Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Is social media any good for science?
Issue 131 April 29 - May 5
Is social media any good for science?
Amid a deluge of Facebook updates, Twitter "retweets" and blog posts, science is increasingly getting an airing on social networks, but the scientific community is proceeding with caution.
The Media140 conference in Brisbane yesterday looked specifically at how science-related issues are dealt with in the world of social media, from using platforms like Facebook as a forum to discuss climate change to leveraging the power of the web to run citizen science projects.
Kicking off the conference Andrew Maynard, Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Cente, compared social media to a Jackson Pollock painting - seemingly messy and complicated, but containing underlying clarity and truth. He said social media held huge promise for science communication efforts, but a battle for authority and domination of online discussions often drowned out sensible debate.
Elsewhere conference goers heard about "sock puppets" - cynical attempts to win over online arguments with fake personailities or organisations weighing in with seemingly legitimate commentary.
Science Media Centre manager Peter Griffin joined a panel of journalists and science communicators to discuss the Pepsigate affair - how a major respected science blogging platform was nearly devastated by its move to feature a paid-for blog by scientists from beverages giant Pepsi.
Finally, futurist Kristin Alford closed things out with a keynote address on digital dysphorias - examples of how people are losing themselves in the online world with often devastating results.
If the overall impression was that there's more to lose than gain from engaging in discussion of science-related issues online, there were examples of where the medium really works for science - the use of data visualisation, crowd-sourcing science communication projects and using social networks as a form of peer-review.
Check out the Media140 site for articles, videos and content featured at the conference.
Every Royal
wedding has a science angle
With thousands of
scientists converging on London for tonight's wedding of
Prince William to Kate Middleton, even science is going out
of its way to get in on the action.
The website Embargowatch has collated some of the more interesting and bizarre attmepts by scientific institutions and publications to captialise on the Royal wedding frenzy - incuding the journal Current Biology which asked in a press release pushing some research:
"Will Kate Middleton's brain response toward others change along with her title? A new paper in Current Biology examines how our social status influences the way our brains respond to others of higher or lower rank."
Back in New Zealand, Landcare Research chose to examine the weighty mountain of carbon the wedding will generate with people travelling from all around the globe to attend the wedding in person.
As Time magazine noted:
"Experts from Landcare Research predict the occasion will generate more than 12 times as much greenhouse gases than Buckingham Palace in a whole year, totaling 6,765 tons of carbon dioxide."
Elsewhere on Twitter a different science-related discussion was underway - what should the 29 year-old Prince do to address his growing bald patch - try Rogaine, hair plugs, a number 1 buzz cut or as one tweeter put it: "just leave it be, advertising his testosterone!"
OECD to New
Zealand: Go green
The Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a report
which suggests New Zealand should focus on producing and
exporting technology which will counter green house gases
(GHGs).
The OECD's Economic Survey of New Zealand, in addition to recommending the introduction of a capital gains tax and raising the retirement age, has stated that "Green growth would be key advantage" and "policies to pursue inclusive economic growth with sound environmental effects are essential to secure New Zealand's natural advantages in international competition"
The report notes that New Zealand has the second highest greenhouse gas output intensity in the OECD (after Australia) - almost half of which can be attributed to the agricultural sector. While there isn't any technology currently available to mitigate methane emission from farm animals, the document suggests that New Zealand could become a pioneer in developing such agri-tech and exporting it to the world.
The report also lauded the implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme, but stressed that pricing signals in the scheme need to be strengthened. There was a further warning that other environmental assets may also need to be monetised - for instance water. With increases in intensive dairy farming, water scarcity and quality has become an issue of increasing importance.
As noted in an accompanying press release from the OECD, "The emissions trading scheme is a major development, but market based instruments to give natural assets a value should be used more broadly, notably to allocate water efficiently."
Read
more in the National Business Review
On the science radar
Easter egg stress testing, solar-powered fish (almost), hanging up on E.T., Antarctic crab invasions, invisibility cloaks, royal jelly and royal inbreeding.
Quoted: Dominion Post
"There ought to be a stick as
well as a carrot...This is very contentious, but it's
starting to say that a condition of employment, or enrolment
in a childcare centre or school, is that these are the
vaccinations you must have."
Dr Tim
Blackmore
Wellington Hospital
27th April 2011
New
from the SMC
In the
news:
Royal carbon footprint
analysed - When the UK newspaper the Telegraph
wanted an estimate of the royal wedding's carbon footprint,
they turned to Kiwi experts. At the request of the
newspaper, the CarboNZero team at Landcare Research has
completed a slightly tongue-in-cheek analysis of the carbon emissions
arising from the event.
OECD recommends NZ become green exporter - The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released its 2011 Economic Survey of New Zealand, which suggests the country focus on environmentally beneficial technology for an overseas market.
Immunisation promoted - This week (25-29 April) is New Zealand's National Immunisation Week, promoted by the Ministry of Health. An awareness campaign, which will continue in the coming months, aims to raise New Zealand's immunisation rate for under twos to 95%.
Sciblogs highlights
Some of the highlights of this week's posts include:
Chocolate problems - Why is it so
hard getting chocolate just right? Marcus Wilson gives us a
MasterChef-inspired taste of confectionery
physics.
Physics Stop
The differences between men and women -
Michael Edmonds enters no-(wo)mans land in the battle of
the sexes to discuss male/female
differences.
Molecular Matters
"I was a Skeptic, but..." - What
makes a skeptic a skeptic? Darcy Cowan looks at some
misconceptions about the label.
Skepticon
Pushing stuff with light: how Crookes
radiometers work - Amiee Whitcroft explains
the science behind her latest sci-novelty acquisition.
Misc.ience
Vision & change in undergraduate biology
education - Allison Campbell picks though some of
the difficulties in charting a course for science
students.
BioBlog
Climate Change Denial: Heads in the
Sand - Bryan Walker reviews this latest book
from John Cook and Haydn Washington which lays out the case
against climate change denial.
Hot topic
Research highlights
Medical complicity at Guantanamo Bay: Inspection
of medical records, case files and legal affidavits provides
compelling evidence that medical personnel who treated
detainees at Guantanamo Bay failed to inquire and/or
document causes of physical injuries and psychological
symptoms they observed in the detainees.
PLoS Medicine
Brain areas
'nap' while you're awake: New research reveals how the
brains of sleep-deprived rats briefly 'switch off' some
brain regions while still being technically awake. This
phenomenon was associated with the rats making mistakes in
taxing motor tasks, leading the authors to hypothesise that
it is also the basis of some fatigue-related errors in tired
humans.
Nature
GPS captures
Chilean earthquake: High-resolution GPS data has
unraveled the physics of the giant earthquake that shook
Chile in 2010. Satellite data allowed the researchers to
model the earthquake in greater detail and with better
resolution than prior earthquakes. From the models, they
were able to revise the epicenter of the earthquake and
calculate the speed of the fault rupture - which reached 3.1
kilometers per second.
Science
Street smart
birds need big brains: Identifying the biological traits
that determine which species are likely to succeed in
urbanized habitats is important for predicting global trends
in biodiversity New research links relative brain size with
the ability to persist in novel urban environments in
passarine birds, and has important implications for our
understanding of recent trends in biodiversity.
Biology Letters
Record
number of whales, krill found in Antarctic bays:
Scientists have observed a "super aggregation" of more than
300 humpback whales gorging on the largest swarm of
Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years in bays along the
Western Antarctic Peninsula. the research highlights the
changes in feeding behaviour caused by climate change and
sea ice loss.
PLoS ONE
Jellyfish look up
to get around: The already convoluted visual system of
the box jelly fish just got a little more complex. Research
has shown how four of the organisms 24 eyes always look
upwards regardless of orientation. Field experiments suggest
that this allows the jellyfish to use the overhead leaves of
its mangrove swamp habitat as a visual guide for navigation.
Current Biology
Caterpillars inspire rolling robots: Researchers
have been examining the diverse behaviors of caterpillars to
find solutions for the new generation of search and rescue
soft robots. Their work has focused on the extraordinary
ability of some caterpillars to rapidly curl themselves into
a wheel and propel themselves away from predators. Called
'ballistic rolling', this action serves as the basis for the
design of the GoQBot, a soft material robot prototype.
Bioinspiration &
Biomimetics
Fire ants 'raft' on water to
survive: A recent study is the first to fully examine
how fire ants form rafts to survive floods. The authors used
an engineering approach to investigate how the ants formed
hydrophobic structures to allow large numbers of ants float
on the surface of water.
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences
'Superbug' mechanism
uncovered: For the first time, scientists have been able
to paint a detailed chemical picture of how a particular
strain of bacteria has evolved to become resistant to
antibiotics The research is a key step toward designing
compounds to prevent infections by the recently evolved,
drug-resistant "superbugs" that are infecting hospitalized
patients and others.
Science
'Wide and tall'
clot risk: New research shows that the combination of
being tall and obese, particularly in men, may substantially
raise the risk of developing potentially dangerous blood
clots in veins deep in the body.
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular
Biology
Common background for
behavioural disorders: A large, long-running cohort
study at the University of Otago, Christchurch has
identified common risk factors for two childhood behavioural
conditions: Conduct disorder and Oppositional defiant
disorder. Factors such as low family socioeconomic status,
childhood exposure to physical abuse, sexual abuse or
interparental violence, and maternal smoking during
pregnancy are linked to both disorders.
Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
Carbon nanotube
TV: Carbon nanotubes may soon be part of a display
screen near you. A new study shows that transistors made out
of carbon nanotubes use less power than standard silicon
transistors, while keeping display colors just as bright.
The findings could aid ongoing efforts to make organic
light-emitting diodes more energy efficient and longer
lasting.
Science
Fungus defence
uncovered: Botrytis bunch rot, a disease caused by the
fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, can devastate grape
vineyards. Yet other plants can repel the invader and
protect themselves by mounting a form of chemical warfare
against the fungi through the production of antimicrobial
substances, called phytoalexins.Scientists have uncovered a
key component in the signaling pathway that regulates the
production of phytoalexins to kill the disease-causing
fungus.
Plant Cell
Volcanic ash
warranted air travel shutdown: Airspace closures in
Europe potentially averted tragic consequences after
Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano shot ash high into the
atmosphere in April 2010.e. Danish researchers have analysed
the samples and determined that the costly flight
cancellations had likely been warranted. The volcano
produced ash particles that were especially fine-grained,
hard, sharp, and capable of sandblasting airplane surfaces
such as windows and exposed aluminum parts.
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences
What does ecosystem collapse look
like? Researchers monitoring a range of ecological vital
signs in a remote lake have detected what they say is an
unmistakable warning -- a death knell -- of the impending
collapse of the lake's aquatic ecosystem. Their study
examined the impact of species introduction in an aquatic
environment and identified the extensive changes that occur
as an ecosystem restructures.
Science
Parrot vision:
Although they generally have good vision, it seems
Senegal parrots cannot see whats right under their noses. A
new study describes for the first time the parrot visual
field and suggests that parrots compensate for a lack of
vision directly below their eyes by having a very touch
sensitive bill.
Proceedings of the Royal Society
B
Social ranking in the brain: Our own
social status influences the way our brains respond to
others of higher or lower rank, according to a new fMRI
study . People of higher subjective socioeconomic status
show greater brain activity in response to other high-ranked
individuals, while those with lower status have a greater
response to other low-status individuals.
Current Biology
Policy
updates
Some highlights from the week include:
Antarctic directions strategy launched - New Zealand Government's Antarctic and Southern Ocean Science Directions and Priorities 2010-20 framework document has been officially launched by Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson.
Air quality amendments analysed - The Ministry for the Environment has published its evaluation of Revised National Environmental Standards for Air Quality regulations, exploring options for improving air quality.
National Immunisation Week - The Ministry of Health has been promoting child immunisation this week (23-29 April) and plans to continue the campaign for several months to increase awareness.
Joyce attends digital conference - The Minister for Communications, Steven Joyce, travelled to Tasmania to attend the 2011 Korea Australia New Zealand (KANZ) Summit: Digital Futures to discuss broadband infrastructure and the latest research and developments in digital applications and content.
Turia addresses conference - Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia is attending the WHO Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control in Moscow and has focused her opening speech on New Zealand issues and solutions in a global context.
New govt meat fund - Economic Development Minister David Carter has announced an $850,000 contestable fund to drive further growth of our second-largest export earner, the red meat industry.
Upcoming sci-tech events
National Primary Science Week -
Nationwide, 2-7 May.
Stormwater 2011 Conference - Auckland, 3-6 May.
The decline in New Zealand activism: who cares? - Presentation by Dr Sandra Grey - Wellington, 5 May.
Agencies for Nutrition Action National Conference 2011 - Auckland 3-4 May.
Tackling Wicked Problems: Lessons from Autism Policy - Seminar by Hilary Stace - Wellington, 6 May.
For these and more upcoming
events, and more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar.
ENDS
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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