SciComm – TylerJFord.com

August 26, 2019August 26, 2019

Science communication groups and resources

I regularly have conversations about science communication with all types of scientists and communicators in the Bay Area. One topic that frequently comes up – many of us started doing SciComm in graduate student groups. We often end up wondering – How common are science communication student groups?

To get a partial answer to that question, I started this thread asking science Twitter to respond with links to SciComm student groups:

The response was fantastic! I’ve compiled the responses in the table below (also in this google sheet). I’ll be using this list to help promote/share communication resources (particularly some from Picture as Portal). I haven’t done additional work to expand the list yet, but I will in the future. I’m also happy to add any other groups/resources you know of. Please DM me on Twitter if you’d like me to add something :D.

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019

Simple things stated in a complex way

While I no longer do laboratory research, I still proudly consider myself a scientist and believe anyone can be a scientist if they have a curious mindset and fuel their actions with critical thinking. Nonetheless, those who consider themselves scientists do often have a few stereotypical quicks. One of these quirks is an infatuation with jargon and making communication more complicated that it needs to be. Part homage, part chastisement, in this blog post I provide examples of the complex ways scientists might say simple things.

*As a side note, the idea for this blog post came from a conversation about linguistics and my first example is the summation of that conversation.

#1
Complex: In many ways, language is shaped by biology and must conform to the shapes and structures of our mouths and airways.

Simple: We avoid saying words that are difficult to pronounce.

#2
Complex: Continued exposure to damaging agents can lead to a series of genetic changes that ultimately enable otherwise quiescent cells to start dividing rapidly and dangerously spread throughout the body.

Simple: Certain types of chemicals and radiation can cause cancer.

#3
Complex: The key to keeping a conversation going is to identify the activities, ideas, and people that excite your conversation partner and work these things into the conversation.

Simple: People like to talk about themselves.

#4
Complex: If your metabolism is predisposed to store excess dietary calories in fatty acids and other macromolecules, you’re more likely to increase your body mass index on a given diet and activity regimen than someone who is predisposed to excrete excess calories.

Simple: Some people gain weight more easily than others.

#5
Complex: It can be easier to associate phenotypic traits in purebred dogs with particular genetic variations because of the level of genetic identity within and between different breeds.

Simple: Dogs are inbred and that can sometimes make their genetics easier to understand.

I should point out that the majority of these aren’t real examples and were just fun to come up with. Feel free to tweet your own whether real or imagined @tyfordfever.

January 31, 2019March 23, 2019

Making science communication work for you

Drawing intended to symbolize science communication and a SciComm by Tyler business card

If you’re not aware, I recently moved to Berkeley, California. Since the move, I’ve had a few people ask what I’ve been up to professionally. This question is more than understandable given that my current title, Freelance Science Writer/Communicator, is a little nondescript (but at least it’s not “Communications Specialist” or something amiright?). In a little more detail, I’ve been doing contract writing, graphic design, and marketing work with a few biotech companies, organizations, and friends in the Bay Area. I’d like to help researchers and biotech companies effectively communicate their science and thereby have a more positive impact on the world. Below I discuss some of the activities I pursue in my quest for better science communication.

Updating written scientific web content

Unfortunately, the written content found on many lab and company websites is pretty opaque. Generally this content is full of bluster without meaning (“We’re going to cure cancer!”) or there’s far too much detail (“We’ve discovered that FatB1 can be used to efficiently produce aliphatic hydrocarbons in Escherichia coli fed a diet of…” yawn).

Some reasons you might want to work with someone like me to help clarify and update your website’s content:

- To attract future lab members/employees

- To make it easier for investors to understand your vision

To provide a foundation on which you can base your next grant or pitch

If you actually sell some kind of product, providing easy-to-understand educational content about your product will also make it clear to customers that you care about them and their questions (this is inbound marketing in a nutshell).

Creating useful scientific graphics and images

Even if you have the best written content in the world, it can be improved with images. Many people, myself included, learn and retain information better when it’s presented in a visual format. Compelling images also make social media promotion much easier. I’ve been drawing since forever and have created or edited useful scientific images for my own work, for Science in the News at Harvard, for Addgene, and more. I’d love to see more scientists incorporating graphics and artwork into descriptions and presentations of their work. I think doing so makes science more approachable, makes scientists more relatable, and may provide a means of building trust between scientists and non-scientists. I’d be happy to help you create graphics (or even drawings!) about your work.

Crafting presentations that keep people awake and engaged

Scientists think deeply about many topics and can get carried away when they attempt to incorporate their many amazing thoughts into a single presentation. Presentations jam-packed with information can be difficult to follow and will likely turn people off. This is unfortunate because a good presentation may help you get your next job, sell your pitch to investors, or even go viral. As another way of making science more approachable, I quite enjoy working with people to organize their thoughts, hone their messages, tell easy-to-follow stories, and create better presentations.

So that’s what I’m up to for now. As you might expect, these activities often intersect with one another (i.e. creating web content and images makes it easier to make presentations) and the skills they use can be applied to many different projects. I have even helped edit grants and books. I’ll hopefully be able to share many more examples soon.

Finally, I’d really like to stress that I’m not doing all of this solely to make money, but in the hope that enabling better science communication will lead to more trust in scientific findings and attract more diverse types of people to scientific research!