social media tools like Twitter can amplify messages and reach.

So I tinkered a bit with some of the retweets that came as a result of the “School of Athens” blogpost, and created this snapshot of how the link traveled around the globe:

CLICK FOR FULL SIZE GRAPHIC

You can download the graphic as a JPG file or as a PDF file.

Basically, by tweeting the link of my blogpost, I was able to share my message with networks outside of my own. My link was shared by Bora Zivkovic, whose network is immense. And in turn, the link was shared by Twitter users in Greece, Germany, Belgium and throughout the United States.

Social Media: A Virtual “School of Athens” for Researchers

“The School of Athens” by Raphael, 1511. Apostolic Palace, Vatican City (Image via PDArt/Wikimedia Commons)

I’ve been asked by the Delta Stewardship Council to speak briefly at their Delta Science Fellows workshop on January 23, 2013, on how social media has influenced my career in science. Here are my notes.

*     *     *     *     *

When I was a boy, I had this vision in my head of what college and academia would be like. And it was this painting — “The School of Athens” by the Renaissance master Raphael.

Which one is Stallone?

This fresco pretty much features “The Expendables” of classical philosophers and scientists. You’ve got Plato chatting with Aristotle down the middle. Socrates looks like he’s preaching some serious stuff to the upper left. And on the lower left, everyone’s looking over Pythagoras’ shoulder to copy, presumably, his math homework.

One grand hall. So many great minds. Everyone’s relaxed, familiar, and engaged in some deep conversation — or maybe gossip and friendly jests. You can imagine just strolling around a room like this, as if you were wading into a confluence of streams of great ideas and insights — picking up a tidbit here and an inspiration there; stopping to listen to something that caught your ear; or even speaking up and joining a particular conversation.

This is what the social media experience can be like for you in the research field.