One often overlooked aspect of science and research is how best to communicate it, otherwise known as the subject of science communication. Whilst getting results and finding breakthroughs is very important, so is the ability to make it understandable and accessible to more general audiences.
During my current MSc in Science Communication, I have been at the forefront of exploring these, so let me share my personal most important tips.
Don’t be afraid to take an opinionated stance.
Alongside communication being a critical part of science, so are ethics and correct practice. After some inspiration from my course lead, I wrote an article against the recently popular Colossal Biosciences’ “mammoth” research. Whilst this does make for an interesting article, it will also help develop your fact-checking, improve your journalistic integrity, and give you an enormous sense of wellness.
Contact the researchers
My most eye-opening experience around communication was an article I wrote for an assignment last semester. This was on some exciting fungi-soil relationship research done over in Toronto. On a whim, I decided to email the lead researcher, Dr. Shelley Lumba, who responded and offered the opportunity to run an interview with her and her lab assistant, Dr. James Bradley (who had also studied here in the past). This led to great development in my interviewing skills, what questions to ask and how to best use interviewee quotes.
Keep an eye on journal websites.
As with most journalism, it is important to keep an eye on what’s going on in the scientific sphere. In terms of websites, I can recommend nature.com, sciencedirect.com and sciencenews.org. If you are interested in a specific field, there will be more specialised websites. But for general news and article ideas, those are my big three. They have new releases daily and are at a level that university students can easily digest and use.
Don’t let creative direction take you away from your base knowledge.
While thinking and brainstorming about what to do for an upcoming project, your mind may be overrun with highly creative ideas, which run the risk of taking precedence over your science. For example, if you wanted to make a video describing research done on Sheffield’s BIOMASS project, you may think of creating some nice visuals using software such as Blender, but if you focus on how to make this look as visually stimulating as possible, you run the risk of distracting from the research itself.
To conclude, take every opportunity related to science communication that comes your way. I did that with my role at Forge, and it’s been incredibly enriching. If anyone is interested in a future in this field, I can wholeheartedly recommend the course. Outside of what I have mentioned here, we have had opportunities to deliver science fairs, create videos and record podcasts.
