Making waves in science: Gravity

Alex Chattwood and Susan Vickers, Communications, Education & Outreach co-editors The detection of gravitational waves last month by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, a collaborative observatory and experiment in the US designed for this very purpose) scientists was a huge deal, not just for scientists, but for everyone. According to Google Trends, “gravitational wave” […]

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Lessons from science communications bootcamp

Lindsay Jolivet, Health, Medicine & Veterinary Science co-editor, and Susan Vickers, Communication, Education & Outreach co-editor In July 2015 we attended the Banff Centre’s Science Communications program. In this post we share some of our most memorable lessons from two weeks spent in this intensive course in the heart of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We […]

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Who are science communicators? And a survey

audience toys

Susan Vickers and Lisa Willemse, Communication, Education & Outreach co-editors Let’s begin by clearing up a small point of possible confusion. This post covers two different surveys: one happening now, and one conducted last year. The current one is the Science Borealis survey of blog readers, which Science Borealis is conducting in collaboration with Dr. […]

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How well do you know your audience?

Public chemistry

Susan Vickers, Communication, Education & Outreach co-editor As a chemist passionate about outreach, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort trying to combat the public’s fear of chemicals, dubbed by chemists as “chemophobia.” It infuriates me when companies tout products as “chemical-free” (who wants to buy a vacuum?!), and am convinced that this has […]

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