Engaging stories from a science journalist…. Dr Roger Highfield Director of External Affairs Science Museum Group 26 September 2013 Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin 2 Three decades of PUS/PES Credit: Credit: http://www.blogger.com/profile/16002387353628346531 3 Engaging lessons Daily Telegraph 5 Not going to discuss.. 6 7 8 9 Two kinds of pop science book • A Brief History of Time - sold more than 10 million copies. on the Sunday Times best-seller list for more than four years • All the rest 10 Arrow of Time 11 Lesson 1 Tap into the zeitgeist …but it’s often more down to luck than judgement 12 Megalab mass experiments 13 First Megalab: Truth Test • Richard Wiseman • BBC1’s Tomorrow’s World, BBC Radio One and The Daily Telegraph • One million call attempts, more than 40,000 votes • Radio listeners detected the lies 73.4% of the time, newspaper readers 64.2% and television viewers 51.8% (Wiseman, R. (1995). The MegaLab Truth Test, Nature, 373, 391.) 14 Live Lab/Megalab • Hunts for flatworms • Studied the sun by measuring its effect on radio broadcasts during the eclipse • Turing test online • Test if fidgeting helps you slim (treadmill) • Loo roll to study light pollution, attraction, pets….dozens more 15 Lesson 2: Wisdom of the crowd Crowdsourcing is a powerful and useful way to engage - but don’t expect the public to be particularly original or innovative 16 New Scientist 17 Scientific wedding Credit: Nic Fleming & Linda Geddes 18 Credit: Nic Fleming & Linda Geddes 19 Credit: Nic Fleming & Linda Geddes 20 Big fat geek wedding: tears, joy and oxytocin • Measurements of oxytocin, vasopressin, Testosterone, ACTH and cortisol • Results not statistically significant, but suggestive: Linda had biggest spike in oxytocin, and bigger spikes in family members than in friends • Prof Paul Zak doing larger field studies to replicate the results. 21 Lesson 3: Audience Their interests and preoccupations are the best places to start (in fact the audience is the only place to start). 22 Moon rock competition 23 Moon rock competition • With 5500 entries, New Scientist's most popular competition ever • Validation of moon rocks by Prof Colin Pillinger’s team at the Open University to underline our commitment to getting it right 24 Lesson 4: Anniversaries are not news ..but it always pays to find a new angle to resell a great story 25 Intelligence test 26 Big Ask • 12 tests designed to trigger activity in as much of the brain’s anatomy as possible, combining the fewest tasks to cover the broadest range of cognitive skills. • Half an hour to complete, as well as a fill in a survey about background and lifestyle 27 Huge response • Around 110,000 participants worldwide • Used sample of 44,600 people, making it the biggest exercise of its kind • Follow up with a $5M scanner in Adrian Owen’s department at the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario 28 Neuron 29 30 Lesson 5. Don’t underestimate your audience • Link went viral because of huge interest in IQ • Dynamic and interactive tests • Participants were told their scores • Unlike many ‘toy’ online tests, this one had been honed over several years and was based on research 31 Great British Innovation Vote 32 33 Celebrity tweets 34 Great Vote results • The project offered: high visitor numbers (90,000+ unique visitors, 50,000+ votes, Twitter reach to well over 30 million, national and local press coverage) and a legacy site for low cost (£17,400) to our partners (GREAT Campaign, Bis, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society, British Science Association and Engineering UK) 35 Lesson 6: To engage with a mass audience …you don’t need a media partner any more in this age of social media 36 Thank you. 37 .