Making the Invisible Visible: Using Science to Show the Value of New Hampshire’s Natural Resources

Autumn in New Hampshire. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This is a sample blog post composed at the NSF “Science Becoming the Messenger” workshop in Durham, New Hampshire, April 10-11, 2013.

When you think of New Hampshire, it’s hard not to think of the scenes of natural beauty—from the Seacoast to the White Mountains. Indeed, 80 percent of the state’s geographical area is covered by trees. Then there are its 1,000 lakes, and its 100,000 miles of rivers and streams, which supply the drinking water of 200,000 households. Nature is the reason people—tourists—come here. And nature is the reason that many of them–residents–stay.

But New Hampshire is currently beset by two forces that threaten our quality of life, and the state’s own image of itself: Climate change on the one hand, and growing urbanization on the other. Climate change is taking a whack at one of the chief outdoor recreational industries here: skiing. A warmer climate threatens to turn more than half of New Hampshire ski resorts into money losers, according to a recent study. And then there’s urbanization. As recent reports by New Hampshire’s own Carsey Institute make clear, our population is increasing, especially in the state’s southern counties. That’s because people are migrating here, driven by the quality of life and recreational splendor that we’re so known for. And with that population  comes increasing urbanization—housing developments built amid forests, strip malls constructed to service it all.

All of which raises the question: “How much is too much?” Or as Cameron Wake, a climate researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire puts it: “How much can we develop, and still keep clean water, and clean air, and areas to recreate, and wood for timber, and areas for agriculture?”

Bluegrass Science: Revving Up the Economy Through Research in the State of Kentucky

This is a sample blog post composed at the March 5, 2013 NSF “Science: Becoming the Messenger” workshop in Louisville, Kentucky.

When people think about the state of Kentucky, the first instinct is probably to picture a scene of mint julep sipping at the Kentucky Derby. Sure, the horses might be fast–but the living is slow and easy.

But if you’re paying attention to the state’s scientific endeavors, you get a very different picture: one of dynamism. Currently, Kentucky is finishing out a five year, $ 12.5 million grant–with $ 5 million in state matching funds–from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research). The investment is designed to grow research in some of the most promising areas where Kentucky researchers have built-in expertise—such as nanotechnology, bioengineering, and ecological genomics. But the grant hasn’t just increased the state’s research capacity—it’s also contributing to the Kentucky economy. That’s no small thing in a state whose per capita income ($ 23,033) lags the national average ($ 27,915), and which also ranks well behind most U.S. states in patents per capita.

Over the last eight years, NSF funds have created 377 research jobs at Kentucky institutions. And that’s just for the scientists doing the work (and those who support them), so it only begins to describe the full economic impact. Consider: In 2011-2012 alone, EPSCOR-supported Kentucky researchers reported nine pending or awarded research patents, for innovations in areas ranging from nanoribbons to tissue culturing. Three of those patents were licensed to General Motors.

America’s Science Idol Winner: Tom DiLiberto (& Pics)

“America’s Science Idol” was a big success yesterday, unfolding to a packed room at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

While the competition was close, the judges ultimately chose a runner up–Jenna Jadin, who presented on sex in the insect and human worlds–and a winner, Tom DiLiberto, who talked about the difficulty but importance of predicting the weather, and ended with a hashtag–#weatherrespect–that perfectly summed up a well crafted presentation.

Here’s a picture of the winner with (from right to left) host Chris Mooney and judges Indre Viskontas and Corey Powell:

America’s Science Idol: Rules and Judging Criteria

The purpose of this post is to more fully elaborate on the rules, and the judgment criteria, for:

AMERICA’S SCIENCE IDOL!

Workshop at 
AAAS 2013 Annual Meeting
1-2 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, 2013
Room 205, Hynes Convention Center - Boston, MA

1. Rules: The six contestants will present on a scientific topic of their choosing, for no more than three minutes. This will be a hard time limit, and an alarm bell will go off at the end of the three minutes—after which they will be cut off if they try to continue.

We will be holding up 1 minute and 30 second signs to let the contestants know when they are nearing the end of the 3 minute time period.

Although it is not mandatory, contestants are strongly encouraged to give a visual/slide presentation to enhance their talk. 

At the end of the 3 minute talk, each of the judges will offer brief commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the performance. They will also record their evaluations, which will ultimately determine the winner.

2. Judging: The judges will evaluate each presentation based on three criteria: 1) clarity and effectiveness of message, 2) delivery (including quality of visuals), and 3) overall impact.

A little elaboration on the three criteria:

1) Clarity and Effectiveness of Message: This criterion involves whether the presenter is disciplined and clear in making one well-supported, central point in your presentation. Undisciplined, rambling presentations and data-dumps will be marked down.

2) Delivery/Quality of Visuals: This criterion involves stage presence, volubility, effective use of rhetorical techniques and turns of phrase, and also the quality of PowerPoint design. Poorly designed presentations will be marked down, as will presentations containing repeated disfluencies or visual distractions.

3) Overall Impact: How much the presentation affects and moves the audience, engaging listeners emotionally and/or making them want to take a particular action—or forcing them to think in a new way.

The final winner will be chosen based on the consensus of the three judges. All decisions of the judges are final. NSF, the judges and the moderator will not respond to any claims or inquiries regarding contest rules.

Enjoy! Once again, that’s:

AMERICA’S SCIENCE IDOL!

Workshop at 
AAAS 2013 Annual Meeting
1-2 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, 2013
Room 205, Hynes Convention Center - Boston, MA

America’s Science Idol: Announcing our Contestants!

Our original call for contestants for “America’s Science Idol”–this coming Friday at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston–led to a large number of applications. It would have been nice if we could have had several rounds of competition, like in the real Idol–but for this event, that just wasn’t possible.

So we narrowed the applicant pool to 6 contestants–the lucky (or brave) scientists below:

Gillian Bowser (@gwsn2012).  A native of Brooklyn, Gillian is currently a research scientist at Colorado State University, where she leads interdisciplinary teams from multiple universities to do large‐scale network analyses of women in sustainability. Before that, she served for 11 years as a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park studying insects, bison, and rodents. She has also worked on desert tortoises, habitat modeling, and military overflight issues; and has worked in the director’s office of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Gillian’s career represents a nexus between art and science. She started her career as an art major attending LaGuardia High School of the Arts, and has had several art shows and one solo ceramic sculpture exhibition.

Tom Di Liberto (@TDiLiberto). Born and raised on Long Island, Tom has been fascinated by the weather since he was a young child. Currently, he’s a meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, forecasting the weather for Africa, Central America, Hispaniola, and Central Asia with a focus on weather hazards that could affect food security. In addition, Tom conducts research on the use of satellite-derived rainfall estimates in these regions.

Do You Have What It Takes to Be America’s Next Science Idol?

Think you’re a pretty good science communicator?

Dreaming of becoming the next Neil DeGrasse Tyson? 

Think you can prove your speaking skills live, under pressure, before a panel of judges? 

Want the bragging rights and prizes that will follow?

Then join us on Friday, Feb.15, at 1 p.m. in the Hynes Convention Center, Room 205, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting to compete in America’s Science Idol, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, Discover Magazine, Popular Science and the Point of Inquiry Podcast (pointofinquiry.org).

Contestants will give a 3-minute presentation on a scientific topic of their choice—with a hard time limit.You can use PowerPoint slides in your presentation (running on a PC only!).

Then they’ll be judged by the audience and our distinguished panel: Corey S. Powell, editor at large of Discover (aka Simon Cowell), Indre Viskontas (filling in for Paula Abdul), neuroscientist, opera singer and co-host of the popular Point of Inquiry podcast, andJennifer Bogo (J-Bo?), articles editor at Popular Science.

The event will be hosted by Chris Mooney (aka Ryan Seacrest), science journalist and co-host of the Point of Inquiry podcast.

The winner gets: A free one-year subscription to Discover and Popular Science; a live guest appearance on the Point of Inquiry podcast on Sunday, Feb. 17—following Steven Pinker, science’s hottest warm-up act; and the Discover DVD (all 30 years of Discover in one convenient package! $149.99 value!).

Oh, and huge bragging rights.

To throw your hat in the ring, and for technical details and specs on running PowerPoint during the contest, complete the attached form and email to Cindy Holloway at cholloway@nsf.gov, by Friday, February 1, 2013.

The application form can be found here.

Once again, all the details:

AMERICA’S SCIENCE IDOL!

Workshop at 
AAAS 2013 Annual Meeting
1-2 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, 2013
Room 205, Hynes Convention Center - Boston, MA

See you there!

Printing the New You: The Amazing Potential of Biofabrication Research in South Carolina

This is a sample blog post drafted for the January 16, 2013 “Science: Becoming the Messenger” workshop at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Last year, some five thousand people in the U.S. died while waiting for a kidney transplant. They weren’t the lucky ones—there was no lifesaving organ, at the last minute, coming to save them.

Now imagine that we could save all of those lives, and more, by finding a vast new source of kidneys and other organs—namely, growing them from a person’s own cells. It’s actually a lot less farfetched than it sounds: Army researchers have used a modified inkjet printer to print new skin cells to treat severe burns. Tissue engineering has already been used to rebuild a 10 year old British child’s trachea by growing a new one from his own stem cells.  Both involved laying down a relatively flat layer of human cells, but constructing three dimensional masses of cells is also happening. This is a new scientific and medical frontier that’s right now opening before our eyes.

Here in South Carolina, we’re taking a lead in this amazing field, sometimes called biofabrication. The state recently received a five year, $ 20 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) to dive into the basic science that will someday lead to real cures in this area. And here’s the bonus: Although the science needed to rebuild your body isn’t there yet, we’ll generate a large range of new insights—and, perhaps, new jobs and industries—along the way.