By ASC President Craig Cormick

 

Calling all science communicators…

So it has become abundantly clear that despite many years of work and millions of dollars being invested, the science community has been particularly unsuccessful in developing any breakthrough science jokes. So I am putting out the call to all science communicators to see if we can help address this sad state of affairs.

It might be a short one or two liner, like:

Q. What does DNA stand for?

A. The National Dyslexic Association.

Or it may be a much longer joke, but I challenge you all to send in your best science jokes, either on the ASC Facebook page, or post in the comments section of the newsletter. Let’s show you have what it takes to reach out and communicate science in diverse mediums, including humour.

My best effort:

There were three scientists attending a conference in New York – a geneticist, a nanotechnologist and a nuclear physicist. As they were leaving the conference centre late in the evening a robber jumped out in front of them with a gun. ‘Give me your money or I’ll shoot you,’ he said.

‘No, no, don’t rob us or shoot us,’ said the geneticist. ‘We’re scientists. We are trying to better the world.’

The robber thinks about that a moment and then says, ‘Okay. Here’s what I’ll do. If you can convince me that what you are doing is for the betterment of the world, I’ll let you go. But if not. Bang!’

The three scientists agree and the nuclear physicist goes first. ‘Well nuclear power has a lot of potential for addressing modern problems and it has a bad reputation I know, but I believe nuclear power is the way of the future…’

Bang! The robber shoots him.

Then he turns the gun to the nanotechnologist. ‘You next!’

‘No, no, me next,’ says the geneticist. ‘I’d rather be shot than have to hear one more time how nanotechnology is going to save the world!’

Over to you, ASC members…

The National Wetlands Trust of NZ (NWT) has two volunteer internship opportunities starting as soon as possible. Both internships require a commitment of at least three months and are as follows:

1. Environmental Education Coordinator
Primary objective: To develop an outdoor, wetland-themed environmental education programme for the proposed National Wetland Centre which we are developing at the Rotopiko Reserve in South Waikato

2. Fauna Restoration Coordinator
Primary objective: Responsible for furthering our plans to return native wildlife to our pest free sanctuary for the proposed National Wetland Centre which we are developing at the Rotopiko Reserve in South Waikato

Download the position descriptions below.

Intern Position Description_Environmental Education_National Wetland Trust Intern Position Description_Fauna restoration_National Wetland Trust

By Paul Holper, Director of Scientell

Recently Scientell won the 2016–17 Monash Business Award in the Micro Business category. My co-Director, Simon Torok, said in his acceptance speech in front of a packed ballroom, ‘We were delighted to have been nominated for this award – and we nominated ourselves, so imagine how excited we are to have actually won.’

A business coach suggested that we enter the award. It was excellent advice, but not just because we won. The entire process of entering, being assessed and then attending the awards night was invaluable for us.

For starters, the nomination process helped us dispassionately assess our business, its activities and ambitions. We had to ask ourselves what our main focus was, what our objectives are, and how we can simply describe the business in a few sentences.

The judging process included making a short presentation at a lunch where we met other small business owners. This led to us catching up with a number of them over the ensuing weeks to share business ideas and look for opportunities to collaborate in future. As any small business owner knows, success comes from relationships. The Monash Business Awards introduced us to lots of people.

Of course, winning generates valuable publicity opportunities. It helped us highlight the value of communication of environmental, scientific and technical information. But even if we had known at the outset that we would not win, we would still have entered, such was the value of the process.

Sponsored by the City of Monash, the Monash Business Awards serve to ‘promote business success and excellence through the recognition of significant achievements and innovations’. The City of Monash, with almost 200,000 residents, is one of Victoria’s most populous municipalities. There are 18,000 businesses in the area.