Author Archives: victorialeitch

From the President

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Thank you to Claire Harris for preparing the President’s update.

It’s almost September. OK so not a huge newsflash, but how time flies! This year has been a busy one for many of you and there’s little chance of it slowing up right? Particularly with the ASC National conference coming up in Brisbane and of course in 2014 we will be celebrating ASC’s 20 year anniversary.

Every now and then we have cause to pause and reflect. With the sad passing of Peter Pockley recently, I know many members have thought about their interactions with Peter and contemplated what has changed in science and science journalism particularly. I want to share some of these reflections below. While the ‘science communicator’ job spec (in all its many forms) continues to change, it still owes a lot to past innovators like Peter and the networks and collaborations that he and others have inspired.

Peter was one of ASC’s Life Members and while I didn’t know Peter well, it is clear from the discussions I’ve had with people and posts to the ASC-list that he was an important figure and will be missed. Words used to describe Peter include: pioneer, mentor, courageous.

As Rob Morrison said on the ASC-list, “On a personal level I had much to thank him for, as he was a generous mentor, especially to one who was nervously moving from the area of academic science in a university into the realm of science journalism. I was not the only recipient of his encouragement and advice and, given his high standards, it was particularly valued.”

Peter was well known for tackling the ‘harder’ stuff of science including science policy and science communication ethics. Guy Nolch from Australasian Science said:

Peter may have made his name broadcasting the Apollo missions for the ABC, but it would be the cut and thrust of politics where Peter made his mark. He was tough, uncompromising, tenacious and thorough, and his relentless pursuit of the complete story led to some very late nights as he typically pushed each deadline beyond midnight.

None of this was sexy science, but someone had to sink their teeth into it and howl into the wind in the hope that the public would hear and demand action as science slipped from the political agenda and scientists were sidelined from public debate on issues such as climate change.

While Peter was always up for the good fight, it’s important to remember that he had the best interests of science at heart. And while he was prepared to roll up his sleeves and take on those in positions of power, he was equally happy to mentor the next generation of science writers and broadcasters, not only from his time at the ABC and other media outlets but also through appointments with UTS, CPAS and Questacon.

Guy has written an obituary and there will be a memoir in the upcoming October issue.

Member blog: Sciengage

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Sciengage, which can be found on facebook, twitter and the Sciengage website, is the brainchild of ASC member Sam Askin.

Sam took some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for the ASC.

What are you aiming to achieve with Sciengage?

The aim of the site is to consolidate the science that is online, from the casual observer to the hardcore scientist. There are so many resources, blogs, channels and projects that is it hard to know where to start when looking to follow science. Sciengage provides a gateway from which you can explore science yourself, and return to as you need or want. It consolidates blogs and showcases science in social media and crowdfunding, and also has a discussion forum. Science communications and engagement services are also offered. I realise the site does some things similar to other sites (eg. scienceseeker, IFLS), but I don’t see it as a competitor to these resources, but a complement.

What inspired you to get involved?

My inspiration came from my own experience online. I only recently joined Twitter (6 months ago), and used it largely for news and discovery of science. What I noticed was there was SO much there that it was often impossible to keep up with, and you got a sense of missing things (and that was only following about 200 resources). I also wanted to add my bit to the online science writing world, but instead of being another fish in the sea, why not become the place that showcases what is already there, so people can have a common starting place.

How has your ASC membership helped you in starting Sciengage?

ASC (and the bigsci summit and #onsci as well) were essentially my springboard into science online/through social media. When I joined Twitter, I used profiles such as ASC to discover who was out there, what they were talking about, how they talked about it and what people were using/spreading online as resources. It was pivotal to not only my own discovery of the plethora of sources out there, but to how I designed the site and what features I wanted to bring.

Thanks to Sam for taking the time to answer our questions, if you have a couple of minutes to spare, why don’t you pop over and see what Sciengage has to offer!

Event review: i Heart music.

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Thank you to Nolanne Chang for providing us with the i Heart music event review.

 

“Don’t worry, you do have a heartbeat,” the technician says. “I’m just trying to figure out where to get the best recording from”. I’m at the i Heart Music event at UNSW, getting my heartbeat recorded so that in a few minutes a jazz band can use it as a base line for a new piece of music.

The iHeart Music event was started in 2011 for National Science Week by Derek Williamson, Director of the Museum for Human Disease at UNSW. The aims of the project are to engage in dialogue with a new audience that might not otherwise come to National Science Week events. Heart health is something that is important for all members of Australian Society to be aware of (one Australian dies every 12 minutes from cardiovascular disease). The scope of iHeart Music serves to bring in a jazz and music crowd as well as the more typical science and health aware attendees.

Simon Barker is a leading jazz drummer, and is well known for his improvisation skills. In the setting of the I Heart Music events, he and the Kimnara band take these skills and applies them to music centered around the beat of a human heart. The event is “fantastic” he says, a “great multi-media cross-pollination event”. And not just any heartbeat is used, but the music actually centers on recordings made from the heartbeats of the event’s attendees (no arrhythmias have yet been diagnosed through the event). On the day I visited, not only did visitors to the Human Disease Museum at UNSW get their heartbeats recorded, used for music, and the recordings emailed to them, but the UNSW site was also live-streaming the event to the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, reaching the Sunday morning crowd.

In 2011 and 2012, the I Heart Music event was only held at UNSW. However, this year, with funding from Inspiring Australia, the team from UNSW have coached 13 venues across Australia to host 17 iHeart Music events over the course of several weeks. For most of these venues, the event was fitted into a larger program, for example, as an event in a science center, or as the musical entertainment at a National Science Week dinner (Ballarat).

The airy trumpet sounds waft over the serene keyboard and drums that complement the beat; the beat of a human heart.

4 beats to the bar

70 beats in a minute

3 billion beats in a lifetime

Event review: Incredible Inner Space Exhibit.

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Thanks to Nolanne Chang for sharing her thoughts of the Incredible Inner Space exhibit.

 

The Incredible Inner Space Exhibit currently on as part of National Science Week at the Customs House in Sydney is a great example of how to bring science to the public.  The exhibit uses sculpture, photography, and video to engage an audience.

The ground floor of the customs house is a relaxing mixed-use space. It serves as the foyer to the Customs House City of Sydney Library, houses a café, and additionally has a selection of daily newspapers available. Businessmen and women come through to get a coffee and relax, and tourists regularly visit in groups to view the miniature model of the city through the foyer floor. The scientific artwork on display draws in all these different types of people to get them to engage with the material presented in a completely different setting then that of an educational museum.

And that’s the great thing about the exhibit, in that it reaches an audience who would not normally be the type to go to, the Australian Museum. Instead, the artwork speaks for itself: crystal structures of metals depicted in glass sculpture that make you pause on your way past, or the title for a video that pulls you across the room, or the vivid colors and geometrical patterns of stunning microscopy photographs that entice you out of your chair to have a closer look. Clear captioning that explains in depth what is shown supports all of the displays. These captions are in no way dumbed down for the audience, but are presented with a complete absence of jargon or unnecessary description.

Importantly, the scale of the image and the type of microscopy used are described. Importantly, many visitors had expressed their enjoyment of the exhibition: “thank you for sharing this research with us”, “who knew the details to be discovered by looking through a microscope”, and my personal favorite, “I just wish I was a cool scientist”.

For visitors who become more interested in the material shown, there is a handy take home brochure that explains more about a select number of displays, with the inclusion of a handy pictographic ruler that illustrates the scale on which the displays are presented. Additionally, many of the images can be found online and downloaded for perusal (great as a screensaver).

As I sat observing the exhibition, a group of tourists came in to view the city model, and several people from the group broke off from the main bunch, branching out to look at the scientific exhibit. Some even took photos of the microscopy and crystal structures, and it was gratifying to know that science had now become a souvenir moment to remember about Sydney.

Event review: The David Malin Awards – From Australia to outer space

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Thanks to Brigid Mullane for reviewing the David Malin Awards for Scope.

Sydney Observatory is a local landmark, on the harbour near the historic Rocks precinct.  Completed in 1858, it is now part of the Powerhouse Museum, featuring exhibits of the history of astronomy and meteorology, and providing night telescope viewings for the public.

I went there this month to see the winners of the David Malin Astrophotography Awards.  The competition is open to amateur photographers and astronomers across Australia, and is judged anonymously by Dr David Malin, world-famous Australian astrophotographer.

The young man at the desk explained that the images and videos were displayed on two floors of the building, and I started with the upstairs collection. There were deep space photos colour-adjusted with the “Hubble palette” to better display distant objects such as the “Running Chicken” nebula. Romantic shots showed people in the country enjoying a much better view of the stars than we get in Sydney, while eclipses were recorded with photo series that reminded me of Pac-Man. Creative shots included a lone swan’s transit of the moon, and a novel use of the familiar star-trail photo.

There were more pictures downstairs dispersed amongst the permanent exhibits. Apart from the pictures and exhibits inside, there are interesting views of the harbour, city and bridge from the windows and terrace of this charming historic building.

The Malin Awards exhibit is on daily until 20 October, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. If you happen to visit by 30 August, you might take a stroll afterwards along the Cahill Walk to Customs House at Circular Quay. There you will find the micro-nano-atomic exhibit Incredible Inner Space, reviewed here in Scope by Nolanne Chang.