Tag: #scicomm

Are you sure you should eat that?

Posted May 30, 2020 by Riddhi Sood

Image showing two cartoon people six feet apart, saying "flatten the curve"

Amid this pandemic, you may be having conversations with family members similar to my own. I was talking to my brother about going to the grocery store and buying some eggs for baking when I was pretty strictly told that “no, you shouldn’t because the virus can be transmitted through food.” As a scientist myself, this was intriguing advice. So, I asked him to show me where he had read it. Sadly, nowadays when we are bombarded with news at every corner we turn, we were unable to backtrack his source…

Expanding ‘The Matrix’ of science: The Newman lab inside and out

Posted May 2, 2020 by Riddhi Sood

Eight people standing around a table full of science experiments

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) assistant professor Dr. Ehren Newman studies circuitry in the brain, particularly the circuitry that is associated with the making of stories and the retrieval of memories. Newman’s background as a computational neuroscientist enables him to bring a plethora of new insight into his current field of systems cognitive psychology. Memory is a complex process with multiple facets. “We don’t remember everything that happens to us with equal probability,” he observes. “Instead, we have fragmented memories of things of varying lengths.” So, how do we choose which memories to store and later recall?

IU’s take on the cannabis trend

Posted April 18, 2020 by Riddhi Sood

On March 20, 2019, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Emeritus Dr. Brian O’Donnell and Research Scientist Dr. Alex Straiker met with the student community for a Q&A session entitled “Cannabis: Science and Policy.” “IU has been the world center for research regarding cannabinoid signaling,” said Dr. Straiker during his address at the Science Café talk. Having studied cannabinoid signaling for more than 20 years, Dr. Straiker mentions the growing enthusiasm for cannabis use in a variety of forms, like essential oils; not only recreationally, but also for the treatment of anxiety, autoimmune disease, inflammation, and pain management…

Telling Science Stories: Lessons from Last Year’s SciComm Symposium

Posted March 12, 2019 by Jennifer Sieben

Guest speaker Ardon Shorr stands in front of a slide that reads, "It is not enough to do good work without persuading people that it matters"

Many of us here at ScIU have recognized that there is a shortage of classes to teach science communication at IU and in science programs in general. While not every scientist does outreach everyday, we sometimes forget that the simple act of explaining your science to a grant committee or your neighbor who likes to… Read more »

Communicating about science: Tips for the checkout counter

Posted October 17, 2017 by Emily Byers

White space shuttle blasting off its support tower, with flames and illuminated billows of smoke.

Six months ago, my credit union sent me a new Visa card. It’s bold and dynamic, featuring a white space shuttle lifting off at dawn as flames and smoke billow from the rocket boosters. Overlying this image are four letters that catch the cashier’s eye: NASA.

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