Charlie Murphy Says

"It's Friday night.  Gotta rest up before the party."

Science is for Everybody!!

I came across this wonderful interview a while ago, and I had so much to say, it’s taken me a while to put it all together!  If you’re like me, you remember Alan Alda from the MASH series and then as the super enthusiastic host of Scientific American Frontiers.  Alan Alda has been keeping busy, currently working with the Center for Communicating Science with SUNY Stony Brook University.  The center provides lessons in communication to graduate and undergraduate students, as well as a major in science journalism. 

In this interview with NPR, Mr. Alda talks about his contest idea, “What is a flame?”  (www.flamechallenge.org)    As a child, Alda asked this question of his teacher.  She gave a less than satisfactory answer.  His challenge is for a scientist to explain what a flame is well enough and clear enough to be understandable to an 11-year old.  Classrooms of 11-year olds have signed up to judge the winners.  Unfortunately, we have missed the time to enter this contest.  But, I can’t wait to read some of the entries!  They will be announced in June at the World Science Festival.  Also, I learned from this interview that his real name is Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo.  Awesome!

Like many questions of science, it is a “simple question to pose, but not to answer.”  It is all a part of Alda’s overall goal to improve science communication among scientists as well as society.  Alda mentions that he wants to work to bring everyone’s abilities up, instead of evening the playing field.  As he puts it:  “If we don’t understand [science] well enough to ask the right questions, we can’t take care of ourselves when we need to exercise the right caution.  To know that the right questions are being asked.” 

And why not admit that the questions are complicated?  Science is in everything, in every single bit of our days.  Details about what’s in our food, what’s in the air we’re breathing, how the car works that got us to our jobs, how our brain perceived and categorized the funny smell coming from your officemate’s desk…  Every one of the things you look at or use in a day has a story.  A detailed history, and mechanisms that require years if not a lifetime to understand, be it biological or mechanical. 

One of the things Alan Alda does at SUNY is to teach improvisation techniques to graduate students.  While it may sound horrifying, this combination of academic fields turns out to really help students present their science better.  And in the land of science, communicating your ideas and findings is pivotal to your career.  As Mr. Alda puts it, “The scientists who communicate better do better.”  And, it makes sense.  “Letting the real person emerge” is how a person becomes successful not only in science, but in all aspects of life.  Making the people around you fellow players in your life, engaged in what you are thinking.

Alan Alda believes whole-heartedly in the importance of communicating science, and I happen to agree with him.  Not only the known bits of science need to be communicated well, but also the critical thinking processes used in present day research.  The more science that is understood, the more everyone can inform themselves on their own terms.  The more informed we all are, the less likely that another’s opinion or potentially careless study will obscure our knowledge of the world. 

What do you think?

For the interview:

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/23/149231680/alan-alda-asks-scientists-what-is-a-flame

For more on the flame challenge:

http://www.flamechallenge.org/

And, for fun!! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sqBYziYBAs

Fun With English

I was just thinking about this fun fact: Canadians will say “pernickety.”  Americans will say “persnickety.”  Both mean excessive attention to detail. 

So, I looked it up.  Turns out, the origin of the word is Scottish, and it indeed originated as “pernickety.”  Americans have added that S.  Why did this happen?  I can’t find it with mere googling…. 

Do you know?

Back At It!

Well, there certainly has been a big ol’ gap in blog posts here!  But, it has been a wild and crazy time-- I've made huge leaps in my life.  And, of course, big leaps take up lots of relaxing blogging time.  Since I last posted, I have decided it was time to move home to the USA, successfully mounted a job search, settled into the number one state I wanted to be in, and am now working as a staff scientist in a small research device company in rural USA.  I even get to do science blogs as part of my job!  All told, I am so happy to have lived in a city outside of my home country (and way outside of my comfort zone J), and oh so happy to be home. 

I have such strong feelings about the last four years that it’s hard to figure which to tell you about first!  But the main thing is this: perspective.  This February, I moved home to essentially the very same place I felt I needed to move from four years ago.  And through myriad and truly ridiculous amounts of challenges, I managed to make some really great friends from all over the world, get to know a fun city full of awesome FOOD, and learn some absolutely instrumental troubleshooting skills, in life as well as science.  Everything looks different now; I think Montreal gave me some extra power.      

I can’t wait to keep adding to the blog, and you’ll be hearing lots more from me soon!!  Oh, and Charlie Murphy is equally excited.