Communicating Science

Which is scarier: The zombie apocalypse or math? (Book review of The Calculus Diaries)

January 6, 2011

To continue the theme of the last post, today I’ll write about zombies.  I was happy to get a review copy of Jennifer Ouellette’s new book, The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse.  Jennifer is a wonderful writer (and the reason I started blogging; [...]

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Ask Dr. Ryan: Environmental videos for the classroom

December 25, 2010

It is such a pleasure to see something done well.  And that is the case with the latest initiative from one of my fellow scientists and science communicators here in Boulder — Ryan Vachon.  Ryan’s got a PhD in geology, and is now plying his trade making educational videos on science.  And man, this guy [...]

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We’re on our 500th post! Come over and say hello.

November 30, 2010

Welcome to the 500th post of sciencegeekgirl!  To celebrate, I’m going to resurrect a meme from Not Exactly Rocket Science (via Cocktail Party Physics) and ask readers to introduce themselves in the comments.  Lurkers and one-time visitors and vocal frequent visitors — you know which one you are.  Say a quick hello and tell us [...]

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This is a news website article about a scientific paper

October 22, 2010

Want to get meta?  In the spirit of Moser’s This is the Title of This Story, Which is Found Several Times In the Story Itself (if you don’t know that one, go read it NOW) — Martin Robbins (The Guardian) has truly outdone himself by poking fun at what passes for science news reporting on [...]

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Communicating Science – AAAS workshops

May 17, 2010

As a nice follow up to the last post (from Carolyn Gale on communicating science to diverse audiences), I recently went to one of the AAAS/NSF sponsored workshops for scientists on science communication. If you get a chance to go to one of these, do!  It was fantastic, and the workshop leader was top notch.  [...]

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How to effectively communicate science (blog post from AAAS)

May 4, 2010

Today we’ve got a treat — a very detailed guest post on science communication from my colleague Carolyn Gale.  I found out she was going to the AAAS conference, which had a lot of great sessions this year, and asked her if she’d like to write up some of her experiences.  Following is her wonderfully [...]

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I guess I really rock…

March 17, 2010

A few posts ago I noted that, apparently, I rock, as my picture was featured as part of the Exploratorium’s website for their Rockin’ Science Series. And now, I have confirmation, as I was just interviewed for the findingEducation’s Educators That Rock! series.  They did a very nice interview with me, about my love for [...]

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USA Science & Engineering Festival – October in DC

March 10, 2010

Sorry I neglected to write a post with real content last week, but I have one in the works!  Stay tuned.  For now, though, here’s a note about an science festival event in DC that they’re trying to create some advance buzz on.  I’m a big fan of science festivals — bring science to the [...]

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Speaking of Physics… The Art of Science Communication

March 2, 2010

I recently wrote a guest editorial for the American Physics Society’s Forum on Education newsletter, on my experiences as a science educator and communicator: As a young physicist, I’ve had the immense good fortune to work with several expert communicators, like David Kestenbaum, to learn the best ways to bring science to diverse audiences. I [...]

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Plexiglas breaks in weird ways (science writing on the side)

February 12, 2010

In my copious spare time (!), I do some freelance writing assignments.  I recently got a fun assignment from my acquaintance and colleague David Ehrenstein at Physical Review Focus.  (I met David many years ago at a National Association of Science Writers conference… before a talk started, I heard someone ask “Could you explain Dark [...]

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How a scientist becomes a freelance science writer

January 5, 2010

I recently wrote an article for the National Association of Science Writers, on my career path to becoming a freelance science educator and writer.  It’s on the members-only part of the site here, but dear readers, I give it to you here to enjoy!  A big thanks to Cathy Dold for asking me to write [...]

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How do I teach about climate change?

January 2, 2010

It seems to be in vogue to teach about climate change.  Thank god.  I mean, is there anything else more confusing nowadays?  Teaching students just to wade through the puddles of mud being slung across party lines is a message in media digestion in itself! Luckily there are many resources being developed to help educators [...]

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Science cliche’s to chuck down the black hole

December 10, 2009

The National Association of Science Writers has a nice news feed now (check it out at http://www.nasw.org/, though the RSS feed isn’t obvious — ask me if you want it).  So, here I’m reposted a repost of a Wired article on Five Atrocious Science Cliche’s. Think that it’s time that we found a silver bullet [...]

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Public science lectures: What for? How to?

November 23, 2009

I recently read two interesting articles on translating science for the public — in particular, why we give lectures for the public at all, and some effective ways to do it. For those of you who are interested, here are the original source articles: Explaining the Unexplainable: Translated Scientific Explanations (TSE) in public physics lectures, [...]

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The inner life of the cell

September 24, 2009

I was recently reminded of this wonderful visualization of the processes inside the cell.  As a physicist, I found this quite powerful in imagining this mysterious (and usually, to me, boring) microscopic world.  It was created by a Harvard professor in conjunction with a scientific animation company.  Here’s the video: In my art and science [...]

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I’m on Science again! Moths jam bat sonar

July 24, 2009

I’ve got another interview on the Science podcast, from last week — an interesting little story about how tiger moths emit a sound that actually jams bat’s sonar, to keep from getting eaten. Here’s the link. I come in around 13:40. Of course, I had to ask, how did they manage to tether a moth [...]

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Al Gore’s speech to AAAS

June 3, 2009

Al Gore spoke to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and gave an updated and truncated version of his “Inconvenient Truth” speech.  I recommend taking a look at it (you can watch it over breakfast if you’re like me and don’t like to sit and watch videos on your computer… I get [...]

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Why twiddle with twitter?

March 16, 2009

A recent query on a writers’ listserv pleaded: Can someone, anyone, please explain the advantages to me of being on Twitter? I certainly understand the “concept” of repeated exposure, and that it takes less time and words than blogging, but in all honesty, even though this is called “social” networking, it leaves me a bit [...]

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The Voices in Your Head, OR How NPR reporters do their voicing

March 8, 2009

I recently posted an entry about one of the best jobs I’ll never have – a reporter job at NPR.  But I did have the good fortune to dip my toes into the yummy warm pool that is NPR for a summer, when I was a AAAS Mass Media intern at NPR’s Science Desk.  You [...]

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The job I want…

March 3, 2009

I was talking to another science communicator recently about how frustrating it is that if we’d spent the last 10 years focused on one thing, we’d be all set for getting some really interesting high-level job. Instead, we’re both Jacks (well, Jills) – of-all-trades. That’s not a bad thing, I have some incredible experiences (psychology, [...]

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