Science Cheerleader

Special invitation from an inside-source at the Department of Defense…our very own Dr. John Ohab:
Here’s a great opportunity to engage the highest ranking U.S. military officer in a dialogue about science: Admiral Mullen, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is taking YOUR video questions over YouTube through midnight on Monday, August 31st. He’ll select his favorite questions and answer them directly on the Defense Department’s YouTube page.

The Department of Defense (DoD) will spend more than $75 billion on research, development, testing, and evaluation in fiscal year 2009; that is, more than the entire budgets of the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation COMBINED. Much of this will directly support our warfighters by providing revolutionary, superior capabilities needed to accomplish DoD’s mission. However, this investment also includes research in biomedicine, earth and environmental sciences, information technology, and many other disciplines that extend beyond military applications into the civilian world.

Do you have a question about DoD’s efforts to reduce energy consumption, their research on climate change and retreating Artic sea ice, medical care for servicemembers and their families, or how Recovery funds will impact DoD scientific pursuits?

Submit your YouTube video questions before midnight on Monday, AUGUST 31!   Don’t miss your chance to get answers straight from the top!

Anyone involved with the Public Understanding of Science movement will tell you that:

1) P.U.S. is complicated and has problems defining things like: what should be taught? how should it be taught? who should learn it? who should teach it? All of this is labeled by words like content, indicators, deficit model, goals, audience, and messaging. Oh, messaging is a BIG challenge. Take, for starters, the movement’s acronym.

2) Striking a chord with our target audience (”average” people) is tricky when, well, many of the messengers aren’t all that average. Many “experts” argue we should require scientists to do more public outreach. In some cases that may work wonderfully. But in too many of the examples I’ve witnessed, it’s more like sending Prince Charles in to sub for John Stewart.

3) Too often, the most creative approaches are discounted because they are not P.C. (enough). It’s not that there aren’t plenty of creative people working to increase the public’s understanding of science. In fact, most of the players I’ve met are dynamos. But their funders are, too often, unwilling to try new approaches for fear of sullying their good names, like I’m doing. Consider this a direct challenge to foundations, corporations and other supporters to shake things up a bit. We’ll help.

So we often fail to connect with the masses and are left preaching to–not the choir, that would be slightly more acceptable–preaching to other preachers. It’s just silly sometimes.

Preaching science; reaching the masses.Philly Metro, a free city paper, caters to just the type of audience we say we want to reach: real (or “average”) folks including public transportation commuters, students, professionals, City Hall staffers and other residents of the City of Brotherly Love. I was thrilled last week, when they ran a piece about the Science Cheerleader. The Brain Makeover project has broken through some of the barriers described above, and, as anticipated, ruffled some feathers along the way. Good. It means it’s making a difference. When Fox National News, radio shock jocks, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Toronto Star, CBS 3 and many others–including prestigious professional science magazine, The Scientist–are talking about the Science Cheerleader and our three big goals (adult science literacy, citizen science efforts and participatory science policy developments), we’ve scored. And now this…

The Eagles fans are notorious for a number of reasons. Let’s just say “passion” runs through their veins. The popular Philly sports blog, 700level.com just ran this piece on the Science Cheerleader. Sure, the first comment posted was “take off your top!” which was no surprise to me. I’m more surprised that they posted this article and, by default, put science in the minds of more than 20,000 Philly sports fans, if only for a moment. We have some more tricks up our sleeves in terms of penetrating* that seemingly impossible audience we’re all aiming to reach. Stay tuned and consider getting involved. It’s the most fun you can have with science

The author who posted the 700level.com piece also penned this one for his awesome website TechnicallyPhilly.com

*yes, 700 level fans, I know what you’re thinking.

Cheers!

Darlene

From Sarah: This photo was taken while I was painting ceramics by the beach of our Cancun resort…and I’m sure you observant readers can detect the sunburn on my face even though we had only been outside for 30 minutes.  (And by the way, don’t think I wasn’t coated in SPF 50 sunscreen!)  I am not one of those lucky people that can tan easily…or at all.  My skin is two colors: as close to albino white you can get without being clinically albino, or bright red…and so, I am indebted to the folks at the Maryland Science Center for studying those pesky UV rays.

Earth by Aura is an ongoing research program sponsored by NASA and the Maryland Science Center that focuses on determining how accurate forecasters are at predicting the daily UV index.  Citizen scientist researchers go out into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor daily to take UV radiation readings and interact with other citizens, encouraging them to protect themselves from UV radiation and to get involved with the project. (more…)

Thanks to ace reporter Nicole Brewer at CBS 3 in Philadelphia for putting this TV news feature together. In it, she talks about our efforts here on Science Cheerleader, to increase science literacy and raise the ranks of citizen scientists. GOOOOO Science! (Here’s a companion web feature.)

Part of the Brain Makeover, adult science literacy effort. People must fancy learning about the predictability of the universe (ok, Deidre’s easy on the eyes…there’s that, too).  Check it out.

The Missouri Stream Team program is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Through this program, an estimated 80,000 volunteer citizens have helped monitor the quality of Missouri’s water streams. And with recent reports showing (often high) levels of mercury in every stream the U.S. Geological Survey tested, we could use more volunteers out there on the front lines. The project leader, Chris Riggert, first told ScienceCheerleader.com readers why he got involved in this effort, here.

Yesterday, Chris emailed me a link to the team’s 20th anniversary video which fully encapsulates the passion and power of citizen scientists. (Thanks, Chris!)

Some good humor for your Saturday. Here’s another skeptical post from everyone’s favorite cynical cheerleader, Occam’s Razor.

A new book has hit the stands recently and it’s making a bit of a splash. It’s called The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. The book was written by David Kessler*, former commissioner of the FDA and in it Kessler goes after food in much the same way he went after tobacco – with the extremely pedestrian observation that people who want to sell something make that product as appealing to customers as possible. (more…)

From the “just plain cool” file. Check this out, from MIT. Personas is “meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world where digital histories are as important–if not more important–than oral histories….for now.”

Type in your first and last name and watch your digital history flash before your eyes, color coded.

Now THIS radio interview was fun. And, more importantly, the fact we’ve hit FOX national news, the Toronto Star , news media in Switzerland, Argentina and the U.K., and this hard rock station (WXRX) in the mid west, tells us we are accomplishing what we set out to do. Reach “real” people (outside the traditional science community) and turn them onto science!

The interview touches on the crisis of adult science literacy, efforts to push Congress and scientists to establish real dialogue with citizens, and plans to create a “Craigslist meets Match.com” for people who want to DO science (aka Citizen Scientists).

GOOOO Science.

Check out the 15 minute radio interview, here:

sciencecheerleadera

This just in (thanks to the citizen scientists out there–who volunteer countless hours to help researchers monitor the quality of water–for sending it to me):

The U.S. Geological Survey (part of the U.S. Department of the Interior) released a study today that assesses mercury contamination in fish, bed sediment, and water from 291 streams across the nation, sampled from 1998 to 2005.

Scientists detected mercury contamination in every fish sampled in every stream. About a quarter of these fish were found to contain mercury at levels exceeding the criterion for the protection of people who consume average amounts of fish, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). More than two-thirds of the fish exceeded the EPA level of concern for fish-eating mammals.

Atmospheric mercury is the main source to most of these streams — coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States — but 59 of the streams also were potentially affected by gold and mercury mining. Since USGS studies targeted specific sites and fish species, the findings may not be representative of mercury levels in all types of freshwater environments across the United States.

For more information, contact Barbara Scudder, bscudder@usgs.gov , (608) 821-3832 or Mark Brigham, mbrigham@usgs.gov , (763) 783-3274.

Read about how mercury becomes toxic in the environment.