deciding on a research topic

First week of uni and keen to get stuck into the Science Communication - Specialist Research Topics (COMM7402) unit. I’m looking forward to lots of juicy reading of science communication literature in a particular research field. And there comes the crunch.

The prospect of researching the scientific literature, presenting a seminar and writing a literature review does not phase me, but deciding on a topic in which I’m interested that is well documented in peer-reviewed journals seems to be the most difficult.

At the moment I’m attempting to narrow my interests by revisiting some ideas and thoughts that others have expressed online with regard to science communication, how science and technology is communicated, and by whom:

• Science blogger v. blogging scientist, Clastic Detritus blog
• The subtitle to FemaleScienceProfessor blog reads: “Women professors in the physical sciences: a few. Women professors in the physical sciences at research universities: even fewer. Women full professors in physical sciences at research universities, especially mine: infinitesimal. But we exist..”
• The comments that follow the An Early Look at The Future of Science Journalism post that consider science article publishers and where the readers are.
• Using a self reflective journal to enhance science communication showed that “The use of self-evaluation through reflective journals was found to enhance the effectiveness of tutoring. Implications for developing the ‘human side’ of science will be discussed, and the appropriateness of the course to develop these often under-represented aspects of science.” Is this a style that scientists and researchers can apply when blogging?
• In Tim Dunlop’s article, If you build it they will come: Blogging and the new citizenship” exploring the idea whether bloggers are the new public intellectuals.
• Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data
• An increasing number of articles being published in open access journals and repositories, and some organisations mandating open access publication.
• Research Blogging, a blog that shares and discusses peer-reviewed articles.
• Thanks to YouTube, Professors Are Finding New Audiences
• Science in Second Life, for example SciLands to assist in the public understanding of science.
• National Library of Medicine providing guidelines to cite a blog.
• Russell Jacoby on Counterpoint, ABC (18 Feb 200 and his article in the Chronicle Review, Big Brains, Small Impact. Refers to blogs as “private journals with megaphones” and concerned with why public intellectuals are disappearing.
  

  “Professionalization and academization appeared to be the reason. Younger intellectuals were retreating into specialized and cloistered environments.”

  [...]

  “The new thinkers became academic — not public — intellectuals, with little purchase outside professional circles. While a book by Edmund Wilson could be read with pleasure by an educated citizen, a volume by an academic luminary such as Homi K. Bhabha or Fredric Jameson would give him or her a headache.”

• Publishing in peer-reviewed papers in recognised journals is stated as the ‘gold standard’ if scientists and researchers wish to succeed as an academic. Little credence is given to writing on the web, yet as one PhD candidate said, she would not have found another researcher in her very specialised field if she had not blogged about her research.
• Scientists that communicate science well for it to even become popular, have their science questioned, for example, Susan Greenfield who has a well established reputation for public communication.

shaping progress

The global theme for International Women’s Day 2008 (IWD) is ‘Shaping Progress’.

The Australian Government Office for Women, provides notice and links of what is happening around Australia, including the ABC who will host and archive a panel discussion which will be advertised on IWD, i.e. Saturday 8 March.

The Western Australian Department for Communities, Office for Women’s Policy has further honed the global theme to ‘Discover a world of opportunity in science and technology’. There is quite a list of IWD events happening in Western Australia through to early next week, although ‘invitation only’ events I think should have been listed separately.

Events that caught my eye were the UNIFEM IWD Breakfast Friday 6 March including fundraising for East Timor and the launch of UNIFEM WA at the Perth Town Hall. And the ‘Science & Technology - Part of Our Lives’ panel discussion in East Perth on Monday 10 March hosted by the National Council of Women of WA. Includes afternoon tea and launch of the NCWWA bursary to be awarded to a female student of science and technology.

Other women related items that have come to my notice within the last couple of days (email or radio):

• Autralian Women’s History Forum (incorporating Women’s History Month)
• Princessess and Pornstars: Sex and Power and Identiy, Emily Maguire
• International Women’s Day - Women in Leadership, Late Night Live, ABC
• Anne Summer’s blog and web site

environmentally friendly baby bonus

Did you know that each of us produces seven tonnes of carbon dioxide per year? Coupled with the fact that there is currently seven thousand million of us with 750 popping out every five minutes - “another million net population gain every 5 days”, that’s a lot of carbon debt.

Dr Barry Walter’s talk on Too many children? on ABC Radio National’s Perspective programme introduced what I thought were some interesting solutions to climate change.

“In particular, my belief is that no nation should pay women to have babies. In fact an economic rationalist would say we should pay a carbon tax for each child we have…”

I still cringe when I think of Peter Costello (former Federal Treasurer) taking credit for baby boom with his “moral encouragement to Australian families to have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country”, increased family payments, and baby bonus.

On Perspective, Barry Walter went on to say:

“We should support families with childcare, education, health care, but cash for babies - No - this is irresponsible. This year the Government will give 1,500 million dollars in cash to new mothers. Better give each a solar hot water system or plant several hectares for each baby, better we spend it on Aboriginal health.”

This got me thinking. Rather than a $5000 baby bonus, the government can assist parents to offset the carbon debt for each child. For example, for the first child the household is provided with a solar hot water system, for the second child a greywater reuse system, and the third child passive airconditioning and insulation. I’m beginning to run out of ideas after the third, but perhaps for any additional children, plant hectares of trees.

When Barry Walter said:

“We are citizens of this earth neither more nor less than those in every other nation. If they must limit their population, so must we. Australians are not an arrogant people. Racism is anathema to us. If the world suffers, we suffer. We do not acquire a right to produce more man made gases by living in a relatively less populated area”

I thought of China. I haven’t seen, read, or heard much about anyone complimenting China for their sometimes controversial family planning policy to slow population growth. Instead, they often get brow-beaten about their need for economic expansion.

An environmentally friendly baby bonus means families and our environment are assisted in a sustainable way, and children are raised in a household that is increasingly aware and doing what we can all do minimise our impact on our finite planet.

Image Credit: NASA

second best

1.1 billion dollars is the projected cost of a 60,000 seat sports stadium to be developed at Kitchener Park, Subiaco that will enable Perth, Western Australia to bid for the 2018 Soccer World Cup.

“The Government says it will seek funding from the Commonwealth, business and the sporting codes to help build the stadium.” — Subiaco wins race for new 60,000 seat stadium, ABC News

The Hon Alan Carpenter is the Western Australian Premier; and Minister for Federal-State Relations; Trade; Innovation; Public Sector Management; and Science announced today.

I say, always read the last paragraph of news stories. In closing, the ABC article about the sports stadium also mentions a new museum.

“The other site considered for the project, the old East Perth power station, was deemed unsuitable because of transport difficulties.

That site will be used to build the new WA Museum.”

The current museum in Perth could do with a revamp, more space and resources. But to send it out to East Perth appears a bit odd.

The WA Museum is right next to the State Library and Art Gallery, and on the Perth CAT route. What about the visitor numbers for the museum? Why does it cost only half-a-billion dollars for a museum infrastructure project compared to that of a $1.1 billion new outdoor stadium?

emperors and fairies

Two colonies of penguins are under scrutiny by university researchers. One colony is only five kilometres off the Western Australian coast, the other, in the Antarctic.

With the help of the Royal Australian Navy and Dr Belinda Cannell from The University of Western Australia, the Fairy (or Little) Penguins on Garden Island off the Western Australian coast are being monitored and protected.

Protection means simply being good neighbours with minimal disturbance to the penguin colony and ensuring predators such as cats and foxes don’t reach the island.

“The penguins are often more at risk from pleasure craft, fishing boats, wind and kite-surfers and jet-skis than the Navy’s big ships, she said. As well as the danger of colliding with these smaller watercraft, penguins could be harmed by fishing line, heavy metals, over-fishing and destruction of fish nursery sites.” — Dr Belinda Cannell in Royal Australian Navy guards penguins with help from UWA, University News

So while the penguins have good neighbours in the personnel at HMAS Stirling, we can help the Fairy Penguins by looking out for them and letting others know too.

From little to emperor-sized penguins. If you have seen the film Happy Feet or March of the Penguins you will know that the penguins that featured in both films were Emperor Penguins.

Dr Gary Miller of the Australian Antarctic Division, scientific adviser and sound recordist for ‘Happy Feet’ will be joining UWA’s Professor Geoff Shellam to conduct fieldwork in Antarctica .

“… undertaking research into infectious diseases and the potential impact of global warming on the Emperor penguins of the Auster rookery, which is located on sea ice about 40km from Mawson Station.” — UWA-based team aim to keep ‘Happy Feet’ happy, University News

There are two main questions that the scientists are working to solve:

• Most Emperor chicks have antibodies to a common virus of domestic poultry. Do they acquire the virus from their parents or from the environment?
• As temperatures increase in the Antarctic due to climate change, will the penguins’ well-being continue?

I have one question of my own though. I wonder why the expedition is going on the last ship of the season rather than the new 4 1/2 flight from Hobart, Tasmania?

adapting to change

What does this generation need to inherit the future? was the topic of a public forum hosted by the Ecological Society of Australia at ESA2007 and facilitated by Robyn Williams, ABC Science Journalist.

Panel members included:

• Hon. Fred Chaney AO, Former Federal Minister and advocate for social justice and indigenous issues
• Prof Paul Ehrlich, Ecologist and Author, Stanford University, USA
• Prof Clive Spash, Economist and Author, CSIRO
• Dr Beth Schultz, Conservationist, Western Australia
• Dr Carmen Lawrence, Federal MP and Former Premier of Western Australia

Panel members got to speak to the topic for three minutes in front of a single projected image that they had chosen. The most interesting images were that of a tree appearing to grow out of a car fuel tank that accompanied Ehrlich’s talk, and the backdrop to Spash’s talk was a photograph of a face carved out of a mountain on one side and a goat on an unaltered mountain on the other.

A panel discussion was then held, followed by questions from the audience. The panel members then got to summarise the evening with one line.

The evening was unevenly paced with panel members speaking very quickly for their three minutes to fit in all that they wanted to say, and Robyn Williams seemingly unable to instigate and maintain a panel discussion. So it felt like it was more of a question and answer session between Williams and the panel members.

Panel members responded to audience questions and statements, but I feel that we were talking amongst ourselves or preaching to the converted.

All speakers and the audience participation generated interesting and good content for discussion, but probably the three key messages that I came away with were:

• THE generation were the minority in the audience and there were none on stage, as one young member of the audience articulated well in her statement. Quite rightly, she restated the forum topic and said, ‘noone has asked me’. The only cause for concern is that she also said that she came along to the public forum for the answer to the question being asked.
• Surprisingly to me anyway, the issue of communicating science was mentioned more than once. The Hon Fred Chaney mentioned in his talk that scientists need to communicate what they are doing with the public. A member of the audience pre-empted her question to the panel by stating that Prof Lyn Beasley, Chief Scientist of Western Australia, was an exemplar of science communication. But unfortunately, some of the audience didn’t get it, and suggested that science communication was happening, just the public didn’t appear to be listening and used the IPCC report as an example. When challenged, the response was, that is what an executive summary is for - all twenty pages?
• The environment is largely ignored and in general, people are focusing only on the one issue they think they understand, i.e. climate change.

The panel member’s one line summaries were so quick, so please only think of these as a summary of ideas rather than quotes:

• Paul Ehrlich - we need many more meetings like this
• Carmen Lawrence - changing people’s behaviour is important
• Hon. Fred Chaney AO - conversations, equal relationships and justice
• Clive Spash - adjust institutions’ processes to run the economy
• Beth Schultz - conservation begins in bed and [ineligible, i.e. my writing not her comment]

The forum was one of those events that you had to be there, and I certainly cannot do it justice here. I’m pleased that I went if only to be with people of like minds talking about environment, overpopulation, biodiversity, climate change, etc. But I did come away with a certain feeling that nothing is going to change having attended this meeting simply because there is no way to follow up. That is, have other meetings, discuss better ways to change behaviour, maintain or improve relationships, investigate current processes, and grass roots initiatives.

The underlying forum topic was the quote by Eric Hoffer:

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future.”

There was talk of a podcast up on the conference web site, video up on You Tube, or transcript. If so, I will be able to at least edit the one liners.

in the night time

While staying at Dryandra Woodland we went on a nocturnal tour of the nearby Barna Mia and saw all the animals in the sanctuary except for the western barred bandicoot.

The animal sanctuary is home to five threatened native animals; bilby or dalgyte (Macrotis lagotis), western barred bandicoot or marl (Perameles bougainville), burrowing bettong or boodie (Bettongia lesueur), banded hare-wallaby or mernine (Lagostrophus fasciatus), and rufous hare-wallaby or wurrup (Lagorchestes hirsutus).

We also saw a possum and was told that the fence surrounding the sanctuary to keep out predators (foxes and cats) was also supposed to keep out the possums as they are not considered a native animal facing extinction. I and others thought this odd, considering the surrounding area was their home too, but I suppose possums do tend to be opportunists, and when they know food is going to be available on certain nights of the week, how could they resist.

The tour starts in an attractive purpose built building that was designed to complement the surroundings in an environmental way. Unfortunately, they turn on a generator for the tour to power lights and such, which sometimes was louder than the silence of the bush, rustling of the animals as they came near, and their very noisy scoffing of the food provided.

The sanctuary is not large enough to sustain the population of animals so carefully selected and weighed food is put down for the animals. Uneaten food is removed and monitored. It was fun if not a little weird to see the different animals eating near each other. At one stage, a boodie put its front paws in the dish while it ate as if another animal was going to come along and claim it. In fact, a bilby did come and share the dish for a little while which was strange as it had its own spread nearby including mushrooms.

The paths and animals were lit with infrared lamps and torches so as not to disturb the animals. It was lovely to sit quietly and watch them, but it was frustrating not to be able to take photographs that capture the moment or the animals well. My picture of the bilby I’m happy with because I recognise it because of the long ears.

Years ago, I remember that chocolate in the shape of a bilby was promoted at Easter time instead of chocolate bunnies. The point being that rabbits are a pest and bilbies are native animals in need of protection. I’m not sure how well that message was communicated, but I do remember Mam explaining this to her pre-primary class at the time. Which is difficult, when it gets pointed out that it would be better to have chocolate rabbits as we should eat them instead of the bilbies. Can’t argue with that logic.

Before the walk, we listened to a presentation and learnt more about the area, and DEC’s Return to Dryandra, Western Shield, and revegetation programmes. Returning to the building, we were given the opportunity to purchase souvenirs and look at the building more closely.

Barna Mia is well worth the visit, and consider that DEC can be more confident about taking ownership of their work and knowledge of the area and sharing this more enthusiastically with visitors. Note: You need to book your visit with the Narrogin District Office.

Tours are after sunset. Unlike the animals in the sanctuary, I think Numbats have much more sensible waking hours

science communication and education

The Masters of Science Communication and Education was launched yesterday afternoon by Professor Robyn Owen, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research Training) and Professor Lyn Beazley, Chief Scientist for Western Australia.

Professor George Stewart, Dean, Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences was the MC for the event, and other speakers included Dr Nancy Longnecker, Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator/Science Communication Courses Co-ordinator, Rich Weatherill, Director Outreach, Scitech, and there was one other whose name escapes me at the moment. He was either representing the education side of the new masters degree, or the administrative process or committee that got the programme up.

Rich did the sugar in champagne demonstration, followed by the menthos in pepsi, which unfortunately didn’t hit the roof and was a bit of a fizzer.

I found all the talks of interest. Mostly they were re-iterating how few school students go on to do science, mathematics or engineering and emphasised that this was because there were a diminishing number of suitably qualified and enthusiastic science teachers.

I do wonder what is going to happen to Western Australia once we no longer have anything to dig up, as does Professor Dong-ke Zhang from the Curtin University of Technology at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering’s 30th Annual Symposium “Resources Boom: Opportunities and Consequences” this week.

Science Communication students (current and previous) had red dots on their name tag. The only eek! moment was when Nancy encouraged those without dots on their name tag (most guests) to go and talk to those that did. All of the people that came and spoke to me were very nice and seemed genuinely interested in science communication and the new masters degree.

The event was very pleasant as I got to catch up with colleagues and fellow students some from other cohorts, over a drink and abundant nibbles.

numbat spotting

In between Numbat radio-tracking, we had the opportunity to participate in driving surveys, captures, weighing and collaring.

Driving surveys involved being a passenger in a four-wheel drive vehicle that kept to the road, and looking out the window or observing the ground from the top of the vehicle.

Numbats are difficult to spot as their coats are well camouflaged with the landscape, they are small, and they can move very quickly. When they were spotted, many of the Numbats tended to run into a log.

Various attempts were made to persuade the Numbat to leave the log and be captured, but often a trap needed to be set for when they ventured from the log of their own accord. It is important not to destroy the habitat in which many animals use, including the Numbat.

Once they were captured in a cloth bag, they were brought back to the base. Numbats are weighed and measured, and their general condition checked.

They are then tagged with a microchip and fitted with a collar including a radio transmitter.

The Numbat is then replaced into the cloth bag and taken to the location where it was captured, to be released. Their movements may be followed for some months before they need to be captured again so that the battery in the collar can be changed.

Being able to survey and monitor vulnerable and endangered animals is important. Research organisations and scientists often need the assistance of volunteers in these projects.

If you are interested in conservation, environmental and science based volunteering, see what organisations are active in your area. Or if you are willing to travel, further afield. In Western Australia, the Department of Environment and Conservation, CSIRO (mostly geared towards school children), universities, and various non-government organisations (e.g. Project Numbat, Gilbert’s Potoroo Action Group) need the support of volunteers from the general public. One way to help is to create awareness of various conservation issues and what people can do about it.

growth

“It is clear you cannot have indefinitely sustained growth of population,” he said. “There has to be a point in the history of any inhabited planet when the number of people multiplied by the impact per person does rival natural processes.” — Lord May.

The cartoon, The Wit And Wisdom of Cancer by Nina Paley illustrates many of the points made by Lord May in The Age article (18 November 2007).

Link via VHEMT. There are subtitles on the copy hosted by Google Video.

Other cartoons by Nina Paley on the issues of over-population, growth in consumption and limited resources are The Stork and Fertco.

Let’s hope it is not Howard that gets to go to Bali next month.

The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be important ammunition when world leaders meet in Bali next month to decide what to do after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The UN and many countries want strong mandatory reductions of the greenhouse gases that drive global warming. — The Age

Go for Growth! un-Official Liberal Party Campaign Launch Ad by Cyrius One shows that Howard just doesn’t get it.