Speaking to…Virginia Hughes
This is part of a series of interviews with science communicators about science communication…
Popular science writer and blogger Virginia Hughes offers an insight into her thoughts on scicomm, with inspiration and advice for future science writers.
Feb 2nd - There is also this here podcast with Virginia Hughes, who is “on a mission to get scientists to tell us their stories.”
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From ‘Speaking of Science’, Jan 29, 2013Speaking to…Benjamin Connell
This is part of a series of interviews with science communicators about science communication…
On scicomm through YouTube, radio, blogging and talking…
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From ‘The Molecular Circus’, Jan 29, 2013How Drugs Work: Antibiotics Part I
“We’re all used to the idea that we can take tablets and squish a bacterial infection out of existence. But have you ever wondered how that works, exactly?”
An investigation in to what happens inside us after we take antibiotics and why this picture is relevant. (<–)
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From ‘Green Tea and Velociraptors’, Jan 29, 2013DINOSAUR! But what does it mean…
What’s in a name? Jon embarks on a project that will see Palaeo phrases become acronyms for Palaeo phrases…
“I guess the aim of this series of posts, is just to break down some of the more complex terminology that you may come across online or in papers, and gain a bit more of an understanding of Palaeontology and related fields in the process.”
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From ‘British Science Association’, Jan 30, 2013The 3Rs: Citizen science in the classroom
by Katherine Mathieson
“This week sees the launch of Calls of the wild, a new mass participation experiment as part of National Science & Engineering Week 2013, which asks members of the public to contribute to psychologists’ understanding about how noises from nature can affect mood…”
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From ‘Green Tea and Velociraptors’, Jan 31, 2013A new feathered dinosaur – worth getting ruffled for?
A publication in Nature Communications about a new feathered dinosaur from China attracted the attention of an excited media, but what did the paper actually tell us, and what impact does the discovery of a new species have?
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From ‘Taking Science to the People’, Jan 31, 2013MyTH: A new weekly series about one bacterial species. First Post: Escherichia coli
“E. coli was discovered in 1885 by a German doctor in feces of healthy people. He called it Bacterium coli commune because it was found in the colon…
without this bacterium, many of the scientific discoveries of the past 50 years would not be possible including solving protein 3D structures, mass production of insulin, and understanding signal transduction.”
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From ‘Geo-Heritage Science’, Jan 31, 2013How teaching science through video games can engage new audiences
In response to Jane’s post on the Geology of Skyrim (“which managed a whopping 60,000 views in the first week”), she here provides “a breakdown of some of the key comments from the article that broadly demonstrates the kind of reception this type of science communication can generate as well as the level of engagement it can encourage…
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From ‘The Molecular Circus’, Feb 1, 2013Everyday Questions: How At-Home Teeth Whitening Works
Well, bleach. But “nothing is ever so simple”, so, for a more informed explanation of how teeth whitening works, head over to the Molecular Circus…
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From ‘Inspiring Science’, Feb 1, 2013Sex and sociality: the genetics of being different
“An international team of researchers studying fire ants have discovered the first ‘social chromosome’..
The mechanism the researchers uncovered is similar to how sex is determined in many animals, creating the tantalizing possibility that it might be an example of a more general mechanism for evolving distinctly different complex behaviours….”
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From ‘Green tea and Velociraptors’, Feb 1, 2013Gender confusion in Confuciusornis? Not any more!
“Among the many issues with the fossil record is the case of gender identification. In modern organisms, it is usually pretty easy to tell which members of a particular species are the males and which are the females…”
Not so easy when it comes to fossils, however, so how do paleontologists sex all those crazy dinosaur bones?
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From ‘Taking Science to the People’, Feb 1, 2013What is in a genome?
What is and what is in a genome? Matt Russell here offers a brief explanation of what exactly it is that we are talking about when we refer to a genome.
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