Spotlights Blog Posts

Black History Month is a time dedicated to celebrating the contributions of Black people to the United States. Originally beginning in 1926 as a week-long event, it extended to a full month in 1976.  All February long, we celebrated Black scientists and their significant contributions to science. Here is some more information about the scientists we shared on social media, and a few extra scientists too!

Science communication careers are varied and can be challenging to define. The UC Davis Graduate Student Association (GSA) in association with Science Says hosted a science communication career panel to increase awareness and offer opportunities to connect with professionals in a variety of fields.

We featured Drs. Grayson Doucette, Brittany Anderton and Alison Van Eenennaam representing scicomm careers in policy, digital media and academia, respectively.

Social media can be a powerful tool for good, and for bad, especially in science. It offers the opportunity to connect with those in and outside your field across the world, and lets scientists share visually appealing aspects of their work like photography from fieldwork or microscopy images.

The average person interacts with science through news outlets, yet science is constantly evolving with every new paper’s results. Often, results are sensationalized to grab the attention of readers instead of honestly reporting the material. So how do we, as scientists, report science responsibly and effectively? In her “Science Reporting for the Public” workshop, Lindsey Mooney describes some of the obstacles and best practices for reporting science.

It seems like there is a podcast for everything from horror and comedy to economics and science (check out our interview with the host of

As scientists, we constantly engage in science communication, but have you taken a moment to think about what that means and how you could improve your communication? Science Says hosted a SciComm 101 presentation in lieu of our annual kick-off barbecue (thanks, COVID-19) to explore some science communication background, basics, and careers.

Do you feel like you are unsuccessful despite your accomplishments? Do you feel you “got lucky” when receiving an award or getting a promotion? If you answered yes to these questions or others found in this survey, you likely experience imposter phenomenon. Imposter phenomenon, or IP, is not a psychological disorder but it is a very common experience across a broad spectrum of adults. We wanted to learn strategies to overcome IP, so we invited clinical psychologist Dr.

I often wonder what makes my tomatoes wilt. Most of the time it’s because I don’t water them enough (sorry, plants!). But it could also be because they have been infected by a pathogen, causing them to wilt. These pathogens, like the fungus Fusarium and the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, are found in the soil and can infiltrate the vascular system of a plant thereby blocking its ability to take in water. This causes the plant to wilt — and die — in a manner that looks almost exactly the same as my thirsty tomato plants.

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:

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? 

An extended PDF of the workshop with notes and examples from the in-person event can be found here for all those that wish to participate from home. 

This February, Lucas Hatton led us through a two-part improvisational theater, or improv, workshop where we participated in improv games to learn two key skills: active listening and spontaneity. As scientists, these skills are important for every communication opportunity: we must listen and adapt quickly to communicate effectively with a given audience. If you missed the workshop, I highly recommend participating in the future.

We invited alumni to talk about their careers, experiences, and answer our questions about science communication for our 2019 end-of-the-year event.