Scientists and the Public
People will believe anything that they read now a days if they hear it from a scientist. A lot of the public have been given false information and it's been public knowledge that some scientists are paid by companies to falsify data or make a claim based off of poor data collection. This knowledge causes some people to not trust what scientists have to say; some will actually use the bias data to prove a point they want to make. There's so much information out there and it's difficult to know what's true and what isn't. Scientists interacting with the public and setting things straight is so important for a good relationship can be built with everyday citizens and scientists.
In our UCO we were lucky enough to have five scientists come into our class and talk to us about what they do. Dr. Sarah Carmichael is a geologist who studies the interactions between life and minerals. She takes samples of minerals from caves and looks at their properties to try and like them to modern day life. Dr. Marc Kissel is an anthropologist who studies human evolution and what makes us human. He often looks at human behavior and why we function the way we do. Dr. Jamie Levine is a geologist who studies how mountain belts are formed, how the rocks on the surface got there, how deep they are, and she also studies faults. She takes samples of the rocks all around us and puts them under a microscope and looks at what the rock is composed of. Dr. Scott Marshall is a geologist who studies what's going on with tectonic plate movement and earthquakes. He uses mathematic equations and real time data to look how things are shifting. Dr. Andy Bellemer is a biologist who studies chronic pain using fruit flies. He's a neuroscientist and neurobiologist whose lab is dedicated to understanding pain and how to help manage/get rid of chronic pain. All of them were great to listen to and learning more about what they did was very interesting. They talked about what they were doing now and how they got where they are now. What stood out to me the most was about graduate school and how blatantly sexist some of the universities are. What shocked me even more is that it's a well known fact in the science community. Some graduate programs have never had a female graduate from it. These scientists have worked hard to get where they are today and scientists everywhere should be heard.
It can be hard for scientists to talk about what they're studying to people who don't have the same knowledge they do about a topic. We have to learn a way to communicate ideas so that everyone understands and people can make educated choices. People will start to trust scientists more and they'll build a new relationship with the public. No more confusion or misinformation. Just facts. They can do that by having someone run a social media page for them, they can give talks, or they can maybe do something like podcasts.
In our UCO we were lucky enough to have five scientists come into our class and talk to us about what they do. Dr. Sarah Carmichael is a geologist who studies the interactions between life and minerals. She takes samples of minerals from caves and looks at their properties to try and like them to modern day life. Dr. Marc Kissel is an anthropologist who studies human evolution and what makes us human. He often looks at human behavior and why we function the way we do. Dr. Jamie Levine is a geologist who studies how mountain belts are formed, how the rocks on the surface got there, how deep they are, and she also studies faults. She takes samples of the rocks all around us and puts them under a microscope and looks at what the rock is composed of. Dr. Scott Marshall is a geologist who studies what's going on with tectonic plate movement and earthquakes. He uses mathematic equations and real time data to look how things are shifting. Dr. Andy Bellemer is a biologist who studies chronic pain using fruit flies. He's a neuroscientist and neurobiologist whose lab is dedicated to understanding pain and how to help manage/get rid of chronic pain. All of them were great to listen to and learning more about what they did was very interesting. They talked about what they were doing now and how they got where they are now. What stood out to me the most was about graduate school and how blatantly sexist some of the universities are. What shocked me even more is that it's a well known fact in the science community. Some graduate programs have never had a female graduate from it. These scientists have worked hard to get where they are today and scientists everywhere should be heard.
It can be hard for scientists to talk about what they're studying to people who don't have the same knowledge they do about a topic. We have to learn a way to communicate ideas so that everyone understands and people can make educated choices. People will start to trust scientists more and they'll build a new relationship with the public. No more confusion or misinformation. Just facts. They can do that by having someone run a social media page for them, they can give talks, or they can maybe do something like podcasts.
Ryann, this is a great post, well done! A couple of edits:
ReplyDelete-The very first sentence seems to contradict everything you say in the rest of the post (and also what we have discussed in class and can see happening in the world around us everyday). I think what it should say (and probably what you meant) is that "nowadays (one word by the way), many people believe everything they hear or read on the internet without verifying the reliability of the source, but when it comes to scientists, there seems to be a greater mistrust in them than ever."
-Remember also that a post is supposed to be somewhat visually engaging or interactive, not just a newspaper article or essay. Other than inserting multimedia, you can also insert links, so that for example the scientists' names would be linked to websites where the reader can learn more about their research, etc.