7 Science Communications Trends we Love

Science is at the core of popular experiments in storytelling in all media right now, including over the airwaves.

RadioLab (downloaded 4 million times per month as a podcast) uses a mix of interviews, voice-overs, music, and sound effects to intricately weave tales of how diseases spread, the history and future of the Galapagos, and the story of a family struggling to break through to their autistic son. RadioLab and another story-centered vehicle, This American Life, recently gave birth to Invisibilia, which explores invisible things such as emotions, beliefs, and thought.

The Story Collider podcast, meanwhile, curates yarns about how science affects people personally, emotionally. These stories are told live and are sometimes funny, often touching. What do you do if you’re an anatomist who couldn’t harm a fly? Use roadkill. How fares a fossil hunter chased by a very alive bear? Gripping stuff. Listen up.

Speaking of Story Collider, it’s nice to see that another trend in science communication is presenting science live and on stage. Scientists of centuries past might have performed autopsies to peers in amphitheater classrooms, but it’s good to feel the general public’s enthusiasm these days for people coming together to geek out.

In the Bay Area alone we’ve seen live versions of RadioLab, Story Collider, and Tested, a show from the minds and hands of the Mythbusters gang. There’s also the regularly occurring Nerd Nite events—like the Discovery Channel with beer, as their slogan promises—showcasing science talks to an irreverent, sometimes drunk crowd in a bar or movie theater. Nerd Nite has even taken to sea.

Science journalists are embracing and striving to master data-driven, computer assisted reporting (CAR) more and more every day. So-called data journalism techniques, in the right hands, can create insightful infographics and visualizations that help tell science stories in compelling and interactive ways.

Classic examples of data journalism’s power in science and environment reporting include The New York Times’ “Toxic Waters” series and San Francisco-based journalist Peter Aldhous’s “How Many Earths?” and “Your Warming World” projects for New Scientist. Aldhous has a good list of data journalism resources for those interested in learning more.

The dreaded, dry dissertation. That can mean amazing amounts of boring outside niche scientific circles. But in the fall, the serious journal Science awards cash prizes and boundless glory for a very silly endeavor: Dance Your Ph.D.

Yep, actual scientists turn the content of their Ph.D. thesis into a dance that everyone can understand (and sometimes laugh at). This year, winners interpreted how tree seedlings benefit from fungi in the aftermath of a tornado, how to create stable reduced fat mayonnaise, and nuclear fusion.

Last year’s winner depicted sperm competition with a troupe of dancers that look to be a men’s water polo team. Super silly, super fun, and takes hard science out of the realm of the unapproachable for a change.

If it takes too long to say, maybe you don’t understand it. That’s the underlying premise behind the rise in formats that share complex scientific subjects in record time.

The MinutePhysics video series tackles why the Solar System is flat and the Conservation of Energy through hand-drawn stop motion and narration. They’re not actually under 60 seconds, but they are just a few minutes in length and convert topics that usually make my head spin into educational and visually compelling entertainment.

Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition in which Ph.D. candidates present engaging lightening talks of their work to a panel of judges. Developed by the University of Queensland in Australia and now held in 17 countries, it’s become an annual event at the University of California, San Francisco, and part of the local Bay Area Science Festival.

During the recent fervor in space exploration, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe and its comet lander, Philae, each had their own Twitter avatars, @ESA_Rosetta and @Philae2014 respectively. Their anthropomorphic announcements kept us smiling and up-to-date on the fate of the 10-year mission as it hurtled toward its interstellar destination.

NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has an online social presence, too (@MarsRovers), as do many other research projects around the world. But it’s scientists and science communicators who are becoming seriously relevant. Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy has more than 1.2 million followers on Twitter. Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson has 3.08 million (for context, celebreality star Kim Kardashian has 28 million followers, but still, yay science!). Both are nominated this year for Shorty Awards for exceptional social media content. Looking for another science star to follow? We recommend @BadAstronomer, Phil Plait.

Transparency and reproducibility are becoming hot topics in science. Building on the philosophies of Open Science and the open notebook movement—the practice of making research records completely sharable so others can repeat the experiments—there are numerous initiatives for sharing data, methodologies, and results.

Scientists are sidestepping subscription-based journals for open access. And platforms like the Science Exchange enable researchers to share experiments and equipment. In science journalism, practitioners are swapping tips and tricks to hone their craft on The Open Notebook.