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The programme's website is impressive too - a good example of "360 degree commissioning" including mobile phone text alerts. It's just a pity that the iPlayer videos can't be watched outside the UK... oh well!
"Tell me what you think of my research" isn't something you hear scientific researchers say to the public very often, but the Your Science Your Say initiative is changing all that. Watch the Trailer below to find out more...
Produced by Ian Brunswick here at Agtel and Padraig Murphy at Dublin City University, Your Science Your Say is a very innovative way of communicating science... It makes great use of YouTube, Twitter, on-line comments and even an automatic video response booth to get discussion going on the ethics of nanotechnology.
Don't miss your chance to post a video response at the Science Gallery or from the comfort of your own home online at Your Science Your Say - and here's some more background on it...
Have your say about publicly funded research. In each video, one of four nanotechnology researchers talks about the methodologies and potential effects of their work. Then you leave a response, saying which project you think has the biggest potential benefit, and which poses the most risk.
Responses are compiled as part of an Environment Protection Agency project looking at public responses to the environmental/health risks and benefits nanotechnology.
Your responses, whether submitted in-person at the Science Gallery , on this site as a written comment, or as a video response on YouTube, will help inform the EPA as they guide policy and regulation. Your Science Your Say will be installed in Dublin’s Science Gallery from July 7.
PS If you look closely you might find my own video response on the site too!
I think this prototype "Article of the Future" from Elsevier is great. It's basically a web interface that succeeds in making plain vanilla printed science journal articles easy to read, interactive and engaging.
Some of the key features are clickable graphics, audio interviews with the scientists who wrote the paper and embedded videos. Plus it's incredibly easy and intuitive to dig through the references (making it easier than ever to see if you've been cited in the article yourself!).
It's only when you see the original PDFs of the articles that you realise quite what an achievment this prototype interface is - instead of having to print out every article, Elsevier and their imprint Cell Press have come up with a way of making them easy to read on-screen.
The Article of the Future launches its first prototypes this week, revealing a new approach to presenting scientific research online. The key feature of the prototypes is a hierarchical presentation of text and figures so that readers can elect to drill down through the layers based on their current task in the scientific workflow and their level of expertise and interest. This organizational structure is a significant departure from the linear-based organization of a traditional print-based article in incorporating the core text and supplemental material within a single unified structure.
A second key feature of the prototypes is bulleted article highlights and a graphical abstract. This allows readers to quickly gain an understanding of the paper’s main ‘take home’ message and serves as a navigation mechanism to directly access specific sub-sections of the results and figures. The graphical abstract is intended to encourage browsing, promote interdisciplinary scholarship and help readers identify more quickly which papers are most relevant to their research interests.
Here are the Top 10 Best Practice Tips from the recent Communicating Science conference at Engineers Ireland. It was a really interesting event with lots of thought provoking discussion - and these tips came out of a flurry of brainstorming activity.
And given the limited money available to promote science now it makes sense to follow these best practice tips to get value for money from all science communication activities...
TOP 10 BEST PRACTICE TIPS FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
DEVELOPED BY THE ORGANISERS AND DELEGATES AT THE THIRD ANNUAL COMMUNICATING SCIENCE CONFERENCE.
ENGINEERS IRELAND, MAY 21, 2009
1. Collaboration: Work with others. Look for unexpected partnerships, for example, artists and engineers.
2. Empowerment: Create opportunities for teachers to excite students about science.
3. Enthusiasm: Be an enthusiastic advocate for science in your community.
4. Planning: Be aware of other science communication programmes and use the resources and experience of others.
5. Context: Be aware that those who are least interested in science often have great influence.
6. Community Engagement: Start at primary school level and get students, parents and teachers to promote science. Encourage volunteering.
7. Gender Awareness: Disarm taken-forgranted social and gender biases that prevent people from engaging in science and technology.
8. Evaluate: Assess the behavioural change you are achieving and make your evaluations public.
9. Technology: Use SMS, blogging, webcasting and social networking sites, as well as traditional methods, to promote science. Make it interactive.
10. Change Behaviours: Select groups and work with them to voluntarily change or modify behaviour, e.g., get career guidance teachers to motivate students to choose science careers.
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