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SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION there are keen undergraduate students wishing to build up their CVs. As Stuart highlights, "Each year we have a poster competition between first year undergraduate tutorial groups and I am always amazed at their creativity. We need to tap into this…" We will invite undergraduates to participate in this year’s Brain Awareness Week events. Furthermore, this area forms an ideal basis for an undergraduate final year research project as we can involve undergraduates in assessing the impact and outcomes of several of our projects. We will also be piloting the novel ‘public as communicators’ scheme for this year’s Brain Awareness Week (funded by a BBSRC, MRC, NERC Small Grant Award for Public Engagement). Here, we turn the idea of communicating science to the public on its head by inviting a group of school children to actually help us devise and run activities at the Manchester Museum to interest other members of the public. A group of students, post-docs and lecturers will visit the school to brainstorm ideas. Thus, preparing for the event becomes a public engagement activity in its own right and we have the benefit of a fresh approach to devising activities and materials. We also hope that interesting scenarios will arise, such as a knowledgeable 15-year-old showing a lecturer how to run an activity on the day! The group would also like to hear from you: ● Are you already involved in public communication? ● Do you have any questions or suggestions? ● Are you interested in taking part or sharing ideas? ● Or would you like to hear more about what we are doing? Contact: Erinma.Ochu@manchester.ac.uk The projects are supported by a Wellcome Trust Value in People award from the University of Manchester and the Brain Awareness Project is supported by a BBSRC, MRC, NERC Small Grant Award. Neuroscience for kids: a personal ambition ERIC H. CHUDLER is a Research Associate Professor within the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University of Washington. His main research interests focus on the cortical and basal ganglia mechanisms of nociception and pain. He is also a committed educator and communicator working with a number of organisations to promote science and health education. He has made many public appearances to this end and has published articles highlighting the importance of scientists contributing to education and public scientific literacy. Allowing young people access to the world of neuroscience is something that Professor Chudler has personally taken to new levels. Eric Chudler is responsible for setting up the website ‘Neuroscience for Kids’. This colourful, interactive and in depth website covers a range of areas from a basic, easy-to-follow introduction to brain structure to articles about some of the latest published research findings. Victoria Gill approached him to find out what led him to take such a pivotal role in taking neuroscience to young people via the web. All the way from Seattle and via email, he kindly agreed! What is your academic background? I graduated in 1980 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BSc in Psychobiology. During my first two years at UCLA, I had planned to pursue a career in marine biology. However, during my junior year, I volunteered to work in the laboratory of Dr. John Liebeskind. Dr. Liebeskind encouraged me to go to graduate school. I followed his advice and spent 1980-1985 at the University of Washington. In 1983, I received an MSc in Psychology and, in 1985, my PhD (also in Psychology). I then travelled to the east coast where I spent my postdoctoral fellowship (1986-1989) at the National Institute of Dental Research (National Institutes of Health) in the laboratories of Drs. Ronald Dubner and Dan Kenshalo. After my postdoctoral fellowship, I moved to Boston, MA, to work in the Department of Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. I travelled back to Seattle and the University of Washington to work with Dr. Willie Dong as a research assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology. In 1998, I was promoted to my current position as a research associate professor. What role do you think neuroscience has in elementary education? In most elementary schools, students begin to learn about the workings of the human body. Neuroscience offers students and teachers the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics including mental health, drug abuse, neurological illness, anatomy and physiology, and ethical and moral issues. Neuroscience "literacy" may help students understand these subjects and to make better decisions about problems that they may encounter in their lives. Do you hope to update didactic science teaching methods in order to interest children in science from a younger age? I take my cues about teaching methods from classroom teachers and other educators who study pedagogy. For example, I attempt to create interactive, inquiry-based activities for young students make discoveries by themselves. What inspired you to launch the website and what is its ultimate aim? Several years ago, my daughter’s kindergarten teacher invited me to give a classroom presentation about the brain. I needed to develop materials to keep the attention of 20 very young students. As I developed these materials, I kept a record of the activities and noted what worked and what did not. As my daughter progressed through elementary school (she is now in 7th grade), I continued to make presentations in her classrooms. In 1996, Dr. Keith Kajander, a neuroscientist who I knew from my postdoctoral times at NIH, visited me in Seattle. He told me about NIH Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA), a new NIH program to fund science education projects. I applied for a SEPA grant to work with neuroscientists and educators to develop a neuroscience resource for the Internet and, in 1997, ‘Neuroscience for Kids’ was born. Do you feel that dedicating yourself to public education leaves you less time than you would like for your own research? Certainly working in public education takes time away from bench science. However, I believe it is essential that scientists give something back to their communities, especially when their work is funded by the public. Do you think that all scientists should take on a role in the educational process in order to improve scientific literacy amongst the general public and how do you hope to see this role develop? Absolutely! Scientists are a critical source of information. They are the experts. Scientists can provide the public with information about what, how and why they do their research. By interacting with the public directly, this information will be unfiltered by the media or other sources. Unfortunately, not all scientists are properly skilled in speaking with the public, nor are all scientists comfortable speaking with young student groups or the public. I would like to see programs that teach scientists ways to interact with public and provide opportunities to these scientists to engage the public. Scientists can work independently to create their own opportunities to work with the public. This can be as simple as a visit to their local school. Many professional organizations can assist scientists interested in public education. For example, the Society for Neuroscience assists neuroscientists interested in outreach by providing teaching workshops at the annual meeting and distributing materials to support classroom presentations. A great opportunity for neuroscientists interested in working with their communities is to participate in Brain Awareness Week (March 14-20, 2005; March 13 – 19, 2006). Professor Chudler’s website ‘Neuroscience for Kids’ is at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html 18
SCIENCE AND THE MEDIA When Science Meets the Media The Science Media Centre (SMC), as its name suggests, sits slap bang in the middle of ‘science’ and ‘the media’. This is not always the easiest place to occupy. Scientists and journalists can be, and often have been, described as being poles apart. The two disciplines seem to differ in virtually every possible way: from the timescales they work to (decades versus hours), the way they think (uncertainties versus a need for absolute answers), to the context they put this in (the ‘hows’ versus the ‘whys’). And these differences can often lead to a particularly fraught relationship between the two. Yet, despite this, many scientists are beginning to wake up to the fact that they cannot ignore the media, especially after seeing the consequences of the media furores around GM or MMR. And, in fact, the very existence of the Science Media Centre is a result of this abrupt change in attitude. The Science Media Centre (SMC) was set up with the aim of improving relations between these two disparate groups after the House of Lords Report on Science and Society, published in 2000, identified this as a key area to focus on to begin the rebuilding of public trust in science and scientists. We have a specific focus here on science in the headlines - think GM, MMR, cloning – as this is, arguably, the time when the public is the most interested in, and concerned with, science. For example, when a story about mobile phone masts is on the front page of The Mirror, many readers become very interested indeed in this area of science. It is our aim to ensure that the news media, and, through them, the public, have access to great scientists and, in particular, evidence-based science at these crucial times. The SMC has now been open for three years, and, in that time, has been able to make a significant contribution to shaping how science news has been reported. This has been both through reactive work, such as ensuring that the media knows which scientists are willing to comment and give up some of their time for interviews when science is dominating the news agenda; and also through proactive work, such as facilitating scientists to brief journalists on new areas of science likely to hit the headlines. This thereby ensures that their voices, views and opinions are heard at these key times. As a centre set up by the scientific community, our philosophy is that, if the media is to do science better, science needs to do the media better. When scientists roll up their sleeves and get stuck in with the media, it can really make a difference to the way a story is covered. For instance, when a recent stem cell breakthrough was reported, by ensuring that scientists were on hand to comment on why this research was being done, where it could lead, and what were the ethical issues, it meant that the public also access these opinions immediately, rather than solely the ‘slippery slope’ that science was leading us onto. Similarly, when scientists briefed journalists about nanotechnology at the SMC, they were primed and ready to cope with Prince Charles’ ‘Grey Goo’ comments in the headlines. The SMC would not be able to carry out any of this work without hundreds of scientists, working for academia, government or industry, who have given their time and expertise when science is in the headlines. As science continues to advance at a rapid pace, bringing exciting and, often, controversial new challenges, many scientists are realising that they can no longer afford to remain in their ivory towers, ignoring an ever-increasing media appetite. Yet working with the news media need not be a painful experience. In fact, in can actually be (dare I whisper the words) rather rewarding. We want to help scientists see that the media can be an opportunity rather than a threat. Science and the media may not fit comfortably together, but public support for science will only come when these two become happy bedfellows. By Becky Morelle, Senior Press Officer at the Science Media Centre. If you are interested in finding out more about the Science Media Centre, or about becoming an expert for us, then please visit our website: www.sciencemediacentre.org or email Rebecca Morelle (bmorelle@ri.ac.uk). 19
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Page 4 and 5: INTERVIEW Professor Anders Bjorklun
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Page 8 and 9: BNA NEWS BNA NEWS Geoffrey Raisman
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Page 14 and 15: SCIENTIFIC REVIEW THE CHICK BRAIN -
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