About eight years ago I was reading a newspaper over breakfast and found a tiny piece of “fun fact” (I cannot really call that an “article”) on the bottom right corner of a page that said: “Broccoli cures cancer!”. I remember very well what it said: “broccoli has some thylakoids that have curative properties”. Yes, you read that right, it has SOME THYLAKOIDS.
Why my drama? – Intolerant me.
First, lets back up a little.
In 2010 I was in my first year of my Bachelor’s degree in Biology (around the time I found this wonderful broccoli fact). In 2009 I graduated from high school. I don’t remember much details of my natural sciences and biology classes, but bottom line is that I do remember learning in school, at least, that ALL plant cells have thylakoids. Of course, it wasn’t until 2010 and afterward where I got deeper into these organelles. But at 18 years of age, I thought everyone else also knew that all plant cells have thylakoids! I thought it was like knowing that the earth is round.
Naturally, I laughed. Then I got angry. Yes, angry, particularly at the “journalist” or whoever dared to write that without double checking anything. Over the years I kept finding “news” like this in all the media (still today), often getting frustrated by people’s comments and naiveness. For some time there I thought I would just stop reading that news and comments altogether, but it kept coming back to me: how do people just “believe” anything? How do they not research further? Don’t they read at all?
The thing is, they were reading. Reading what was available without further questioning. It took me some years to realize that the problem (or one of them) lies in us, scientists, and how BADLY (if even at all) we are communicating science to the world!
Coming down to Earth.
It has taken us years of study to understand very specific topics that we each are interested in, how can we expect a journalist to absorb all details of one research in a short period of time and transfer the information properly?
Even we, scientists, don’t always have easy access to all scientific publications. How will everyone else access them if we don’t get it out there through other creative means? It is also part of our job to communicate what we do!
Science is not finished until it’s communicated
Mark Walport
Even if people had access to scientific publications, sometimes the language can be too technical. This happens even within scientists! I, for example, could never understand an astrophysics paper on my own on the first read! (Maybe ever!) Every now and then we all need Sesame Street versions of topics way out of our area of expertise.
Eventually, I tired myself up with my constant whining.
I always wanted to write about this; I never had the guts. Through this 8-year frustration of wanting to do something about it, I constantly found myself with the “I’m not good enough for this” speech. It has taken me years to finally open up this long-desired-webpage, and I have many IG SciCommers and bloggers to thank as they’ve inspired me throughout this last year.
I’ve spent years thinking about creating a platform to share my photography. Since that first time I thought about it, the idea has evolved a lot. Besides photography and “doing science”, there’s one other thing I really enjoy: talking about it! Now that initial idea has morphed into a Science Communication (SciComm) blog, using my photography for communication, education, and conservation purposes.
I hope you enjoy this page as much as I know I will enjoy doing it!
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I agree with you. As scientists we need to share what we are doing. As there are many fields of study, one must share what one knows. I look forward to learn more with your blog 😉