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Alaina G. Levine on Building an Authentic ‘Unicorn Career’

2/23/2021

Photo courtesy of Alaina G. Levine.

Over the holiday break, I sat down for a virtual meeting with Alaina G. Levine - entrepreneur, professional speaker and communications consultant - to learn more about her career and creative process. Not only is she the president of Quantum Success Solutions, a career consultant agency for scientists and engineers, she is also a professional speaker, science journalist, and corporate comedian. When looking at the qualifications under her belt, I quickly wondered how she balanced all of these projects. She is the jack of all trades, master of many, and I wanted to know more.

Science Talk Q&A: What We Lose When We Stifle Diverse Voices in Science Communications

2/23/2021

Image of multicolored hands surrounding the title text.

More than ever before, diversity and inclusion is taking center stage in every discussion happening within organizations, workforces, leadership teams, board rooms, classrooms, you name it. It is no different in the science community. While the science communications industry in itself is female dominated, often the influential voices gaining recognition in the space are still white males. Outside of gender, the lack of amplified voices from other cultures, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations are even more limited.

Science Talk’s Dr. Allison Coffin and Dr. Kiki Sanford sat down with Jessica McNellis from s2s Public Relations and Communications to discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in the future of science communications.

Science Talk '21 Speaker Series: Rob O'Malley

2/22/2021

Welcome to the Science Talk Blog’s Meet the Science Talk ‘21 Speaker series! Each week we will highlight some of our exciting speakers.

Photo of Rob O'Malley

Photo courtesy of Rob O'Malley

Rob is a Project Director, Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) at AAAS. Before joining AAAS, Rob taught biological anthropology & conducted research on primate behavior & ecology in Costa Rica and Tanzania. He regularly participates in #scicomm and #sciengage activities in DC & beyond.

He will be leading the workshop “Science Engagement with People of Faith” (limited seating) on Thursday, March 25. The full agenda is available on the Science Talk website.

7 Tips to Make your Scientific Poster Stand Out

2/18/2021

By Fabricio Pamplona
Connect with Fabricio on LinkedIn

Scientific posters are one of the best ways to visually represent your research.

In this guide, we’ll discuss 7 tips on how to design an outline and develop a visually stunning poster that will stand out amongst hundreds of others.

7 tips for visually stunning scientific posters

Whether you are a student looking to score better grades or a researcher wanting to promote your research, scientific posters can be a powerful tool. When done right, scientific posters help you strike the right chord with your viewer. Your poster will have a powerful impact, help you spread the right message, and build trust in the scientific community.

1. Define the message and objective

Determine the objective of your scientific poster. Every poster has an objective. It can be spreading a certain message, promoting your research, improving your online presence, or making way for new opportunities. Based on these objectives, your poster may look totally different from what you first imagined.

See how the cerebellum, a part of our brain, is highlighted in the below image to deliver intended messages comprehensively.

SCIENCE TALK '21 SPEAKERS SERIES: Meredith Fore

2/16/2021

Welcome to the Science Talk Blog’s Meet the Science Talk ‘21 Speaker series! Each week we will highlight some of our exciting speakers.

Photo of Meredith Fore

Photo courtesy of Meredith Fore

Meredith is a Freelance Science Writer based in Seattle, Washington. She pursued a PhD in physics before deciding that research was not her calling. She's written for WIRED, Symmetry, Physics, Chemical and Engineering News, and Inside Science.

She will be speaking on the panel "Should I Stay or Should I Go?: The Value of a PhD" on Thursday, March 25. The full agenda is available on the Science Talk website.

Science in the Media: A Game of Telephone

2/11/2021

By Stephanie Batalis

People talking

A group of children sit in a circle, decorated with party hats and giddy from cake and ice cream. The first child turns to the second and whispers a made-up phrase. The second child giggles, turns, and repeats the message to his neighbor. By the time the message has been passed all the way around the circle, it’s completely unrecognizable. The classic telephone game has twisted the original message into nonsense.

Breaking scientific discoveries are distorted through a similar game of telephone. On the journey from the lab to your Facebook feed, a scientific message is morphed by a series of exaggerations and misunderstandings.

Although scientific reporting has always been vulnerable to misrepresentation, the COVID-19 pandemic has put this process on a global stage. Information about the health crisis is time-sensitive, pressuring news outlets to report quickly and often without adequate fact-checking or context. The world has watched in confusion as single studies have spawned a whole slew of contradictory messages.

Alison Bernstein from the blog SciMoms calls this phenomenon the “Chain of Exaggeration.” As information passes through multiple sources, each step “amplifies fear, loses nuance, and loses context.”

SCIENCE TALK '21 SPEAKERS SERIES: Julie Rehmeyer

2/9/2021

Welcome to the Science Talk Blog’s Meet the Science Talk ‘21 Speaker series! Each week we will highlight some of our exciting speakers. Registration for Science Talk ‘21 is now open!

Julie Rehmeyer

Photo courtesy of Julie Rehmeyer

Julie the Author of "Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand" and is a Freelance Science Writer based in Santa Fe, NM and Boulder, CO. She was a graduate student in mathematics at MIT and found the culture so abusive that she left, brokenhearted. She found a new calling in science writing, and she’s written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, Discover, Slate and many other publications.

She will be speaking on the panel “Should I Stay or Should I Go?: The Value of a PhD” on Thursday, March 25. The full agenda is available on the Science Talk website.

Science Talk '21 Speakers series: Bárbara Pinho

2/8/2021

Welcome to the Science Talk Blog’s Meet the Science Talk ‘21 Speaker series! Each week we will highlight some of our exciting speakers. Registration for Science Talk ‘21 is now open!

Photo of Bárbara Pinho

Photo courtesy of Bárbara Pinho

Bárbara is a Freelance Science Writer. She is an award-winning science communicator with a track of experience from top science institutions worldwide. With words in international magazines, Bárbara writes about science, namely about health, environmental issues and policy. Bárbara will soon be working as a Communications Officer at INESC-TEC, a private non-profit technology institution in Porto, Portugal, where she will plan communication campaigns and develop content. She's still writing about science and forever defying the limits of weekly working hours.

She will be giving a short talk on “How to make digital tools work for your scicomm” on Thursday, March 25. The full agenda is available on the Science Talk website.

How To: SEO Keyword Research for Science Communications

2/4/2021

By Susan Silver
https://beautyofmathematics.com/top-five-popular-posts/

Does Google have a brain?

As a mathematics blogger with an interest in science communications, I’ve observed that there aren’t many tutorials for SEO keyword research available. This is a serious gap that needs filling, especially as more scientists begin to understand the modern appeal of blogging. SEO is key in helping your blog get noticed and bringing traffic to your website.

Generally, SEO is the practice of optimizing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website by including content so that a search engine recognizes it. This is most often done through choosing one or more keywords and optimizing your content so that a search engine recognizes those words on your blog. The goal is not to overly use keywords, but create a balance of keywords and related phrases.

Read on to learn my “5 Practical Steps for Keyword Research and Strategy”, a self-taught, cost effective method to improve traffic to your website.

Science Talk '21 Speaker series: Lisa Wald

2/2/2021

Welcome to the Science Talk Blog’s Meet the Science Talk ‘21 Speaker series! Each week we will highlight some of our exciting speakers. Registration for Science Talk ‘21 is now open!

Photo of Lisa Wald

Photo courtesy of Lisa Wald

Lisa is a Science Communicator at the U.S. Geological Survey. She is a science communicator, web designer, and web content manager and creator for several U.S. Geological Survey hazards groups. She started with a Master's degree in Geophysics and was a research scientist for 12 years, after which she created an Outreach and Education Program in the Pasadena, CA Earthquake Hazards Program Field Office. Her favorite current project is writing web articles targeted for non-scientists about new hazards research within the USGS.

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