Last month, I chaired a debate at the Royal Institution exploring the different expectations scientists and journalists have for science media. I was asked to write up my notes for the Guardian science blog, and picked out three questions from the many we discussed on the night. 1. Is climate change a qualitatively different issue … Continue reading »
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Talking sense about (climate) science
Every year the charity Sense About Science publishes a report debunking things celebrities have said about science. Every year it makes me wince. This year I winced publicly, on Comment is Free. I don’t like comedy based on people being stupid as an approach to education at the best of times (see previous pieces for … Continue reading »
Fair’s fair
What questions would the public choose to invest scientific time and resources in, if given the chance to shape research policy? This is an old and largely unanswered question. Indeed, it is one that many members of the scientific community go out of their way to avoid testing. Ben Goldacre touched on it a couple … Continue reading »
Avoiding the magic fact machine
It was Universities Week last week – a campaign to highlight the impact of higher education institutions on UK individuals, communities, culture and businesses. One of the projects rolled out for the event was the web-based ‘FactShare Generator‘. If you happen to like car-crash science communication, go and have a play. Otherwise, I don’t want to dwell … Continue reading »
Science and craft
Mendel’s pea, by some of last year’s science communication MSc students There seems to be more and more events happening which I can only describe as science-craft. I thought I’d write about it, and did a post for the Guardian Science blog. There are overlaps here with sci-art projects, just as there are overlaps (sometimes … Continue reading »
The google-ifcation of the science fair
I’m one of the judges for Google’s Global Science Fair, something I’m rather excited about. I’ve always been a bit jealous of American kids and their culture of science fairs. As I put in a post for the Guardian’s science blog last week, there has been a fair bit of talk over the death of … Continue reading »
The ‘institutional’ discrimination of science
Pic: male and female door handles at UCL’s Medwar building (old anatomy building) The Guardian asked me what I thought about a paper published in PNAS last week on the causes of women’s under-representation in science. This was my response. For a more detailed overview of the paper, head to Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib’s piece in … Continue reading »
Simple scribes
This week, the Guardian’s science blog published Tim Radford’s Manifesto for the Simple Scribe. It’s a lovely set of tips for better writing which has been passed around the UK science writing community since it was first written in the mid-1990s. I was really sceptical it’d appeal to a broader audience. I was wrong. As … Continue reading »
The mysterious colour blue
I have a piece on the Guardian’s Notes and Theories science blog today on the Science Museum’s new gallery on climate science, Atmosphere. As with the whole of the Wellcome Wing it sits within, Atmosphere is very blue. There isn’t a huge amount more I can say about the place, but here are some photos … Continue reading »
Children, adults and climate change media
The picture above is of the BBC Blue Peter Green Book. Published in 1990, following the introduction of a Blue Peter green badge in 1988. Sponsored by Sainsbury’s, it also has a forward by Lord Sainsbury, who went on to become science minister for the Labour Government. I have a copy of this book* which … Continue reading »
