because science is fundamental in the 21st century
In this episode we talk about our experience with peer review and the importance of kindness and the advantages and disadvantages of the authors knowing the identity of peer reviewers. And in the second part we talk about how twitter can be a great place for science and scientists!
Gaius Julian Augustus is a freelance science artist who focuses on infographics, illustrations, and animation. He is also finishing a Ph.D. in cancer biology. He hopes to combine what he has learned from art and science in fun content that excites people about the world.
This week, Gaius will address issues that can make people feel like they do not belong in academia, like being trans* and having mental health problems. He will also discuss how scientists can use art to communicate more effectively with each other and the general public.
Dr. Isabel Torres is a science editor and freelance science writer with a passion for science communication. She discovered her love for writing when she started a science blog for fun during a maternity leave.
Isabel believes that critical thinking is not only at the heart of the scientific method, but is also an excellent tool in our everyday lives. It can help us navigate the sea of (mis)information online and also help making informed decisions on important areas of our lives, such as health and parenting. This is why she decided to create Pretty Smart Science, where people can learn about science and scientists in a fun and accessible way. Caring deeply about women’s rights, Isabel also uses her platform to advocate for gender equality and the promotion of women in science.
Who gets positions and funding in academia should depend on the merit of the researcher, project, or institute. But how do we assess these merits fairly, meaningfully and in a way that makes it comparable?
I talked about metrics with Steffen Lemke, PhD student at the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (ZBW), in Kiel, Germany. He is part of the *metrics project, which investigates new research metrics and their applicability. The project is funded by the German Researcher Association, DFG.
Dr. Olivia Guest is a PhD in Cognitive Science and, originally from Cyprus, works as research scientist at University College London. Her work involves building computer models and applying artificial intelligence (deep learning) for various purposes, including research on gerrymandering/redistricting, or analysis of brain imaging data.
Apart from her research, Olivia is interested in how science is perceived by society and how it is portrayed in the media, but also how social issues can impinge on science. Racism and sexism exist in academia just as they do anywhere else, and they can affect scientific research, the interpretation and (public) reporting of scientific results, and the scientists personally.
Olivia will tell us about her own published research, and will further talk about social issues within and surrounding science.
This episode of Bart and Dennis Talk is actually our first anniversary episode! While Science for Progress was founded in July 2017, the podcast went online on February 20th 2018!
At the beginning of the episode I announce that I will be on the Twitter “rotating curation account” @RecovingAcad, which belongs to the Recovering Academic Podcast. We had a crossover episode with them, last November. I will be tweeting about leaving academia and transitioning into industry from February 25th to March 2nd.
On March 3rd I will do a live video AMA on the account @theaddictivebrain on Instagram. Addictive Brain is a science communication project that was initiated by Chinmaya Sadangi, who was curator on our twitter rotating curation account @sfprocur. My AMA on Instagram starts at 3 p.m. UTC and will take about an hour.
Simona Falanga is an archaeologist in the UK who previously explored many career directions, including the education and communication sectors. She co-hosts the podcast “ArchaeoAnimals” about zooarchaeology together with
Alex Fitzpatrick, who was on @sfprocur, previously. Zooarchaeology is the study of animal remains in archaeology – which you hardly ever hear about.
During her curation, Simona will talk about archaeology and the different specialism within the field.
Dr. Chinmaya Sadangi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto. He further is an ambassador for the open access journal “elife”, community leader at the Society for Neuroscience, and an early career research adviser at the open access journal “BioTechniques”.
As a science communicator, Chinmaya does not only want to inform non-scientists about science, but to create awareness for how scientists use public funding. Since 2018, Chinmaya runs “The Addictive Brain“. On the website where you will find jargon-free explanations of complex science phenomena, techniques, and principles, presented by scientists inside and outside academia. These contributions to “The Addictive Brain” can take many shapes. From articles and short post, to art, and videos – or by a live question and answer session. Chinmaya also hopes that his project will encourage young students, women and underrepresented minorities to study STEM subjects.
During his curation, Chinmaya wants to talk about his project Addictive Brain, science communication, his research in neuroscience, and new research techniques.
Dr. Jenny Molloy is director of the Open Bioeconomy Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research group addresses a lack of access to research tools in low-resource countries. She is passionate about enabling more people to shape the future of biotechnology. To realize her vision, she focuses on building open source biotechnology tools for molecular biology research (e.g. OpenPlant). Jenny also promotes open source as a feasible model for biotechnology businesses. She facilitates collaboration in science and helped develop tools for transferring know-how and materials between researchers around the globe.
In her curation week, Jenny wants to show us great research innovations in molecular biology by scientists in the global South. She will also talk about the hurdles these researchers encounter due to insufficient access to laboratory materials. This limited availability of basic tools affects not just the pace of their research, but also topics they can address. Jenny thinks that open source materials could help fix this inequality, but making ‘open source’ work for hardware and biology is much more complicated than it is for software.
Jenny will also discuss how biotechnology entrepreneurship is currently very focused on patents, rather than open exchange. She will show how a more open and collaborative approach to intellectual property may be beneficial for particular types of businesses. Jenny also has ideas about how we can figure out which business models work best with open exchange of knowledge.
The stereotype of academics is that they live a well protected life in the ivory tower. But this is not the case for most of them. Maria Pinto from Portugal is a PhD student in marine microbiology in Austria. With the final stages of her work approaching, Maria is beginning to think about the future.
We talk about the many uncertainties in academia, particularly for early career researchers. In general the salaries are not good, but in poorer countries, where the salaries are particularly low and may not even include social security, there is also an expectation of students to pay field work trips themselves. In general, traveling in order to present your work at conferences is important to researchers and their careers, but for many, this is not affordable.