I,SCIENCE editors-in-chief THE SCIENCE Nicola guttridge MAGAZINE OF Douglas heaven IMPERIAL COLLEGE I,SCIENCE Deputy editor Peter larkin design & Layout peter larkin pproaching mid-Sep- academic year, but wish good luck to tember is bittersweet next year’s editorial team in making Editorial assistants for this year’s edito- their mark on the magazine, as we siobhan chan rial team; we have now feel that we have done. It would not vanna barber A completed our MSc have been possible without the help courses with the Science Commu- from all of our writers, contributors, News Editor nication Group, and will be leaving assistants, editors and proofreaders Conor McKeever Imperial College for pastures new. It – so a big thank you to all who have is fitting, then, that we go out with a lent us their time. We hope you’ve Sub-editors bang – and bring you this issue en- enjoyed this year’s issues of I, Science Helen Wilkes tirely dedicated to science commu- magazine, and read on to enjoy this Lorna Stewart nication, its activities, aims, achieve- one! Julia Robinson ments, and all other facets of the Jade Hoffman field. We’re also sad that this is our Samuel Cavenagh last instalment for the 2011-2012 Nicola, Douglas & Peter

Proofreaders Conor McKeever Karin Valencia Julia Robinson Maciej Matuszewski This issue ofI, Science is funded by neering medical research. After his Helen Wilkes the Wellcome Trust, in conjunction death, Wellcome’s will provided for Mimi Li with the 21st birthday of Imperial the creation of the Wellcome Trust. Josh Howgego College’s MSc in Science Commu- Alice Goodyear nication. Today the Trust focuses its fund- Rayner Simpson ing on three key areas of activity: The Wellcome Trust is an inde- supporting outstanding research- Social Media pendent global charity dedicated to ers, accelerating the application of Lucy Van Dorp achieving improvements in human research, and exploring medicine siobhan chan and animal health. The Trust sup- in historical and cultural contexts. vanna barber ports biomedical research, and work Its research challenges pressing and in the medical humanities. Their fundamental problems that confront breadth of support includes pub- human and animal health. These lic engagement, education and the research areas include maximising application of research to improve the health benefits of genetics and health. genomics, understanding factors that Cover Design & Illustrations affect ageing and chronic disease, by peter larkin The trust was founded by Sir understanding the brain, combating Henry Wellcome (1853-1936). A infectious disease, and connecting I Science, Felix Office, Beit Quadrangle, businessman, collector and philan- environment, nutrition and health. PrinCe Consort Road, London, SW7 2BB thropist, he was born in the Ameri- Written by Vanna Barber can Wild West but ended his days Tel: 020 7594 8072 Email: [email protected] as a knight of the British Realm. Wellcome co-founded a multina- Printed by: tional pharmaceutical company, and Bishops Printers, Walton Road, Portsmouth, he invested his profits in collecting Hampshire, PO6 1TR historical objects and funding pio-

1 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk COVER FEATURE IMPERIAL NEWS Highlights from Science communication 3 the College Introduction on PAGE 9

World NEWS

News from contents beyond Imperial 11 Science communication at imperial 5 Stephen Webster reflects on the past 21 years of Imperial College’s MSc in Science Communication. imperial Festival 13 engaging the public Reviewing Imperial’s “No ‘one size fits all’ in terms of how a university can best support its community”. 7 first festival 15 Science behind the photo A look at one of Hubble’s most impressive images and its role in science communication. Science policy

Have priorities 17 what’s all this science journalism for? changed or not? Felicity Mellor explores whether science journalism aims 25 to inform, educate, or evoke an emotional response.

18 science, radio & culture Rachel Souhami Gareth Mitchell looks at the relationships between science, society, geek culture and radio over the last twenty years. On interacting and

engaging with objects 19 an interview with... 27 Wendy Barnaby discusses the changing world of journal- ism, and how she prepares students for it. Alice bell 28 For a visual anthropology of science On not being Bob Sternberg reflects on how the world of science is por- trayed through the media of film. 29 afraid to disagree www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 2 Imperial News Section Editor: Conor McKeever NEWS FROM IMPERIAL COLLEGE

Imperial reaps research rewards at New 35-storey Imperial campus gets go-ahead Royal Society

mperial College has been as an ongoing part of Imperial’s outreach t their Anniversary Day given the green light by programme. Imperial College, already a meeting in November, the Hammersmith and Fulham major employer in the borough due to its Royal Society, Britain’s most I council to build a new multi- biomedical research centre at Hammer- prestigious scientific institu- use campus on a former BBC smith Hospital, is now expected to create A tion, will award five Imperial site in White City. an additional 3,200 permanent jobs on site College scientists with some of its most The planned development of the 20,000 with this campus. highly regarded medals, awards, and prizes. square metre campus – dubbed Imperial But the proposal is receiving opposition This year the Council of the Society West – forms phase two of the College’s from some of the local residents, who fear chose Emeritus Professors Tom Kibble regeneration, which aims to provide more that the 35-storey campus will dominate FRS (Physics) and Andrew Holmes FRS teaching, research and accommodation the area’s skyline and alter their communi- (Chemistry) to receive one of three Royal facilities to meet growing demand. In ad- ty. The design, by Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Medals each. Kibble will receive an award dition to 606 self-contained postgraduate and PLP Architecture, comprises seven for his work in the 1960s that led to the flats, which form part of the first phase buildings and a 141-metre tower that is set now almost-discovered Higgs boson, while of development, the second phase of the to be the tallest building in the borough. Holmes will receive his for contributions Imperial West project includes plans for Project director John Anderson says Im- to polymer chemistry and organic plastic a hotel, sports and teaching facilities, an perial West “will improve the urban envi- electronics. underground parking complex, and retail ronment, visual appearance and access to Professor Jenny Nelson (Physics) won spaces. a site which had been closed to the public the Royal Society Armourers and Brasiers’ With a broader aim of redeveloping the for many decades.” However, whilst Ham- Company Prize for her work in materials White City area, Imperial College has com- mersmith and Fulham council have given research for organic plastic electronics and mitted to putting £2.4 million towards the their approval for the project, some resi- low-cost solar cells. Professor Roy Taylor Crossrail project, and will invest a total of dents believe the plans to be unlawful and (Physics) received the Rumford Medal for £8 million in improving the accessibility of have threatened the authorities with court his groundbreaking research into lasers the site, forging better transport links and action over their decision. and fibre optics. Finally, Professor Molly providing open spaces for the community. Construction of phase two is set to begin Stevens was awarded a prize following Current plans for the Imperial West de- in early 2013 and, once complete, Imperial her 2012 Clifford Patterson Lecture titled velopment include a new nursery and edu- West will serve as a second major campus ‘Regenerating organs and other small chal- cational links with local secondary schools for Imperial College. JADE HOFFMAN lenges’. Julie Gould

3 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk Imperial News

Anti-doping lab repurposed for research Imperial scientist into disease treatment

ollowing an Olympic Games, A ‘phenome’ describes the entire mixture joins Mars many custom-built facilities of molecules in the body, found in our bod- are left to gather dust. How- ily fluids and tissues. By analysing a patient’s exploration ever, no such fate awaits the metabolic products, the centre aims to pro- F London 2012 anti-doping file a person’s biology according to not just headquarters in Harlow, Essex, which is al- their DNA, but the interactions between mission ready guaranteed a bright future. their genes and the environment. The site will be developed into the MRC- “Metabolic profiling will give us a new n Imperial geologist is one NIHR Phenome Centre, and is set to open dimension of understanding about the fac- of only two British research- in January 2013. Led by Imperial professor tors that contribute to disease,” says Profes- ers collaborating on NASA’s and future director Jeremy Nicholson, the sor Jeremy Nicholson. It may also provide Mars Science Laboratory biomedical centre will house an Imperial- us with “crucial information for predicting A project, which successfully led academic group that aims to explore the how individual patients are likely to re- landed the rover Curiosity on the red plan- characteristics of disease in order to devel- spond to treatment”. et’s surface in early August. Professor San- op more targeted and effective treatment. Researchers will look for ‘biomarkers’ in jeev Gupta joins John Bridges from the Uni- At present, the facility – provided by cells, molecules and genes, which may help versity of Leicester’s Space Research Centre GlaxoSmithKline and operated by King’s to explain why certain individuals are more as part of a 200-strong international team College London – analyses up to 400 urine susceptible to disease than others. Ulti- that will analyse the data sent back by the and blood samples a day, searching for over mately this knowledge will enable scientists mission. 240 prohibited substances. A £10 million to create safer and more targeted treat- The size of a small car, Curiosity is the investment from the Medical Research ments which, according to Chief Medical largest rover that has ever been sent to Council (MRC) and the National Institute Officer Dame Sally Davies, may offer “the Mars. It carries some 75 kilograms of sci- for Health Research (NIHR) will enable the potential to revolutionise the way we treat entific instruments, which will allow it lab to be developed and repurposed after a wide range of diseases”. to study the geology and chemistry of the the Games have ended. Alex Gwyther planet in greater detail than ever before. Its landing site, the Gale Crater, is geologi- cally significant, with Gupta believing that it might have once held a lake. This might have made it an ideal location for life to de- velop, and the mission’s main goal is to look for evidence that conditions hospitable to living organisms might once have existed there. Gupta has previously studied Mars – his groundbreaking analysis of satellite imagery of its surface suggested that liq- uid water might have existed there as re- cently as three billion years ago, far later than had previously been believed. He will spend some of the mission’s 98-week du- ration at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California where he and his colleagues will turn their talents to producing a geologi- cal map of the area surrounding the land- Image: LOCOG ing site. Maciej Matuszewski www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 4 WORLD News Section Editor: Conor McKeever Molly Docherty Prostate cancer screening dilemma world news ontroversy surrounds a blood PICK OF THE BEST test for prostate cancer, which some claim leads to unnecessary and harmful C treatment for an otherwise non-aggressive disease. Now research pub- lished in CANCER shows that the test in fact resulted in a 67% drop in presentations of metastatic (spreading) prostate cancer. Critics have called for research into the ef- fects on health outcomes, not simply early- detection rates. Chinese lunar rover planned for 2013 Laurence Pope

Image: Andy Welsh / CC-BY-SA-2.0 hina will attempt to land an exploratory craft, Chang’e-3, on the surface of the Moon in the latter half of 2013. If C successful, Chang’e-3 will be New study shows carbon sink China’s first lunar rover as well as the first lunar probe to undergo a soft landing in over thirty-five years. Chang’e-3, named after the Chinese God- absorption has doubled dess of the Moon, is part of the second phase of the three-phase Chinese Lunar Explora- recent study has shown that has increased by around 50%. The team tion Program. This follows the successes the amount of carbon dioxide constructed a mass balance model to map of the unmanned orbital mission probes being absorbed by the planet the movement of carbon in the carbon cy- Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2, launched in 2007 has doubled in the last 50 cle. The model combined atmospheric CO2 and 2010 respectively. Chang’e-3 will collect A years. The study contradicts concentrations with historical data on car- and transmit data for 3 months from a lim- theories predicting that carbon absorption bon emissions from both fossil fuel usage ited lunar area and, if successful, will be fol- by natural sinks is in steady decline. and land development. Analysis showed that lowed up by a lunar sample return mission Each year, humanity adds roughly six bil- the net global carbon uptake by carbon sinks in 2017. lion tonnes of carbon to the Earth’s natural rose by around 0.05 billion tonnes of carbon The Chang’e missions are not the only carbon cycle. Currently, around half of this per year. ones undertaken by China’s National Space excess carbon is absorbed by natural systems This recent work is likely to have a huge im- Administration. The launch of the un- that store CO2 from the atmosphere. These pact upon the way scientists forecast future manned Shenzhou-1 spacecraft in 1999 “sinks” comprise mainly of plants, trees and atmospheric carbon levels and the extent sparked off China’s space program, and since the Earth’s oceans. Many previous studies to which carbon emissions are expected to then China has sent eight men and women have suggested that during the 21st centu- contribute to global warming. These results into space and undertaken space walks. This ry, as deforestation and ocean acidification may well represent a short-term reprieve in makes China only the third country after the continue to occur, the ability of the planet’s the battle to limit the potentially disastrous US and the former Soviet Union to indepen- carbon sinks to absorb excess carbon will effects of global warming. However, since it dently launch humans into space. decrease. is widely accepted that this level of carbon The ultimate goal of the Chang’e missions Scientists at the University of Colorado uptake will not continue indefinitely, global is to land a man on the Moon by approxi- found that between 1960 and 2010, the warming is not likely to disappear from the mately 2025-2030. The last manned Moon volume of carbon being absorbed from the agenda anytime soon. landing was carried out by the astronauts of Earth’s atmosphere by natural carbon sinks Jenny Mitchell Apollo 17 in 1972.

5 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk WORLD News Wild fish found with skin cancer kin cancer is known to affect stage cancers not affecting general health. a range of animals, and now However, fitness is impaired as the disease the disease has even been progresses which might have prevented found in fish. Previous work fish from feeding and being line-caught for S has shown that hammerhead study. As a result the team predicted the sharks ‘tan’ black in the sun, and swordtail true prevalence of the disease to be even fish can develop melanomas in the laborato- greater than 15%. ry when exposed to ultraviolet light. New re- The area’s ozone hole could be respon- search published in PLoS ONE is the first to sible, and the discovery may have impli- identify wild fish suffering from skin cancer. cations for the Great Barrier Reef and the Scientists from Newcastle University and fisheries that exploit it. To understand the the Australian Institute of Marine Science extent of these implications, scientists must sampled a coral trout population in Aus- now sample wider fish populations and tralia’s Great Barrier Reef. From 136 fish analyse coral trout DNA for mutations that analysed, 20 (15%) displayed skin lesions could render it especially susceptible to the characteristic of melanoma. All were early- sun’s rays. Molly Docherty

Touchdown Confirmed! Conor McKeever Curiosity rover lands on Mars

ight months and 567 million essary for life as we know it. km since it launched from To achieve this, Curiosity will use a com- Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Cu- bination of a high-resolution camera, to de- E riosity rover landed success- tect objects of interest at a distance, and a fully in Gale Crater, marking range of scientific equipment, to analyse the the beginning of its 98-week mission to items found in more detail. It can determine discover if Mars could have ever hosted life. the elemental composition of nearby rocks The landing, billed as ‘seven minutes of by vaporising a small amount with a laser, The Great Barrier Reef as seen from space terror’, was NASA’s most ambitious to date. then analysing the light given off using a Image: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Upon entering the atmosphere, an 18-me- spectroscope. If the feature requires further Land Rapid Response Team tre-wide parachute slowed the rover from analysis, instruments for X-ray diffraction, 21,200 kilometres per hour to just 1,700, mass spectrometry and gas chromatogra- before a ‘skycrane’ – a separate platform phy can determine the structure of samples held up by rockets – ejected from the ex- collected with the rover’s mechanical arm. Microsoft announces ternal shell and lowered the rover to the surface on nylon tethers. The whole descent Hotmail replacement was automated, as the 14-minute radio de- “The landing, billed lay between Earth and Mars made any last- as ‘seven minutes of uly 31st saw Microsoft an- minute adjustments impossible. nouncing the Outlook.com After undergoing tests to ensure every- terror’, was NASA’s email service – the future thing is in good working order, Curiosity replacement for Hotmail. A will leave the landing site and its mission most ambitious to date.” J notable part is its Metro inter- will begin in earnest. Its eventual destina- face, currently only a preview and also seen tion is Aeolis Mons, a mountain 6.5 km Whether Curiosity discovers the building on Windows 8. Outlook.com also contains away, composed of layers of sediment laid blocks of life or not, the next two years are new calendar and contacts features, plus an down when Mars had liquid water on its sure to be tremendously valuable: the rover updated SkyDrive. Microsoft highlighted the surface. These layers form a record of bil- is the most advanced ever sent to Mars, and improved privacy aspects of the service but lions of years of geological history, allowing by measuring radiation levels and atmos- as yet did not specify when it would leave the the rover to look for evidence of water and pheric conditions, it could pave the way for preview phase. organic compounds – two conditions nec- manned missions in the future. Philip Kent www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 6 Imperial Festival

The inaugural Imperial College festival was held on 11th and 12th May 2012, featuring ‘zany’ inventors, a 19th century quack and a silent disco. Helen Wilkes chats to Harriet Martin from Imperial’s Com- munications and Development department on why the festival was created, what its aims were and what it means for Imperial College’s science outreach.

What was the motivation behind the When we began planning it, we identi- across the College. From a researcher who Imperial Festival? fied four key aims for the Festival: 1) Show- ran a stand in the Research Zone: “I have case the work of Imperial and celebrate its met a few researchers from different de- achievements. 2) Further public engage- partments and shared some ideas, collabo- The idea was born out of a desire to en- ment across all departments and levels. rations can be established. The Festival has gage people, institutions and organisations 3) Empower key stakeholders, including been a very fruitful occasion for network- outside of College with the myriad accom- Council, Court, alumni, local communities ing.” plishments and activities of staff and stu- and both adult and family public audiences dents at Imperial. It grew out of a review 4). Generate a sense of pride from staff, How many people attended – was this into the membership and purpose of the students and the broader College commu- more or less than you had hoped? What College Court – a selected group of Impe- nity. rial stakeholders – and evolved into a much sort of people came to the Festival? bigger event to celebrate and showcase our We feel these were achieved across the work, with elements dedicated to the Court board, with some other exciting outcomes This is never an exact science as we and the Alumni Reunion, as well as general as well. weren’t using counters, and there were public audiences. many drop-in visitors whose dwell time In the marquee, several researchers were was hard to calculate. However, after a The Festival soon took on a life of its able to make connections with other de- look at remaining programme numbers, own – creating an opportunity to estab- partments and foster new collaborations and head counts in talks, the marquee and lish a positive relationship with the outside world, develop and enable good practice in public engagement and attract broad and diverse adult and family public audiences. This was our chance to show the world what we could do, and increase our vis- ibility and engagement through innovative and engaging activities from our students and researchers.

Do you think the festival was a success? What were the outcomes you wanted to achieve?

Yes – wherever you looked during the event, people of all generations were en- joying themselves. Reactions on the day and an external evaluation both provided further glowing feedback, which we were very pleased with.

7 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk throughout the day we’ve estimated that approximately 7,000 visitors came to the Festival over the two days. F v It was also very difficult to know what Imperial esti al to expect as this was the first ever public event of this scale at the College, and we have very little information regarding the type of visitors that might be attracted to the event. Given that this was, in many ways, a stab in the dark, we were very pleased with this number, and especially by the wide range of students, staff, alumni and members of the public that made up the audience.

We were hoping to attract an adult au- dience on the Friday, modelling the event after the highly successful Science Museum Lates events and other adult programmes from cultural institutions. On Saturday, the programme was geared more towards alumni and families, and we were thrilled that each group attended and found dif- unique. With all the local museums and “For us the highlights were the interac- ferent aspects of the Festival to suit their attractions around us in SW7, it’s easy for tive, hands-on things because they show tastes. the public to forget that there is a pow- you how science works and you can take erhouse of fascinating research and tal- part in it.” (Mother visiting in family groups What was the purpose of the festival ent nestled behind our doors. This is our with two primary school age children) chance to invite people in to see for them- in terms of Imperial’s outreach selves what goes on, and for our staff and What happens now – will there be activities? students to show their family, friends and the wider public what makes them tick. another Imperial festival? What have you learnt from this festival? The outreach objectives of the Festival really focused on making Imperial an ac- What were the standout moments of the cessible and interesting destination for lo- festival? Absolutely! The Festival will continue in cal residents, businesses, visitors, current 2013 (Friday 10th and Saturday 11th May) and returning staff and students, so pretty and our aim is to make it even bigger and much everyone! We wanted to strengthen It’s so hard to pick one or two ‘bests’ as better. the relationships that Imperial has with all to me what made the Festival a success stakeholders and create a wider awareness was the range of activities and perform- In addition, we have launched a new towards the research we do, as well as some ers, dance and discussion, talks, demos and stream of public events, the Imperial of our extra-curricular activities such as music, all sitting side by side. I’ve pulled out Fringe, which will be evening events to dancing and music. a few quotes: provide unexpected insights into the re- search we do here at Imperial. These will Over 200 researchers took part in the “It’s happy and young and cheerful and take place on the last Thursday of each Research Zone in the marquee over the lively…it’s very chilled and I like that there month during term-time and kick off with weekend, many of them talking to the pub- is no gate and you can just walk in, partici- a Halloween spectacular from 6-9pm on lic for the first time. The Festival provided pate and wander around.” (Member of the Thursday 25th October in the College a great opportunity for our researchers and Festival public) Main Entrance. There will be zombie out- students to get some hands-on experience breaks, a sleeping patient, brains, robots in engaging with the public – something “The highlights were that this festival and more… we hope they will take with them to future was designed to attract the general pub- events both here and elsewhere. lic. I think it’s a great idea that we have an For more information about the Festival event that encourages the public to meet and Fringe check out the website www.impe- Finally, the Festival gave us another way the researchers who are carrying out work rial.ac.uk/festival or email festival@impe- of putting Imperial on the map and real- which will be of great benefit to them and rial.ac.uk ly celebrating what makes the College so industry.” (Member of Imperial staff)

www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 8 Science communication is not just a segregated department in a university. Neither is public engagement a completely separate unit. All these activities need to work together to best benefit a university community. Although Imperial College has the Science Communication Group, we feel that this has a valuable place in the wider university and local community – something that is the overarching theme of this ‘Science Communication’ issue. With this in mind, we asked Imperial’s Rector, Sir Keith O’Nions, to say a few words about what science communication means to him, and what it means for Imperial College as a whole. – Nicola & Douglas Editors of I, Science A Letter from the Rector

cience communication in the impossible in 140 characters. modern age comes in many So it is a particular pleasure to write forms, and we have travelled in support of this special ‘science a long way from the days communication’ issue, which is grate- S when the only reliable source fully funded by the Wellcome Trust, of science information was Tomorrow’s and which is published to coincide World on the BBC. Today, we as science with the 21st birthday of the Imperi- communicators have a plethora of chan- al College Science Communication nels with which to engage audiences and Group in September 2012. highlight our work. From Twitter, Face- The many great discoveries book and YouTube to podcasts, blogs, live which are happening every day events, TV and radio, never have we had within the labs, wards and so many ways to talk about what we do. workshops of Imperial Yet it is the printed form which allows for College will be of little a longer dissection and discussion of a sub- benefit if they are ject, allowing the reader to get beneath the not communi- surface of a topic in a way that would be cated to

the wider world. How else will those This is the reason discoveries advance the frontiers why publications such as I, Science are of science and technology across important. I commend all those who the globe, helping to tackle the many have contributed to the magazine, and great challenges which we, as a society, to the Science Communication Group face? As academics and researchers, we for their excellent work in amplifying have a duty to communicate the ben- the College’s mission to communicate efits of our knowledge and findings to a the impact of our education, research wider audience. We have a pivotal role and translation activities. to play in policy formation, support- ing decision-makers in areas such as Keith O’Nions President & Rector climate change, energy security and global health, and who will make Thanks also to Bethan Parry choices which will affect us all. for her assistance with this piece.

9 www.isciencemag.co.uk

COM E MUN C I EN CA CI T S IO N C ES OF AGE OM AT IMP ERIA L COLL Stephen Webster, senior lecturer and head of Imperial College’s Science Communication Group, EGE reflects on the past 21 years of Imperial College’s MSc in Science Communication

n October 2012 the latest tested skills that will impress an employer. our case too we have been consistently sup- cohort of students arrives to As with science itself, there is more to the ported by friends within Imperial College, study on Imperial’s MSc in good science communication student than and outside. I can single out the Wellcome Science Communication. technical skill. You need to be able to think Trust, who support us with bursaries and I There will be around 50 of critically too. The MSc programme is filled have funded our anniversary conference. them, and because they are the 21st cohort, with study therefore. Once levered open And there are many industry professionals I can’t help thinking that we’ve come of age. by the enquiring mind, science fizzes with – often they are alumni – who come in to We have 600 alumni by now, and you’ll find philosophical and cultural concerns. And give seminars, help with teaching, and keep them pretty much everywhere you look: in in trying to understand relations between life sweet. the media, in science publishing, in muse- science and society, our students encoun- ums and in charities. ter many disciplines. To make progress, they don’t simply increase their reading A 21st anniversary deserves a celebration. (although we do have long reading lists). But beyond giving ourselves a big pat on the They begin to debate. back, this is a good moment to think back over the years. I have two questions to pon- When the students arrive in Oc- Helping science find its der. First, what are the values of the course tober they start talking as though that we might want to protect as the foun- they’ve never talked before. It dation for our next period of office? Second, would be crazy to have a sci- balance between the quiet just as broadly, how has science communi- ence communication course cation been affected by the cultural changes that wasn’t dominated by, and the loud may be science of the last two decades? well, communication. We be- lieve that the successful sci- Let’s be clear about the values of the ence communication student is communication’s most course. We want our students to have tech- someone who combines serious nical skills that will be of immediate utility technical skills with a lively and on leaving Imperial. We group our practical critical interest in the intellectual important role teaching into five categories: TV and film, agenda. radio and audio, writing, exhibition devel- opment, and web design. When our stu- I can sum all this up by suggesting that dents have finished their practical projects the university course that has longevity is (and sometimes before), they have a set of the one where there is a clear philosophy. In

11 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk COM E MUN C I EN CA CI T S IO N COMES OF AGE A T I MPE RIAL COLLEGE

There is a wider reason for our longevity: scientists to be more active in explaining their concerns was that the ‘impact agenda’ the sustained need for our graduates. The their work to the public. What has followed of the funding councils, with its renewed factors at play when science becomes public in the years since is a long series of upheav- call for research to show economic gain, seem more complex than 20 years ago. We als showing that explanation is not enough. hits against pure science. For these scien- can see this by looking at the classic land- Cultural understanding is needed too. The tists, the coffin was a symbol of the death marks of the science communication Chernobyl nuclear explosion of 1986; public of a kind of science, but I think we can take landscape. A turning point resistance to GM technologies; confusion it too as a symbol of the death of scientific was the Royal Society over the lethality to humans of mad cow dis- privacy, of a particular ideal where people report of 1985 ease (BSE); upsets with the MMR vaccine; work for a long time on an idea in security that asked the Fukushima incident: these case studies and in freedom. show the difficulty of planning the ‘social trajectory’ of hoped-for scientific advances. Science communication is implicated The successful passage of the Tissues and here. As an activity it feeds a vast and busy Embryos bill of 2009, and the Human Fer- media culture, and benefits too from the tilisation and Embryo Authority’s 2012 insecurity of modern institutions, which Helping science find its announcement of public consultations grow ever more interested in transparency on mitochondrial transfer, are typical and public engagement. Yet science com- of a new approach. These enquiries, munication is far from being only a form balance between the quiet taking place before a technique simply of publicity; it is also a space for reflection, lands on our lap, elaborate public am- to be occupied by scientists, arts and media and the loud may be science bivalence about technology, and find professionals, academic analysts, and other common ground. Our alumni are members of the public. Helping science find contributing to this work. its balance between the quiet and the loud communication’s most may be science communication’s most im- I’ll end by sounding my own note portant role. of ambivalence. I worry that science important role communication is helping turn science Stephen Webster is head of Imperial Col- ‘inside out’. We should consider care- lege’s Science Communication Group, in fully before we let the public face of sci- which he is a senior lecturer. Imperial Col- ence take priority over its private face. lege’s Science Communication Group are Physicists demonstrated in May 2012 out- holding a celebration for their 21st birthday side Downing Street with a coffin – among on 13th September.

www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 12 COMMU ITS NI RT TY PO ” UP S T UNIVE S A RSIT BE OW Y CAN F H S O TERM ALL’ IN IZE FITS “NO ‘ONE S are springing up. “We recently created a new academic centre for public engage- ment,” says Peter McOwan, head of PE nyone reading this with a sci- activities at QMUL. “We want to bring entific background probably together the various projects already in doesn’t need to be convinced existence, help spread the practice both in- Nicola Guttridge and of science’s worth. But when ternally and externally, and to support and A universities need to spread mentor the next generation.” Douglas Heaven chat to public the word about their research, they must engage a non-scientific public, as well as McOwan and QMUL have a strong sense engagement staff from Imperial partners and funders, to convince them too of social responsibility, and take great pride of its benefits. Some universities tackle this in the university’s beginnings and continued College London, University by setting up specialised offices to handle activities in the local community around College London and Queen public engagement (PE) on behalf of their their Mile End campus in East London. scientists. Imperial College does not yet have “Queen Mary began life as the People’s Pal- Mary, University of London its own unit, but employs staff dedicated to ace, a philanthropic centre bringing edu- these challenges. University College London cation and culture to people living in the to see if they approach their (UCL) and Queen Mary (QMUL) have set impoverished, often ignored, East End,” ex- up PE centres. plains McOwan. “125 years on, although the activities in different ways – area still faces significant social challenges, “When I started I was the only person at it is transformed – and in this Olympic year, and what they hope to achieve. a London university dedicated to support- the focus of the world’s spotlight.” ing this kind of work,” says Steve Cross, head of the public engagement unit at UCL. “But Imperial also aims to engage its local now nearly all of the major London Univer- community in what they do. “Given our lo- sities – Imperial as well – have staff just like cation in the heart of South Kensington’s me.” Cross has worked in public engagement cultural institutions, we are keen to develop for four years. He aims to support activities more collaboration with our neighbours,” that “encourage a culture of two-way con- says Natasha Martineau, Head of Research versations between university staff and stu- Communications at Imperial College. She dents, and people outside the university.” highlights the recent Imperial Festival (see Helen Wilkes’ interview on page 7) as a good This is the essence of PE, so it is unsur- example: “We were pleased to get a contribu- prising that Imperial, UCL and QMUL all tion from every department and institute at have a similar philosophy. What is some- the inaugural Festival in May 2012,” she says. what unexpected is the speed with which “This suggests that our community is keen to more dedicated public engagement units take up these opportunities!”

13 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk COMMU ITS NI RT TY PO ” UP S T UNIVE S A RSIT BE OW Y CAN F H S O TERM ALL’ IN IZE FITS “NO ‘ONE S Martineau finds herself adapting her ap- make a proper comparison,” says Martineau. their effect. “At QMUL we have a healthy proach to PE at Imperial depending on the “But the more we develop our support in balance of [humanities and sciences],” says department and institute. “It is clear that no this area, the more I am aware of how public McOwan. “What we are interested in doing one size fits all in terms of how a university engagement can make tangible differences is looking for ways that these two branches can best support its community in engag- to the paths of research. So in that sense, can usefully work together to create exciting ing with the public,” she says. “The path for I would say that the [science] focus is very new ways to engage the public in an interdis- medics may be very different than that for helpful.” ciplinary format.” physicists.” So, what’s changed in the sector since the However, in some ways, there is a limited officers have been working within it? “I’ve amount that PE units can do. Motivated and public been working in this style of public engage- public-aware scientists ultimately control ment, as opposed to more traditional sci- the amount of coverage their department ence communication, for four years,” says and research can get – Cross mentions, for engagement Cross. “The big changes have come from the example, how his unit spends approximately funders of research.” Both Martineau and twice the amount of time on engagement for McOwan agree with Cross on this point, STEM as for humanities and social sciences. mentioning how PE has gained in impor- Why does he think this is? can make tance and profile over the years. They both note how the impact of their activities is now “We work with Scandinavian Studies a lot, considered in research proposals. “Research German less so, Neuroscience all the time, tangible councils expect more from researchers in Genetics quite rarely, for example,” he says. these areas now,” says McOwan. “Under-representation for us tends to be a product of individual personalities within differences to All the universities hope the field will con- departments and their desire to engage with tinue to evolve and improve. “For Imperial publics, rather than the subjects themselves.” things have so far focused quite strongly on the paths of embedding PE within the life of a researcher,” UCL deals with a wide range of social sci- says Martineau. “I’d like to develop a similar ences, arts, humanities, law and STEM sub- momentum for supporting it in our teaching jects, so it makes sense that some subjects and with our students.” may lend themselves more readily to PE. At research Imperial, a notoriously science-dominated At UCL, Cross feels exactly the same way. institution, Martineau finds that it is this Like UCL, QMUL also has a mix of hu- “Public engagement with research is a well- narrow range of subjects that helps to give manities, social sciences and STEM sub- established field,” he says. “But it’s not yet focus to the university’s PE activities. “I’ve jects across its courses. But their approach clear what this engagement will look like as it only ever worked in science-based institu- is slightly different to UCL’s, in that they mix becomes part of teaching, learning and other tions, so I may not be in the best place to together the various PE topics to strengthen university functions.”

www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 14 SCIENCE Although seemingly beautiful and serene, light, the product of X-ray outflows from this fiery image shows the hundreds of mil- black holes and massive stars. BEHIND lions of stars at the turbulent heart of the Released back in 2009, the panorama is a Milky Way, all cocooned in cosmic gas and composite of images from the Hubble Space dust. The life of such a star is visible in its Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and THE entirety, from the dusty regions of star birth, the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It played a populations of young stars, ageing stars, old part in the International Year of Astronomy stars, and dead stars, to their remnants. All (IYA), a global celebration of astronomy and PHOTO of this chaos is permeated with a hazy blue its contributions to our society and culture. 15 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk The IYA was held in 2009, 400 years after communication. Hubble’s ability to go be- globe. It also has the ability to bring coun- Galileo first blinked up at the skies through yond gathering data for scientists to study tries together – although the recent landing a telescope – a moment often lauded as has proved to be a real bonus for igniting of the Mars Science Laboratory on Mars the birth of modern astronomy. Copies of the public’s interest in astronomy. was a NASA effort, underneath it all was this image were printed and unveiled by Astronomy is a highly collaborative field the uniting achievement that Earth had suc- NASA across more than 150 sites – includ- – partially by necessity. Sharing time on the cessfully sent a probe to another planet. ing planetariums, museums, and libraries world’s largest telescopes requires high lev- Image: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI – across the US, showing how involved the els of co-operation, as does observing the organisation is in public engagement and same phenomena from various parts of the words: Nicola Guttridge www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 16 Wh ll this sc at is a ien ce journalism For?

Felicity t the time the first students Higgs boson has been sighted? Nobody is were arriving to study on Im- going to vote differently or change their be- Mellor perial College’s new MSc in haviour because a boson has been found. Science Communication, the explores A newspapers were carrying a Perhaps one function of much science variety of science stories – new measure- journalism is aesthetic. All those stories whether ments of the wobble of the Earth’s axis, the about particle physics and astronomy evoke science challenges of breeding pandas in captivity, a the sublime. The function is not to inform malfunction with the spacecraft Galileo, the the citizenry – who, after all, is really well journalism identification of a gene associated with Alz- informed about the Higgs even after all the heimer’s disease. 21 years on, and any day news reports? – but rather to provide an aims to inform, will find a similarly eclectic sample of sci- opportunity to express awe and wonder. In ence stories hitting the news. Why? What is that case, not explaining becomes a virtue. educate, or all this science journalism for? The sublime operates through a sense of the magnificent and powerful that is almost evoke an Speaking at the UK Conference of Sci- within our grasp, yet resists our attempts to emotional ence Journalists this summer, Evan Davis, contain, and thus explain, it. presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme response. and former economics editor at the BBC, This leaves science journalists in a curi- suggested that the role of science journal- ous position. Their daily beat concerns the ists was to explain the subject so that read- generation of an emotional response to a ers – or viewers or listeners – could make field that is avowedly unemotional; their up their own minds. job of explaining depends on the inadequa- cy of explanation; and the journalist’s tra- This suggests that the audience does ditional role of holding those in power to something with the information they re- account is suspended in place of celebrat- ceive. For Davis’s economics beat, that ing scientists’ accomplishments. Arguably, makes sense. The economy is often the this routine rendering of the sublime leaves main focus of election campaigns, so un- the science journalist ill-prepared when derstanding economic developments may faced, not with wonder, but with the messy influence our political choices. Similarly, science that is entangled in issues of social news reports about financial issues can in- and political importance – the science fluence the decisions we make about our about which readers do need to make up own finances. their minds.

But what do we do with the information Felicity Mellor is course leader and a senior that the Earth wobbles a little less than had lecturer on Imperial College’s MSc in Science been thought, or with the news that the Communication.

17 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk “ I wa sep s taught that scien arat ce e f is rom culture, it is c not ul ture”

Gareth Mitchell discusses how the relationships between science, society, geek culture and the intimate medium of radio have changed over the last two decades.

still have a copy of my MSc like Infinite Monkey Cage would never have A separate but related phenomenon of in Science Communication been commissioned when the MSc in Sci- these last decades has been the rise of geek radio coursework. It is not ence Communication began in 1991. Back culture. The ‘G’ word was not generally used a file on my computer, but then, few would have imagined Radio 4 kindly in 1991 but today, geeks establish I a spool of magnetic tape. broadcasting an audience-based hybrid of multibillion-dollar social media empires, We students in 1994 recorded location science, comedy and satire co-hosted by a they discover the Higgs boson and create interviews on a SONY Walkman and ed- comedian and a rock star celebrity physi- probes that tweet high-resolution pictures ited tape with a razorblade and sticky tape. cist. back from Mars. When it comes to fashion, Feedback with our tutor was in class once the coders I meet at tech conferences seem a week. Today, my students record straight But Monkey Cage is not about how radio indistinguishable from the trendies that onto a flashcard and edit on powerful audio has changed. It reflects more about how sci- hang out in Hoxton. software. Supervision and feedback are as ence, scientists and science communication easy as exchanging files through email and have shifted. Like today’s MSc students, I In the 1990s, very few scientists present- Dropbox. was taught that science is not separate from ed television or radio shows about science. culture, it is culture. Intellectually it seemed Now, it is a prerequisite. It brings us back to How things have changed. But more sur- like a plausible position, but I am not sure Infinite Monkey Cage and its nerdy, funny prising is what has not changed. In my day, that I fully believed it at the time. presenters accompanied by a willing panel we were rewarded for vivid storytelling and of scientific guests. The show sells out at penalised for sloppy editing. As our tutor festivals and has a thriving Twitter follow- did in the class of 93/94, I too give extra ing. marks for good writing and dock marks for poor sound quality. The components I’m surprised at the similarities in format of short radio features have remained the between today’s science radio and that of same: interviews, narration, and maybe the nineties. Monkey Cage seems like an some sound effects or music. exception, but really it is just a reminder that what has changed is nothing to do with Two decades ago, BBC Radio 4 had a digital editing or cheap solid-state audio re- weekly topical magazine programme called corders. Instead, it tells a wider story about Science Now. In 2012, Radio 4 has a weekly But even outside our bubble, who would how society’s attitude to science is so very topical magazine programme called Mate- argue against that notion today? There are different to that of 1991. rial World. festivals devoted to science, it’s as often the subject of feature articles or panel discus- Gareth Mitchell is a lecturer in Broadcast Though of course, there are differences sions as history or art, comedians do rou- Communication (Radio) in the Science Com- between the two eras. A radio programme tines about it and celebrities tweet about it. munication Group at Imperial College London. www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 18 An inte rview with...

Journalist and lecturer How did you become a science journal- me more towards the academic side of ist, and later a lecturer? science communication; it is very much Wendy Barnaby speaks about public engagement. We look at the to Juan Casasbuenas different approaches people are taking, the To be totally honest I just fell into jour- things they are doing and the sort of evalu- about the changing world nalism. This was in the 70s – I was living ations they are trying to carry out. in Stockholm looking for something to do of journalism, and how and an opportunity arose for me to write, As the field of science communication but I didn’t have any training. I started to she prepares students for work in journalism in an irregular way, and evolves, are you finding that the print I became really interested in it. Fast for- module has had to change in response? it through her lecturing. ward to around 2005 or 2006, and Imperial College asked me whether I want to teach on the print module. I thought it was an in- Writing is writing. Okay, you have to credibly interesting thing to do, so took the write differently for the web or for the job. I’ve been freelance all my journalistic page, but the basics of writing to interest life, so it wasn’t as if I had to leave a job to people in a subject that they don’t know take this one. When you are freelance you much about are exactly the same: asking can just pick up jobs on the way so it was people about things, and translating it into an easy decision. something that will interest people. That is basically what we do. It is simply tak- Outside of journalism, are you ing place in a different environment now, because of electronic media which has interested in science communication in had such a huge impact on journalism as general? a whole. This has had a huge impact for newspapers, their economic situation be- coming quite dire and people wondering My interest in science communication whether they will survive. did not just arise from the print module, which is actually all about teaching people Has the experience of being a journal- to write. It isn’t strictly science communi- ist changed a lot in your experience? cation except that it is, of course, in that you are teaching people to write, to com- municate. I edit a magazine called People When I began as a journalist there were and Science that is published by the Brit- no computers – thinking back, I wonder ish Science Association, and that takes how we managed to do anything! But of

19 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk An inte rview with...

course it was so much more relaxed; you’d had some experience with a spoof press ring people, see them, talk to them face to conference, and have practiced interview- face. It was great fun and enormously valu- ing, giving them a taster. Then we bring in able. As a journalist you got a much deeper a proper researcher and expose them to a understanding of what your subjects were real press conference. The students then doing, more than you tend to these days write for four different outlets – this could because the whole thing is quicker and be for The Times, or the Daily Mail. We more superficial. The essence of journal- make it so that it is absolutely like what ism is the same, but the way you do it and happens in real journalistic life. the context in which you do it has changed. What are the key lessons that students How do you prepare students for the take away from these experiences? world of journalism? You learn how to ask questions, learn what area of a body of knowledge that is I think we need to give them a good being presented to you will be interesting overview of what sorts of things people for the audience you are writing for. And will need to be able to do when they go that is something that is quite hard to learn out into the workplace. It’s not the topics as a journalist, especially if you come from we need to cover, it’s more the culture that an academic background. It is easy to treat you have to try and impart: how busy it a body of knowledge as interesting for its is, the pressure of it, the way you simply own sake. Whereas when you are a jour- won’t be forgiven if you don’t meet a dead- nalist you are almost always writing for the line. Journalism is very unforgiving in that people who are going to read it, and you sense and we have to forget sometimes have to put yourself in their shoes all the that we are sitting in a university seminar time. That is something we definitely try room and put ourselves in the mind-set of and make really realistic on the course. the industry. Wendy Barnaby is a freelance journalist Could you give me a specific example? and former chair of the Association of Brit- ish Science Writers. She has written for nu- merous publications including Nature and We give them a press conference every New Scientist; she also teaches print jour- year, and bring in a real life researcher for nalism on the MSc in Science Communica- them to interview. This is after they have tion at Imperial College London.

www.isciencemag.co.uk 20 Iconic science

Siobhan Chemistry: Chan takes a look back at six Nanotechnology of the most iconic If good things come in small packages, then topics in it’s no wonder nanotechnology is garnering so much excitement. Already on the market in the form science from of silver-infused plasters and anti-odour socks, poten- the last two tial applications include drug delivery, touchscreens and decades. even elevators to the moon. The power of graphene and carbon nanotubes lies in their thickness of a single atom. Earlier this year, IBM managed to shrink down a hard- drive to only 12 atoms in size, enough to store one data ‘bit’. However, there are also the requisite science fiction fears involving microscopic robots self-replicating and consum- ing everything on Earth. Biology: Dolly

1996 saw the birth of Dolly, the first mam- mal to be cloned from an adult cell, and the world’s most famous sheep. By transferring the nucleus of an Physics: udder cell into an unfertilised egg cell, Ian Wilmut and his team from the Roslin Institute were able to show how a dif- Higgs boson ferentiated adult cell could be persuaded to revert back to The world watched as Peter Higgs an all-purpose, ‘omnipotent’ cell. Since Dolly, many other wept and Stephen Hawking smiled. Higgs de- large mammals have been cloned, but according to Wil- scribed the discovery of his particulate namesake mut, the technique may never be viable in humans, in July as the “final piece of the puzzle” in our un- much to the relief of anti-cloning groups. It has, derstanding of the universe, supporting the Higgs however, been used to bring a Pyrenean ibex, field theory which explains how matter has mass. a form of wild mountain goat, back 10 years and billions of pounds in the making, from extinction for seven the Large Hadron Collider is an example of minutes. Big Science in all meanings of the phrase, showing just what international collaboration can achieve.

s Image: Toni Barro 21 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk Environment: Ozone layer Im In 1984, British Antarctic Survey scientists ag e: St discovered that the ozone layer above the Antarc- eve n Depolo tic was beginning to thin. Two years later, and the hole was the size of the continental US. Scientists were quick to link this to CFCs and within 10 years, we had phased out the chemical in the UK and Europe which had been extensively used in aerosols, refrigerants and packaging. Scientists’ work had a measurable impact on indus- try and policy, and alternatives to this widely used chemical were found, making this one of the big Medicine: science communication success stories. The Vaccines ozone hole is expected to disappear The first human papilloma virus (HPV) by 2050. vaccine was approved for use in 2006 and since 2008, the UK has rolled out nationwide vaccina- tion of 12 and 13 year old girls. HPV is responsible for cervical cancer, genital warts and anal cancer, and there have been calls for boys to be vaccinated. This is in sharp contrast to the MMR vaccine scare of only a dec- ade before, which saw public trust in clinicians fail and led to incidences of measles skyrocketing in the UK. While the search for an effective HIV vaccine is ongoing, the FDA approved a pill to prevent HIV infection.

Technology: world wide web “This is for everyone.” Tim Berners-Lee’s ap- pearance at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony reminded us all how much we owe to the generosity of one man. The web, designed while Berners-Lee and col- leagues were at CERN, was arguably invented to ease the sharing of scientific information. The public have had access to the web since the mid-1990s, and science communica- tion has thrived, with blogs and the rise of open access journals. ‘Citizen science’ projects like Foldit and Gal- axy Zoo have redefined the idea of public engage- ment, giving non-scientists the chance to make sense of data to help understand proteins and distant galaxies.

Im age : Rock1997 www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 22 From electrocuting Gavin Henson to public engagement in Kenya, Joel Winston discovers that there is no such thing as a typical Meet the Alumni Science Communication graduate.

Juliette Mutheu

Science Communication, 2010/11 While training in biomedical research inawa Institute of Science and Technology Science Communication in Melbourne, Australia, Juliette Mutheu in Japan, where she got involved in science began her venture into science communi- writing, podcasting, photography and so- Specialist in Kenya cation as executive producer for a student cial media. radio show on topical health issues. Now working at the KEMRI-Wellcome After her studies, she moved back to Trust Research Programme in Kilifi and Kenya to conduct research into the epide- Nairobi, Kenya, Juliette assists researchers miology of malaria in children, and became in engaging key stakeholders through me- involved in setting up Kenyan Science Cafés dia briefings, social media, the web, and to engage the public in scientific research. public events. She is currently working with colleagues to develop a structured platform “I had only recently moved from a sci- to enable effective and timely science com- entific research career to science commu- munication. nication,” says Juliette. “I had the passion and enthusiasm for communicating science “The beauty of science communication is but no actual training.” So Juliette came to that there’s a range of things a person can London to study Science Communication, do to engage the public in science and one and developed the skills that she was look- person can’t do it all. But if you have a net- ing for. work of different people with different skills and you bring them all together, imagine But her travels weren’t finished there. the impact you can have.” Juliette secured an internship at the Ok-

Morgaine Matthews

If anyone can prove that Science Media writer and junior art director, choosing the Science Media Production, 2008/9 Production graduates don’t always take the career because of the challenges involved. Creative Copywriter predictable route into broadcast, then it’s Morgaine Matthews, who instead opted “You work within a creative team which for a career in advertising. is great fun, but the best part is the variety. One day you could be developing a com- When she started her Masters in 2008, puter game, then the next day you’re writ- Morgaine wanted to learn more about sci- ing a script.” ence communication and the media, while also developing her creative skills. But by But Morgaine has no regrets about the the end of the course, her aims were quite route she took into her career, and says different to most of her course mates. “Af- that although she could have ended up ter graduation I was far less concerned there without the course, it would have with the science communication side of taken longer. “Having the Master’s meant things and completely focused on finding I could jump straight into a creative en- a creative career,” says Morgaine. vironment and feel comfortable from day one.” Since graduating, Morgaine has worked at an advertising agency as a creative copy-

23 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk greg foot

Science Media Production, 2005/2006 Having already tried his hand at student BBC One, to electrocuting Gavin Henson BBC Science Presenter radio and making science videos during for Bravo, to my most recent series on university, Greg Foot was determined to BBC Three ‘The Secrets of Everything’, & Science Junkie escape the lab and explore the world of where I was buried alive, frozen, shot and science communication. burnt in the name of science.”

“I’d been making showreels and sending Greg has also set up ‘Science Junkie’, a them to producers, keen to move into sci- company that takes science shows into ence presenting,” says Greg. “I also loved schools and science festivals. filming and editing. So my plan was to go brush up on all those skills and see where As a freelancer, Greg is familiar with the they could take me.” feeling of not knowing where the next job will come from, and the need to network After honing his production skills at and chase opportunities. “It’s been hard, Imperial and sending out even more and has felt like a massive game of Snakes showreels to everybody and anybody, and Ladders, but it’s been worth it.” Greg worked his way up the TV pro- duction ladder, moving from Runner He has also noticed that more employ- to Researcher to Assistant Producer to ers are now looking for people with a Producer, working on a range of science range of skills. “So don’t just be a good shows. researcher. Learn to film, edit and script- write too. Plus, knowledge of social media “I also built up my presenting experi- and using it to your marketing advantage ence – from a CBBC science series on is a cracking skill to have.”

Graham Easton

After four years as a junior doctor to be- sistant editor at the British Medical Jour- Science Communication, 1994/95 come a GP in 1994, Graham Easton was nal before moving back to a mix of clinical Deputy Director of Primary happy to take a breather from medicine medicine and teaching. “This meant some and focus on writing and communication. re-training and sitting professional medical Care Education, Imperial College But he certainly didn’t expect things to turn exams aged 40 with a young family, which out the way they did. was tough!”

Straight after a work placement at the Alongside fitting in three GP surgeries BBC, Graham was lucky enough to land a a week, Graham is now Deputy Director senior producer role in the World Service of Primary Care Education at Imperial, Science Unit. “I felt hugely under-qualified teaching communication skills to medical and unsure about turning my back on med- students, and running courses for doctors icine,” says Graham. “But it was too good a in China. He is also on the editorial boards chance to pass up.” of two medical journals, presents podcasts for doctors, and is currently studying for a Over the next nine years, Graham doctorate in education, focusing on the use worked as a health reporter, producer, duty of narrative in teaching medicine. science news editor, and for five years pre- sented ‘Case Notes’, a medical magazine “Although it sometimes feels as though I programme on Radio 4. have lurched from one job to the next with- out much planning, with hindsight I can But being a restless soul, Graham was see a definite career pattern. Everything I ready for a change. To get experience in have done in the past is at the heart of what print journalism, he spent four years as as- I am doing now, and it feels right.” www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 24 Ehsan Masood In 1992, a Conservative government was in office. Public spending was being capped. Politicians were beginning to feel the heat of public anger over “genetic engineering” and the shadow of a fatal nuclear accident had cast doubts about the future of the nuclear Everything industry. Two decades later, it appears that not much has changed in terms of priorities for science in policy. This may be because the three main political parties are now closer than ever; successive governments have sought to stand on the shoulders of their pre- (and nothing) decessors’ science policies, rather than dis- mantle what came before and start afresh.

Ehsan Masood is the editor of Research Fortnight and Research Europe, and teaches international science policy on Imperial Col- has changed lege’s Science Communication MSc. 1992 2012

NGOs such as Greenpeace and Today, Europe is a desert when it Friends of the Earth were begin- comes to commercial gene technol- ning to organise what became one ogy in food for human consump- We of the most successful global cam- tion. Authorisation for field-tests of paigns in their history: to prevent GM products is difficult too. Partly the commercialization of geneti- as a result, plant science in UK uni- don’t cally modified (GM) technology versities has become weaker, which in food. In the UK, their cause was the government has only now rec- helped by Labour’s long-serving ognized. The Bill and Melinda Gates environment minister Michael Foundation is beginning to provide eat Meacher, who effectively served funding. At the same time govern- as their champion in government ment and business have learned and fought hard to block the influ- lessons and are treading more cau- genes ence of big business (via the De- tiously with plans to commercialise partment of Trade). synthetic biology.

In 1992 the world was still reeling In 1997, Conservative environ- from the Chernobyl nuclear accident ment minister John Gummer killed in 1986 and the UK all but abandoned off any plans to bury nuclear waste plans to renew its fleet of ageing Mag- near the Lake District, weeks before Bye bye nox nuclear power plants. Instead, a general election would sweep the government and business were pre- Tories from office. Renewable energy paring to build an underground labo- for a while dominated energy policy, ratory close to Sellafield near the Lake but any hopes that nuclear would be nuclear? District to study whether the area was an increasing part of the energy mix suitable for deep disposal of existing were dashed with the Fukushima nuclear waste. tragedy in Japan in 2011.

25 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk 1992 2012

Keith Joseph, mentor to Mar- The RAE continues to thrive (in garet Thatcher and Conservative future it will be called the Research Science secretary of state for education, felt Excellence Framework). It has that scientists needed to be more helped UK scientists to be among accountable for receiving public the most published (and most cited) must funds. Out of this came the Re- in the world, but has probably in- search Assessment Exercise (RAE), troduced more short-termism and a system of distributing research other unintended effects. The RAE pay funds based on a grading of quality. is good for narrow specialists and Paradoxically, even such an ideo- bad for polymaths and big-picture logically-Conservative government thinkers. It has been much studied had no plans of charging students to by other countries (notably the USA its way go to university. and Australia), but never copied.

Two landmark pieces of legis- Making money from knowledge lation from America (both from (now known in policy circles as “in- Innovation 1980) were being applied in the novation”) is now all the rage and UK and soon across Europe. The there is barely a university with- Bayh-Dole Act allowed universi- out an associated commercialisa- ties to patent products and pro- tion arm. However, 20 years of and the cesses created from government constantly pushing universities to funding and Diamond v Chakra- think commercially has now cre- barty was a US Supreme Court ated something of a reaction among rise of ruling that allowed the patenting academics. Helped by the success of of genetically modified organisms. the Open Source and Open Access This was part of a wider agenda movements, some universities are and in the UK it included the gov- beginning to dabble with what is be- patenting ernment selling off many publicly- ing called Open Innovation. Watch owned research labs such as the out as a wounded Big Pharma comes National Physical Laboratory and knocking on the doors of universi- culture the Laboratory of the Government ties as it seeks to find cheaper ways Chemist. of making blockbuster drugs.

Back in 1992, the UK govern- Today, most UK government de- ment had a mere handful of sci- partments have a chief scientific ad- entific advisers. But they were of- viser and there is increasing interest Who ten men and women of immense from all parties of finding ways to influence, such as Crispin Tickell test the evidence behind proposed who persuaded Margaret Thatch- policies. At the same time there needs er of the risks from environmen- are few research-trained/research- tal threats, or John Ashton, who aware MPs and if the House of Lords persuaded the Foreign Office that becomes mostly elected, we are likely evidence? it needed to expand its scientific to lose many scientists who have said diplomacy. they will not stand for election. www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 26 Engagement with Objects Rachel Souhami charts the brief history of museum interactives – from quick political fix to a promise of engagement

t’s strange to think that if of councils developing science centres as you’d walked into a science flagship projects for regeneration schemes. museum thirty years ago, you The other reason was the advent of engage- would have been hard pushed ment as a concept both in science com- I to find any interactive exhib- munication and as part of broader cultural its. Such exhibits didn’t become a staple of politics – this time with policies introduced science exhibitions until the mid-1980s, by New Labour, which again had an impact Objects – but and though it would be tempting to say on funding. not objective? that this was connected to trends in science communication, it’s got just as much, if not Engagement is problematic when ap- more, to do with offering a solution to po- plied to exhibitions: what does it mean? What is it we see when we go to litical contexts. However, the key issues for One might argue that simply coming to an a museum? The objects themselves, museums have changed, and interactives exhibition was a form of engagement. And or the stories and information that may no longer offer the quick fix for science how does one have dialogue with inanimate museums choose to tell us about museums that they once did. objects? Here interactives came to the res- them? Take a polystyrene cup. The cue again, providing a means for visitors to interpretation of this object could When the Royal Society published Wal- record their thoughts on a subject, usually include its functional use, history, ter Bodmer’s report Public Understanding at a computer terminal. What happened to manufacture, symbolic meaning or of Science in 1985, it was against a back- those comments, and whether such inter- value to society – but rarely all at ground of changes to the funding and man- actions can be considered meaningful dia- once. agement of public museums introduced by logue, is another question. the Conservative government. These meant Its interpretation is subjective, – from a classic that museums had to justify their income Engagement and dialogue are still hot shaped by factors including practi- American text from the state, compete for visitors, and topics for museums, but not in relation to cal constraints like the word count find private sources of funding. science communication. Instead the broad- of its label, the topic of its exhibi- on lighting er museological question of interpretation tion, and the museum’s identity and Bodmer’s report enabled science muse- of collections has become increasingly intellectual remit. Cultural and so- ums to make a case for funding. In addition, prominent: who is able to give the mean- cial aspects come into play too. science museums imported the concept of ing and history of an object? Whose voice interactivity from the US to make their ex- should be heard in an exhibition? Objects in museums tell us of hibitions fun and educational, which was as how the world might be. The role much about creating a USP to attract visi- These questions relate to the long-term of our plastic cup might be to act tors as it was about a new means of commu- documentation of collections, engaging as a symbol of our reliance on pet- nicating science. It was a successful solution communities in interpreting objects, and rochemicals, our drinking habits, in that the exhibits were popular, and so in- the editorial policies of museums. These are or contemporary design solutions teractives became commonplace. issues that require far more complex solu- – any number of things. But one tions than an interactive exhibit, ones that thing’s for sure, it won’t be all of The ‘deficit model’ advocated by Bod- go to the root of how museums operate and them. While museums might al- mer, where scientists ‘educate’ the public, how exhibitions are made. That is not to say ways aim to tell the truth, it’s never has long been discredited, but interactives that interactives are on their way out, but the whole truth. have hung around for two quite different perhaps their days as a panacea are over. reasons. One of these concerns town plan- Vanna Barber ning: twin agendas of informal science edu- Rachel Souhami is a lecturer in Science cation and urban regeneration, combined Communication (Museums) in the Science with government funding, led to a number Communication Group at Imperial College.

27 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk For a visual anthropology When shooting of science Bob Sternberg

westerns… n a sense, all films are eth- tempted to rescue what was disappearing. nographic films, either in But today, although we have long since use real form, content, or both, be- turned the cameras back on ourselves, the cause they reveal cultural world of science, where film was born, re- I patterning. Film as a cultural mains largely unexplored by the visual an- Indians if product is not unique in this regard, but thropologist. the mechanical nature of photography has possible; but given it special status. For anthropologists, There is a price to that isolation. As with the documentary camera appears to offer any unknown tribe, rumours circulate if Indians the possibility of fixing something of the about customs and practices. In the 1940s details of lived experience free from the the sociologist Robert Merton spread a subjectivity of field notes. It was this pos- number of such stories about the selfless- are not sibility that prompted Grierson to coin the ness of scientists and the openness of their term documentary, writing of Flaherty’s institutions. Although this picture of sci- available, Moana that it had ‘documentary value’. ence has been challenged over the last forty The camera could capture, automatically, years, so noble was Merton’s characterisa- something of the essence of a culture and tion that it continues to be embraced with use its people. little demur today, reinforced by numerous television documentaries. Hungarians. The movie camera was invented to cap- ture motion. It was put to use as early as The trouble with films is that they have – from a classic 1874 by the French astronomer Pierre-Ju- a tendency to lie, and the audience a ten- American text les-César Janssen, who that year recorded dency to believe. The science documentary, the transit of Venus from his hut in Yokoha- made in retrospect and constrained by the on lighting ma. In the 1880s, Eadweard Muybridge and need to explain, necessarily prevaricates Étienne-Jules Marey advanced the technol- about how science is done. For the sake of ogy with devices they invented for studying a clear narrative it usually ignores the un- animal locomotion. Of necessity, they built certainty of experimental results and fails to these machines themselves, but in 1895, for mention the blind alleys of research. Only the first time, the Lumière brothers made rarely, if ever, does a programme document an all-purpose camera available to anyone the non-Mertonian culture of secrecy that who could afford it. is common in science, or give any hint of the inter-personal competition that blights the Initially it was trained on people doing lives of so many researchers. Because such ordinary things—rowing a boat, having films appear plausible, they diminish the breakfast, playing cards or descending from importance of what they leave out and we a steam train—but soon it was made to re- quite naturally take the science documen- cord the fantastical journeys of Méliès and tary that explains for an image of science as the no less hazardous trips of European ex- it is practised. In this way we misconstrue plorers. Thus the ethnographic film began the nature of science and of scientists—we almost immediately as a phenomenon of mistake Hungarians for Indians. colonialism. In the far-off lands of Empire, Europeans encountered peoples whose Bob Sternberg is the Leader of the MSc Sci- cultures, even then, were threatened with ence Media Production course, and a lectur- extinction and with their cameras they at- er in Broadcast Communication (TV). www.isciencemag.co.uk I, Science 28 Alice Bell discusses a more mindful Between phase for science communication, in control which we mustn’t be afraid to disagree and creativity friend once told me about a made me more aware of how easy it can be meeting he attended in the for science communicators to oil the wheels mid-1990s where, apparently, of some not especially nice or clever direc- a group planned to take over tions for the planet. A UK science communication. Imagine the power! To control which sci- We need to check that our creativity is entific ideas, voices, and bits of information not exploited. We need to ask economic, are placed into the public realm. Control political, and cultural questions as well as what is seen as a rational decision about scientific ones. We need to ask these ques- health, energy, agriculture, and more. Con- tions of ourselves, our friends, and our trol the collective ideas of the future. Imag- funders as well as others. We need to be ine the influence! Imagine the money! willing to feel a bit uncomfortable. We need to be able to disagree. This story is hearsay and not from the most reliable source, so I won’t reveal who was meant to be at the heart of such a dastardly plot. I share it because it almost doesn’t matter who it was, or if it is true at We need to be all. The basic warning still stands: control public debates about science and technol- willing to feel a ogy, and you get to control many threads of how we spin our idea of progress. bit uncomfortable For that reason, I think it befits everyone working in science communication – be this journalism, PR, engagement, educa- tion, or showbiz – to recognise the politics What we do has the power to change the of their work and keep an eye out for ide- world. It really does – only ever in small ologies, interests and limitations they don’t incremental ways, and never, ever enough. personally subscribe to. We don’t need to Compromises will always be necessary too. agree on which politics is correct, just ac- But each action adds up. If science commu- knowledge that it’s there. nication really has come of age with the 21st birthday of Imperial College’s MSc, it needs I got into science communication be- to recognise its power as well as its limita- cause, as an ever-so-earnest teenager, I tions and stand up for itself. thought it could save the world. A few years in the kids’ galleries at the Science Museum Alice Bell is Senior Teaching Fellow at Im- and an STS degree or three shocked some perial, directing the new Global Challenges cynicism into me, but the basic hope is still course. She completed a PhD in the Science there. If anything, such cynicism has simply Communication Group in 2008.

29 I, Science www.isciencemag.co.uk Perhaps one function of much I got into science science journalism is aesthetic communication – Felicity Mellor because I thought it could save the world – Alice Bell

Once levered open by the enquiring mind, science fizzes with philosophical and cultural concerns

– Stephen Webster

I was buried alive, frozen, shot and burnt in the name of science – Greg Foot

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