Science communication: Things I've learned this summer

Some of the things I've learned during my time in Raleigh for a summer internship at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences:

  • Raleigh-Durham is a really cool place for science communicators.
  • Science communicators value context - no scientific study stands on its own, and so shouldn't be represented as such.
  • Qualitative interviews for social science research are fun, and aren't as scary as I feared. They do, however, take a significant amount of time.
  • If you craft a professional e-mail with a detailed headline, something like "Science Communicator Interview for PhD Project," and a description of who you are and why you are contacting them up front, people usually will respond to you. [Interviewees also like free Starbucks gift cards].
  • There are lots of snakes and mosquitoes in North Carolina.
  • Bats don't echo-locate when they know where they are going (like when you get up in the middle of the night in your own house to go to the bathroom, and you don't have to turn the lights on to get there.)
  • Robert Jarvik, the developer of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, doesn't like science fiction. (He did, however, graciously respond to my e-mail about interviewing him for an article on science in science fiction I was writing, even if it was to decline the interview).
  • Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, LOVES science fiction. He was the science consultant for the film Contagion.
  • Zombies are more than monsters.
  • I can help create a museum exhibit of science news.
  • Tardigrades are the hardiest creatures on earth; they've even survived outer space.
  • I can also climb 100 feet up a vertical pine tree.
  • Sometimes in a pinch, museum exhibits will put the incorrect skull on a dinosaur skeleton body. 3D printing can help correct this problem.
  • If you ever skydive, you will be accelerating the most when you pull open your parachute. Yes, I learned the physics of skydiving.
  • If you can blog and tweet effectively, you have a good start on science communication.
  • Science communicators care more about visuals than you might think.
  • Many people won't understand why you are getting a PhD, and what in the world it will do for you.
  • Flowers can be endangered too.
  • Museums are awesomely fun to work at.
  • Museums have just as much internal politics as anywhere else.
  • Too many people don't know how to give a good PowerPoint presentation. Practice visuals, forget the texts on slides. Keep the text inside your head.
  • Getting collaboration on social science research projects is better than doing them alone.
  • Many science fiction writers are scientists, or are at least scientifically trained.
  • You don't have to be trained as a scientist to be a science communicator.
  • You don't have to be trained as a journalist to be a science communicator.
  • You DO have to read and write A LOT to be a good science communicator.
  • I forgot how much I love blogging, and I'll try to not get too busy this fall semester to keep it up regularly.