Comments on: What Are the Most Sucessful Examples of New Media Science Communication?

By: John Kwok

John Kwok — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:07:01 +0000

I saw a superb piece of science journalism last night on “60 Minutes” which profiled the ongoing work and career of celebrated vertebrate paleontologist Jack Horner, who was a consultant to (and the role model for the fictitious Alan Grant) the “Jurassic Park” movies. Along with Horner, there were insightful interviews with noted evolutionary developmental biologist Sean B. Carroll and Horner’s protege, now colleague, Mary Schweitzer. Definitely one of the best examples of televised science journalism not done by a science journalist that I have seen in a while.

By: Kevembuangga

Kevembuangga — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:01:21 +0000

NO, not at all "successes", on the very contrary it is the path to utter debasement of rationality. Because, in the appeal to emotional arguments it is the likes of Malcom Gladwell who will win the audience. Quite paradoxical that it is Michael Nielsen who linked to both topics, a confused guy if there is one in spite of his brilliance.

By: Michael Nielsen » Biweekly links for 11/16/2009

Michael Nielsen » Biweekly links for 11/16/2009 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:53:16 +0000

[...] What Are the Most Sucessful Examples of New Media Science Communication? | The Intersection | Discov… [...]

By: Pascal Lapointe

Pascal Lapointe — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:54:22 +0000

I have a love story with this video, The Inner Life of Cell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVvvx5HGpLg

If you are not a biologist, it is mostly impossible to understand what is it you are seeing, even once you know you are inside a cell.

But it is absolutely irrelevant. Because it is just beautiful.

By: Somite

Somite — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:41:33 +0000

Greg: If it makes you feel any better I recently bought two of your books..:)

http://twitter.com/Toxicpath/status/5713808688

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:52:37 +0000

There are been some graphic (comic) books that explain science starting with Larry Gonick. More recently there is there is The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Mark Schultz, illustrated by Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon. Today I heard about Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation by Michael Keller, illustrated by Nicolle Rager Fuller.

By: Greg Craven

Greg Craven — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:59:12 +0000

Chris,
This may be too late for your presentation to your fellow Fellows, but “The Most Terrifying Video” has garnered around 7.7 million views total on various websites, mostly Break (1 million), my posting on YouTube (2.6 million), and John4′s posting on YouTube (3.4 million before he took it down a year ago).

John4′s posting may be useful to chew on as you guys discuss this. Several months after I’d posted the video the views on my YT posting were in the upper hundred thousands, when someone emailed me calling my attention to my video re-posted on John4′s channel. At that point it had almost 2 million. So the re-posting by someone I didn’t know actually ended up going more viral than my own. No idea how that happened. Part of the chaotic nature of complex networks.

Another mental chew toy for your discussions: the week my book came out I went to my local Border’s, excited to find it with my young daughters. Was distraught to find it buried in the back, spine-out, since I’d hoped it would at least be on the “New non-fiction” shelf at the front . But the interesting point here is that I noticed a book based on *another* viral video (“Where in the Hell is Matt”) *was* face-out in the “New Releases” section. So viral videos don’t necessarily translate to book exposure. I don’t know enough about book publishing to say whether that was because my book sucked, or because there was a marketing problem.

Cheers,
Greg Craven
Corvallis, Oregon

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:25:16 +0000

My only problem with the “Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See” is that he is basically using Pascal’s Wager in terms of Global Warming as opposed to Religion. This same logic works towards just about anything you can throw out there, like building rocket ships to take the top 1% of the Human Race into space with the impending apocalypse scheduled for 2012. If we don’t do it, and we are wrong, the human race will die. If we do it and we are wrong, then we’ve achieved an amazing feat. We if do it and we are right, then we’ve saved the human race, etc.

I think a good example of a viral video show casing science is either “The Power of Ten” or “A Glorious Dawn.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm0bIuAVmOA

By: Leo Martins

Leo Martins — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:11:41 +0000

My favorite viral videos depicting science, along the lines of the LHC rap, are the video clips “Beware the Believers” (Dawkins rap, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaGgpGLxLQw) and the awesome “A Glorious Dawn” (Carl Sagan’s remix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc).

By: Benjamin S. Nelson

Benjamin S. Nelson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:04:14 +0000

There’s a fairly straightforward way of thinking about this. What new scientific facts have I learned lately that I can remember off the top of my head, and where did I get them from? Here’s my top 5 list (of non-academic sources, obviously).

1. Ionization is the separation of electrons from molecules. Wikipedia.
2. Canadian philosophy graduates make up a small percentage of those hired at Canadian philosophy departments. Leiter Reports blog, via Facebook.
3. The large Hadron collider is designed to find the Higgs-Boson. The Daily Show (or Colbert, I forget which).
4. The musical scale is universal (perhaps innate). Youtube.
5. Under some uses, Pluto and Eris are still referred to as a subspecies of “planet” (dwarf planet). Wikipedia.

I don’t recall much from either this blog or Pharyngula that fits the bill, so I guess that’s consistent with your thesis. But when I do use blogs (i.e., Leiter reports), and recall something about them, it’s because it fits with some of my life projects and so on, because they pretend to be reliable resources. So for instance I do recall being frequently motivated to look into academic papers of my own accord in order to shore up my arguments in blog comments, but it’s not relevant to your point I take it.