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Enchantment and wonderland: 4D LABS

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4D Labs. Image E. Rickert.

Scientists aren’t as uptight or as mad as the stereotypical personalities shown in popular media. No, they buy burgers for the BBQ, drop off dry cleaning and use public transit—just like everybody else. I know for a fact that some even go “squee!”…but not so much over kittens (okay, maybe about kittens too).

So, how do I know about the “squee!” bit?

Well, a couple of weeks ago I was guilty of a squee! and so were two other Talk Science to Me team members, mastermind Eve Rickert and associate editor Roma Ilnyckyj, as we toured SFU’s impressive 4D LABS facility on the Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus. Each turn of the corridor seemed to bring new laboratory delights in the shape of adorable compact electron microscopes, bright and shiny clean lab facilities, and a laser lab that belongs in a Marvel superhero film set.

Squee! indeed.Read More »Enchantment and wonderland: 4D LABS

Fingers using the trackpad on a laptop, in grayscale.

Blogging…with Sanskrit

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Fingers using the trackpad on a laptop, in grayscale.
anonymouscollective

If you’re a writer, one of the best ways to engage your readers is to post regularly on a personal blog. The sandbox is your own: you can reach out to your audience with regularly posted content, and the comments open up further dialogue. Often it’s a more dynamic endeavour than a static website or a book.

Recently, one of my projects for Talk Science to Me involved setting up a personal blog for long-time client Christopher Wallis. You will recognize him as the author of Tantra Illuminated, a scholarly discourse on Tantrik learning published by Mattamayura Press. Currently, my workmate and Talk Science associate editor Roma Ilnyckyj is editing the book for e-publishing format. And there’s a new book coming out soon too—so it’s a great time for the author to start blogging!

Read More »Blogging…with Sanskrit

Work tips from the Talk Science to Me Team

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to do listThe Talk Science to Me team is a dedicated collection of science communications professionals. Unfortunately, we rarely see each other, since most of us work remotely. Our weekly internal newsletter has become a great way to stay in touch, and we often share tips for staying productive and getting the most out of a workday.

So, supplementing our recent post on resolutions for writers, here are some of the team’s recommendations for getting it done (whatever it is).

Warming up to work
Deb starts the day by checking her schedule on her smart phone while running up 1,000 stairs, stopping to stretch after every 100. Roma prefers the slightly more sedentary approach of looking over her diary while drinking a cup of strong coffee.

Not sure if this works, but Amanda suggests watching the strangely hypnotic Dancing Jellies video to get into work mode at the beginning of the day.Read More »Work tips from the Talk Science to Me Team

Around town: 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference—Harnessing Technology for Aging-in-Place

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Whiskey barrels in the Jack Daniels distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee.On Thursday, May 14, the Segal Centre at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Vancouver Campus will host the 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference. The purpose of this event is to explore how technology can help adults in British Columbia to age in place, helping seniors to adapt their homes so they can keep living in them as they get older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines aging in place as “the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level.” The concept encourages people to stay in their own homes for as long as they wish, surrounded by everyday familiarities, without being forced into institutional care or other living conditions prematurely simply because of their age. However, for this to become feasible and a reality for the majority, society needs to change to support older adults and their needs without automatically consigning them to the health care system.Read More »Around town: 24th Annual John K. Friesen Conference—Harnessing Technology for Aging-in-Place

Example change log in a spreadsheet.

Working with translations: Version control

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The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) recently published Trade and Green Economy: A handbook, the third edition of a handbook that examines the relationship between trade and the environment. The third edition focuses specifically on the green economy, which UNEP defines as an economy “that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”

Pages from 20141007 Trade GE Handbook FRENCH – INSIDE

Talk Science did the copy-editing, proofreading and design of the English version of this handbook, as well as the design of the French and Spanish versions. We didn’t do the translation, copy-editing or proofreading of the non-English versions, but since we did design for all three, we handled a good chunk of the project management as the manuscript passed through us on the way to the designer.

Read More »Working with translations: Version control

Cool science memories from the team

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Enough about you—what about us?

It would be correct to say that here at Talk Science to Me, we pretty much eat, sleep and breathe science. In fact, that’s how our mastermind, Eve Rickert, explained her journey into #scicomm for a class of health science writers at Kwantlen Polytechnic University we were invited to speak to earlier this month. From tales of the pistol-packing shrimp that stuns its prey with sound waves, to the excitement of bacteriophages that bring the dead back to life, Eve brought a fresh sense of marvel and storytelling about the world of science writing to inspire the students.

But what about the rest of the team? What particular moments hooked them into reporting, editing and designing science materials? Read on to find out more…

Read More »Cool science memories from the team

Around town: 6th Networking World Anesthesia Conference

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1753_Traversi_Operation_anagoriaThe Networking World Anesthesia Convention (NWAC) takes place next week in Vancouver, BC, bringing together clinicians and researchers working in this vital medical field. It is worth remembering that without adequate anesthesia, modern medicine and surgery would be stuck in the quick and dirty field of “getting it over with fast”: read Fanny Burney’s account of a conscious mastectomy to get a feel for uncensored steel (note: not for the faint of heart).

Quite simply put, anesthesia makes a lot of modern medicine possible. From regional or local to full-immersion general anesthesia, the power of the drugs and the skill of the anesthetist smooth the way for both patient and clinician.

But how does it work—how does anesthesia take the unpleasantness away?

Read More »Around town: 6th Networking World Anesthesia Conference

The famous "pale blue dot" photograph, showing Earth as a pale blue dot in the ecliptic as viewed from the Voyager space probe.

Delayed valentine: Worth waiting for?

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The famous "pale blue dot" photograph, showing Earth as a pale blue dot in the ecliptic as viewed from the Voyager space probe.
Every human that ever lived, lived inside that pale blue dot.

Sometimes, the best valentines are those that arrive late, long after the roses have withered and the chocolates have been consumed.

At around the same time that I started high school, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft blasted off on its journey to the outer planets. Thirteen years later and nearing the end of its planned primary mission, it turned its onboard cameras back toward the centre of our solar system. On February 14th, 1990, Voyager 1 took what is commonly known as the Pale Blue Dot image of Earth.

Read More »Delayed valentine: Worth waiting for?