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Understanding water use in BC

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I recently found out that over 95% of the electricity produced by BC Hydro comes from hydroelectric sources, which floored me. I grew up in Alberta, where the majority of power comes from coal and natural gas, so my concept of electricity sources doesn’t include water, except for as a possible “alternative” energy source. But there’s nothing alternative about 95%. And after thinking “Wow! That’s amazing!” I started asking questions: How much water do we even have? What about drinking water? What about the fish?

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Around town: The 6th International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

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Conferences are great places to hang out if you’re a scientist. The buzz of knowledge fills the air, and it’s often the only chance you get to brainstorm with like-minded enthusiasts in your field. By the end of the conference, you are high on knowledge transfer and giddy with sharing the science…and exhausted. But then you take it all back to your lab and the sharing process begins again.

This week, Vancouver hosts the 6th Annual Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Hosted by Interprofessional Continuing Education of the University of British Columbia, the conference brings together delegates with expertise in research, teaching, counselling, justice and other related fields to highlight recent research progress. It is truly a multidisciplinary event, because FASD affects people in so many different ways and touches every level of society. Read on to learn a little more about what’s happening in your neighbourhood and beyond.

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Crowdfunding science: Why donate, part II

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Why support crowdfunding for science research?

Graphs from CF1.We were curious about this question, and we decided to take the opportunity presented by the annual meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science and the first conference of the newly formed Citizen Science Association, which both took place in San Jose last week and this weekend. We put together a short survey and tweeted/blogged/Facebooked it to the attendees and our followers: to you laypeople, this is what’s known as a “convenience sample” (convenience sampling is the reason so much basic research is done on university students). We figured a few thousand people keen on advancing science generally and citizen science in particular would be a great way to find people who had supported science crowdfunding.

The response, unfortunately, was not what we’d hoped. We had seven responses, with one respondent giving reasons for supporting science via crowdfunding. A huge thank you to those who participated. While we sure won’t be publishing any papers with these responses (and that was never the plan anyway!), we can talk about the data points we got—and for those who are keen to learn more, we’ve added some links at the end.Read More »Crowdfunding science: Why donate, part II

Crowdfunding science – Why donate?

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If you work in science research at almost any level these days, you’ll be aware of how difficult it is to get funded to carry out or continue with a project. Whether you are a doctoral student working on a cherished thesis or an “established” academic, you know that the monies available are slipping behind the needs and desires of the industry. No matter how excellent, hot-shot or meaningful the work is, grant funds are drying up.

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Stylized diagram of a person wrapped around a sword.

Advocacy, please

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I think plain language is awesome. I’m glad the movement is gaining momentum and that there are enthusiastic advocates out there trying to make plain language the default. And I’m excited to be learning more about how to improve my own plain language skills.

Stylized diagram of a person wrapped around a sword.

But I’m not so excited about the current of language shaming that undercuts plain language advocacy.

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Does Science Need a Global Language? Book cover. (C) Chicago University Press 2013.

English, science, and the editor as advocate

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Does Science Need a Global Language? Book cover. (C) Chicago University Press 2013.
Does Science Need a Global Language? Book cover. (C) Chicago University Press 2013.

At a recent meeting of the BC branch of the Editors’ Association of Canada, a panel discussed the role of editors in ensuring accessibility to information. One of the final questions asked was, “Are editors advocates?” I think that yes, we absolutely are. But here’s another question: What are we advocates for? There are some general things we advocate for, clear communication being one, but I think that each of us has something specific that is important to us and that we should cultivate in our roles as editors.

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First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Roentgen, of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand. When she saw her skeleton, Anna is said to have uttered, "I have seen my death". By Wilhelm Röntgen (public domain).

The benefit of accident and coincidence in radioactivity

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coincidence = [noun] a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected. Synonyms: accident, luck, fate

First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Roentgen, of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand. When she saw her skeleton, Anna is said to have uttered, "I have seen my death". By Wilhelm Röntgen (public domain).
First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Roentgen, of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig’s hand. When she saw her skeleton, Anna is said to have uttered, “I have seen my death”. By Wilhelm Röntgen (public domain).

During a non-accidental* wander through the Pacific Science Center’s online calendar of scientific events, I noticed one of those divine coincidences that is probably only exciting to me and maybe a few other calendar/science nerds out there.

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