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Our July 2020 event featured an engaging conversation with Drs. Pamela Ronald, Brittany Anderton and Kevin McLean about digital science communication.

To prepare for the workshop, attendees watched a video produced by each of the speakers:

Is your mother to blame for your constant anxiety? For decades, Sigmund Freud made it popular belief that all mental health problems were products of how your parents raised you. Although this idea fizzled out by the 1980’s, it still influences the way many clinicians treat their patients. However, your mother is not necessarily to blame for your anxiety, especially in a society where socioeconomic challenges can have a huge impact on parenting.

In Chapter 6, Otto continues his examination of the evolution of public thought and scientific ideas through the space age and into the 21st century. During this time, he argues, the public’s skepticism of science was due to its focus on research with primarily military and industrial applications. During the countercultural movement of the 1960s, young people were critical and suspicious of the government, and therefore government-funded science.

Otto begins Part 2 by describing the founding of the United States, specifically that the US was founded not as a Christian nation, but rather one based on the ideals of freedom — including freedom of exploration and religion. The founders of the US, as well as European and other scholars, believed that science was to be used to assist in the study of God’s creations and that its purpose was to shed light on the wonders of the world created by God. They felt that Nature, unlike divinity, was knowable and understandable and humans could understand God’s will by studying nature.

The first part of Otto’s book truly digs deep into the questions “Why is there a war on Science?” and “Who is Waging It?” Otto begins this section, titled Democracy’s Science Problem, with an explanation of the role of science in our social and political worlds. Science has the power to do great good, but it can also be weaponized against persons and countries.

“An almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess” was Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s response during a debate over whether alternative “milks” can really call themselves milks, a conversation spurred by their recent rise in popularity. These “milks,” also known as plant-based milks, are non-dairy beverages made from a water-based extract of crops like soy, oat, rice, and almonds.

Graduate student Nycole Copping works as a researcher in Dr. Jill Lynn Silverman’s lab at the UC Davis MIND Institute, a center dedicated to developing treatments for and spreading awareness of neurodevelopmental disorders. Neurodevelopmental disorder research often involves investigating behaviours of inbred mouse models for disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Angelman syndrome (AS). 

We have all been to a science conference where half of the talks or posters are too complex for most of the conference-goers. We have also tried to explain our work to somebody outside of our labs – a member of our cohort, a faculty member, a roommate, a family member – and failed to explain it clearly. For those of us in science outreach, communicating difficult research can get ten times harder when we go to community events and talk to non-science members of the public. Why is communicating our daily work so difficult for most of us?