Join us as the new Community Manager to run @the_node.

A great opportunity for someone with a love of developmental and/or stem cell biology, science communication and engaging with researchers.

Apply by 19 May 2025.

https://www.biologists.com/about-us/work-for-us/

Can Citizen Science Be Trusted? New Study of Birds Shows It Can

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/can-citizen-science-be-trusted-new-study-birds-shows-it-can

Interested in pursuing #SciComm as a profession? Then this new Master's program in Germany might be for you: tuition-free (also for international students), entirely taught in English, covering everything from #ScienceCommunication to #ScienceJournalism, #SciArt, public engagement and more.

https://www.hs-ansbach.de/en/master/science-communication/

Application period starts on May 1st.

You may have seen headlines today - such as in The New York Times - suggesting the possible detection of a biosignature on an exoplanet. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. But it’s also an extraordinary claim, and as the saying goes, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Carl Sagan).

While the molecule in question is associated with biological processes, it’s important to note that non-biological (abiotic) pathways for its formation exist as well (see: Reed et al. 2024 ApJL; Sanz-Novo et al. 2025 ApJL). These results are interesting, but far from conclusive.

Scientists work within a robust framework to test such claims. This includes:

- Peer review and replication
- Community feedback and critique
- Cross-validation through multiple instruments and techniques
- Avoiding sensationalism in science communication
- Building consensus through sustained investigation

I am looking forward to hearing more from the exoplanet and astrobiology communities on these findings before drawing conclusions.

In the meantime, the ripple effect of bold headlines - like "Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Life" - has already begun. A friend at the dentist this morning spotted a very misleading headline about this on Channel 9 News!

This is where science communication becomes critical: managing public interest and excitement without compromising scientific accuracy.

We should use moments like these to show the process - how scientific ideas are proposed, tested, debated, and refined - to broader audiences. Whether we’re talking about space, climate change, or pandemics, this transparency is essential to building trust in science.

Aliens make for a great headline, but the real story is in how we do the science.

Creationism is exhausting.

Anti-vaxxers are exhausting.

They just keep making the same stupid, flawed, or deceptive arguments over and over again despite these arguments being fully discredited.

And since every new generation joins the web and sees these old arguments *still floating around* you find yourself having the same conversations again and again and again...

It's just so fucking exhausting.

Fielding suggestions for part of my final project I'm doing for a Science Communication course: What are your favourite pieces of visual (i.e., film or TV) fictional media depicting infectious disease outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics?
#InfectiousDiseases #InfectiousDisease #Epidemiology #SciComm #ScienceCommunication

"Communicating complex science in a way that the public can understand is crucial. A new study from the University of Adelaide reveals that in scientific societies, women are shouldering the bulk of this work—often voluntarily—due to societal expectations and a sense of duty."

"It seems that women are not only taking on this work at home but also in the workplace—often without recognition, compensation, or career benefits"

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10755470251321075

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-gendered-science-communication.html

What happens when someone with a background in science studies and an interest in patient experience has to stay in hospital?

Some passing thoughts on illness as a boundary object following my recent stay in hospital with a broken leg.

(seemed a good way to revive my blog)

#healthCare #hospitals #ScienceStudies #Patients #STS #scicomm #sciencecommunication
https://literacyofthepresent.wordpress.com/2025/04/03/illness-as-boundary-object/.

A #SciComm toolkit for scientists: How to prepare for #media interviews, how to share your #research on #SocialMedia, how to handle harassment, and more.

Aimed at climate researchers, but relevant to any communicating scientist:

www.rmets.org/sites/defaul...

Polish radio explained that the Australian #kangaroo population statistics amounting to 48 million means that if these kangaroos decided to invade Urugway then each of the 3.5 million persons living there would have to fight 14 kangaroos

Besuch aus Zürich am RHET AI Center!

Im März haben uns @mss7676 Schäfer, Daniela Mahl und Sophia Volk vom IKMZ von der UZH Zürich in Tübingen besucht. Im gemeinsamen Workshop haben wir intensiv über #Wisskomm und #KünstlicheIntelligenz diskutiert – von kritischer Reflexion über #AILiteracy bis hin zu Machtstrukturen. Gerne wieder!

Den Nachbericht findet ihr auf unserer Website: https://rhet.ai/2025/04/02/nachbericht-workshop-mit-mike-schaefer-in-tuebingen/

You're a scientist? How do you present yourself on #SocialMedia?

New #SciComm research shows: Participants rated #scientists who shared their failures as more benevolent and open, and as having more integrity, than those who only shared their successes.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10755470251322902

Looking for a virtual #SciComm community? Science communication remote #coworking sessions still happen weekly on Discord!

https://shareyoursci.com/coworking/

I’m part of the new @LIGO magazine. Starting on page 20, I write about my creative and thought process when turning #scientificdata into #experimentalmusic. Read here https://ligo.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/LIGO-magazine-issue26.pdf #scicomm #sciencecommunication #astrophysics #scienceart #livecoding #algorave #toplap #GravitationalWave @mpi_grav @QBRNTHSS

Our short presentation “The Purity Myth: Why Stigmatizing GAI in Academic Writing Is Harmful” at the Newswise Research-To-Practice Webinar: Perils and Promise of Generative AI for Science Communication is available here:
http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.15680.03841

Wo ist eigentlich immer noch #SchrödingersKatze?
Hoffe es am nun letzten Ausstellungstag der #dpgr25 herauszufinden ...

Daher: Letzte Chance für Gespräche am Stand T16 der @tibhannover im Zelt! Komm(t) vorbei!

... eventuell gibt's ja -Hinweise zur Mittagszeit, wenn es heißt "Let's talk about #sciencecommunication!" mit @nicolas_woehrl und #PeterKohl von der @unidue ... Auch dabei?

Außerdem freue ich mich auf einen Call mit @Rupi42ai zu #Wissenschaftspodcasts

Our first #ScienceCommunication editorial is published! Here, we highlight one of our recently published studies on a classic "dinosaur trackway" from the 1940s https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2025.2479395

The study being highlighted can be read #OpenAccess here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2025.2461068

Did #ColliderFest today on the Viper HPC stand! It was fun talking to people about supercomputing/HPC and AI, but also exhausting.

https://colliderfest.co.uk/

Used my UMAP word cloud demo to talk about how foundational language models (e.g. like ChatGPT, Ollama, etc) work, and how hallucinations come about.

https://starbeamrainbowlabs.com/blog/article.php?article=posts/533-research-smflooding-vis.html

Here is a sneak peek of Secrets in the structure - out now on Big Biology!

In this episode, we talk with Scott Edwards, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology at Harvard University. We talk to Scott about the new ways we can describe and understand large chunks of DNA that till recently we have not been able to characterize directly.

Art by Keating Shahmehri