From the Bench to the Blogosphere: Why every lab should be writing a science blog

From “Flock of DoDos,” 2006

Who does the public get their science from?

What’s the truth behind the sound bytes?

• Cotton Institute – The US government pays Brazil $147 million a year because of the US farm bill. The world trade organization says that the US domestic subsidy of cotton is illegal and Brazil is entitled to sue, so instead of getting nasty trade sanctions, we pay off the Brazilians…


• Poetry in Zoos – $1 million was spent to update zoo exhibits as a part of the “Language of Conservation” program to help raise environmental awareness using poetry.

• Shrimp on treadmills - $1,000 was spent on a shrimp treadmill as a part of a $500,000 study to explore the health of the shrimp industry. The treadmill was an insignificant part of the greater industry study.

• Pickle Technology – Another ongoing industry grant to insure safety, quality control, and determine environmental impact ($700,000)


Battle the soundbytes with blogging

Mouse herpes?! Why are we spending millions of dollars curing mouse herpes when peopleare struggling to make ends meet!?




• Antineoplastons– Urine proteins– Researcher says they can cure

cancer– Numerous government

studies have shown they can’t– Continues to promote the

therapy and administer it through his clinic

• Former blogger wrote a critical post on the technology




• Instead of screaming at the TV or silently complaining about the stupidity, you can have an instant impact on the conversation and direct people to accurate information!


Criticisms

• Blog – Short for web log• Many think bloggers only

write bad poetry or express teenage angst

• Blogs cover a wide spectrum of topics from an equally wide variety of viewpoints

• Science blogs are written by scientists, grad students, undergrads, and journalists

Isn’t blogging for kids?

• Blogging has a bad rap• Some people use it to attack

others or be extremely crass about a wide variety of topics

• Having an opinion is not illegal, but be smart about how you present your arguments

• Blogging will only destroy your career if you make bad choices

Blogging will destroy your career!

• Blogging isn’t considered as a part of a tenure package– It may be icing on the cake, but not

nearly as important as publications or grants

• Grants don’t require it, if I can’t make money then what’s the point!– The NSF considers blogging an

acceptable form of greater outreach– The NIH is looking to emphasize

greater impact too

There’s no incentive

• Scientists are busy people– But you somehow have time

to write grants– And manage a lab– And watch YouTube during

lunch– Blogging only requires a small

amount of effort every week• You don’t have to do it

alone!– Write with a colleague– Start a lab blog

I don’t have enough time!

Benefits

• Scientists and professors aren’t bad at engagement, they just don’t do enough of it

• Science is always changing and evolving, experience with science in high school is not enough to keep the public educated

• Presenting bits of easily digestible science goes a long way in battling soundbytes and bad science

Increase science literacy

• Scientists are too jargony• We need to learn how to

explain what we do in terms that are easy to understand yet still get the point across

• Repetition through blogging can make a huge difference in your ability to explain science to non-experts

Learn how to explain science to novices

• One of the best blogging topics is to write about stuff that interests you!

• We all read papers• Start by summarizing a cool,

new, or important paper every week

• Pick the two most interesting figures and explain them

• Forces students to read and understand papers too

Forces you to read papers

• Writing for novices improves all writing skills

• This is especially important for students

• Writing a blog keeps you up to date and your writing skills sharp

Forces you to write

• So start a lab blog!• Blogging doesn’t have to be

a singular activity• Labs consisting of 4 people

have enough man power to easily keep a blog fresh with new content every week– Summarize your journal club

article– Pick a paper of the week at lab

meeting and write a post on it

But I still don’t have time!!

Best practices and etiquette

• Some bloggers, even science bloggers, have made a career out of being trolls– A troll fishes for responses by

misrepresenting or taking quotes, data, etc out of context with the goal of making people look foolish

– Comment or make blog posts with the sole intention of insulting or angering a person or a group

• Don’t be a troll, it gives blogging a bad name

Don’t be a jerk

• Goes hand in hand with not trolling

• You can be critical of people or research, but don’t be negative for the sake of being negative

• The internet has longevity, your posts will always be available in some searchable form

• Rule of thumb: If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t write about it

Be smart about what you write

• Everyone gets negative comments• Important to distinguish between

actual gripes and trolls– Address real comments

professionally• Don’t delete criticisims, address them

– Crass and obnoxious posts should be deleted• They are a distraction• They make your blog look bad• Troll comments will never be missed• If the post is bad enough, ban the user

from making comments (I’ve only done this once…)

Deal with negative feedback immediately

• The best way to maintain a readership is to engage your readers

• Makes people feel welcome and creates an inviting environment

• Blogging is about dialogue

Respond to comments

• Making regular updates lets people know that they should stop by often

• How often is regular?– Once a week or twice a

month is pretty standard– Some bloggers post short

clips or links multiple times a day

Post regularly

• Blogging should be about spreading information

• Always link to your sources and provide links to further reading

• Linking to other blogs or responding to other blog posts is a great way to establish relationships with other writers and get access to their readers

Link to sources and additional information

• Science blogging is usually really technical

• Pictures are worth a thousand words

• Diagrams and figures can help readers better understand complex ideas

Use a lot of pictures

• Decide who you are writing for

• Is this a blog for scientists or the public?– This is important

because it determines your voice and how much you’ll need to explain

– Also determines how technical you can be

Know your audience

• Your favorite research– Write about cool new stories– Debunk bad science

• Mentoring – Career advice– Graduate school tips– Postdoc tips– Grant writing help

• Your own research!– Always summarize new papers– DON’T just write about your research– DON’T make your blog a university

advertisement• Readers love narrative and personal

stories

What should I write about?

• Don’t write about Religion• Stay away from politics that

don’t relate to science• Don’t be overly critical and

always be professional– Unless you want to be a troll– Or unless you’re well

established (Don’t ruin your career)

• You can usually control the type of attention you get based on the topic

Don’t

• Hardest part of starting a blog is getting readers

• Very disheartening to spend time writing, and have no one read it

• How do you fix this?

So, I posted my first story, and only two people read it

Cultivating an audience

First, tell all of your friends about the blog, even your mom

But you need to interact with people here too!

Exploit social media (PIs, ask your grad students for help)

Setup a twitter account

Create a Facebook page

Submit to ResearchBlogging

Comment on other blogs, leave a link to yours behind

Use social bookmarking sites

Where to write

Wordpress

Blogger

Science specific networks

• An instant audience• Already have all of the social media pages and

contacts• Someone else maintains the site• Have access to other writers’ readers• Free access to high quality image galleries• Some networks pay per pageview

• However, most are invite only

Benefits of network blogging

• Blogging is a very effective way to combat soundbytes

• Blogging is an effective way to communicate with the public

• The process can be enriching for both the scientists writing the stories and their readers

• Starting a blog is pretty easy

Conclusions

• Plan to start a science writing club at UF– Meet twice a month– Evening – Place, day and time to be determined

• Will review and critique each other’s writing• Can help you set up a blog, facebook page,

twitter account• Open access to the LabSpaces network– Free ShutterStock image gallery account– 5,000 visitors a day, 300,000 pages viewed a month– Minimum posting requirement is one post a week

Science writing club

Questions

Email me: [email protected]

Date post:	27-May-2015
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