Note to Self

…Start Journaling More Often
First Post
Sci Comm
Future
Author
Affiliation
Chris Benson II

Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences (Epi-Bio) @ CWRU School of Medicine

Published

April 25, 2023

TL;DR

This is not a recipe blog…you have time to read this blog post! :-)

How it started

I still remember the day I stepped foot into my very first research lab. It was the second semester of my freshmen year at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and I was very nervous because this was uncharted territory for me at the time. Believe it not, the closest I’d ever been to conducting research or being in a lab was through the small research projects my teachers would assign in AP Bio or Chemistry. On top of the nerves and imposter syndrome, I never thought research would be long term thing for me, let alone a career…and oh I was very wrong! I ended up loving it so much that I am in the PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics program here at CWRU. That initial experience led to a 10 year journey of growing Arabidopsis thaliana, creating cell lines to better understand the genetic factors of cell proliferation, and work with broiler chickens at the USDA developing a vaccine to prevent Campylobacter jejuni (no, I did not lose my appetite for chicken after this). Through all of these experiences, I got to see science change at a rapid pace and learn about the new innovations that came along with these changes, which included how we share our work and its importance. Looking back, I wish that I got to closely document the research I was doing at the time through Twitter or various blogspots like we can today.

The Light Bulb

The book How to be a Modern Scientist by Jeffery Leek presents key topics that are useful for new and current scientists as we all navigate the waters of academia. Most importantly, Leek touches on how to be a modern scientist in the virtual world through social media and blogging. Prior to starting at CWRU, decided that one of my main goals as a PhD student is to incorporate social media and science communication into my work. I chose this goal for two reasons:

  1. I want to utilize social media and other communication methods to keep up with the rapid changes in my field and,
  2. I want to help translate and explain scientific topics for people outside of STEM without the normal jargon. If I do use it, it will be in the context of a learning moment.

As the only science minded person in my family, I noticed that as I started to progress in my journey in research, I was having a difficult time explaining my research to members of my family. Therefore, an explanation on how the regulation of Strigolactones and Karikins leads to changes in seed germination in plants resulted in many blank stares and “Oh that’s nice!” at family gatherings. From this experience, I decided that it would be a great idea to start a Twitter account devoted to this goal and possibly start a podcast with a friend who is in the medical field. In a matter of minutes the Twitter account was created but the podcast was placed on the back burner. Leek makes a good point in the book that we should use resources like Twitter to raise awareness our profiles and research because it can be useful for everyone regardless if you are in the scientific community or not. This could be an opportunity to meet other scientists in the field whom you may never meet unless it’s at conference. Or, this could be the jumping point for collaborating with people outside of research who are approaching the same research problem from a different approach such as public policy and community outreach. Even though this can lead to progress research for you or someone else, we still have to be mindful that there are some people who are going to oppose your ideas, which Leek addresses in the chapter on Blogging. In the age of “Well I read on Google…” and “There was this Facebook post…”, people are going to have their opinions on whatever you post instantaneously or as Leek calls it “Internet Speed.” Therefore, it is up to you on how you want to handle the critiques whether it is responding when you feel ready it or ignoring them completely and moving on. After reading this book, I think this was very helpful in further supporting my goals in science communication and learning where I need to focus my efforts next.

What’s Next?

When I first created this website in PQHS 431, I created a skeleton that would allow me to incorporate the goal I had in mind. However, I rarely kept up with this site due to other obligations, but I plan to work on my site this summer and get rid of the “Coming soon” comments I left throughout the site originally as place markers. For the projects section, I plan to showcase the research project(s) I am working on in my research lab along with some data science projects that I would like to do as practice (and for fun). Another sub-section is for spatial projects. This semester, I had the opportunity to take the new Geospatial Analysis course (PQHS 427) and learn how to use Python as a tool for Spatial Epi. Like the data science project section, I want to showcase some of the work I have done so far and future work in Geospatial Analysis. Once the large bulk of the housekeeping for the site is complete, I would like to focus on creating a space for jargon free science topics in collaboration with other scientists and work on using my Twitter account more often.