Welcome to 'Demystifying Science'!
Date: 2022-08-17, Wednesday
Hello to all who are reading this!
My name is Eilidh, and I am a PhD student studying biophysics. I have a goal of becoming a scientific communicator when I graduate in a couple of years, and I thought a tumblr blog would be a wonderful place to start thinking about this. As the title implies, I have a passion for making science accessible to people who aren't in science fields but still like to read about it. I think learning about science can be a wonderful hobby no matter what your job or lifestyle is!
Considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the initial challenges associated with how the public received information and recommendations concerning the virus, clear scientific communication seems to be rather lacking in today's political, economic, and social climate. I think it's of great importance to be able to communicate science effectively to anyone, and that is my goal for this blog. Of course, I will be learning on the way, so feedback and engagement is much appreciated!
I don't really believe that 'science is hard'. Sometimes it's just explained in a rather non-intuitive way. I used to struggle with science and math when I was younger -- I was always better with reading and writing. I do enjoy math and science, though I find I have to work really hard at it to gain a good understanding. I've had great teachers and professors throughout the years who have helped explain things in terms I found more accessible. I am grateful for them.
Science, above all, isn't just a compendium of facts. It's a process that is used to figure out how the world works. I think that's beautiful, and I hope it can be beautiful for you too.
What this blog will be about (at least in the beginning)
The sun the scientific world revolves around is the journal article. Estimated over a million published per year, the scientific article provides the backbone for advancement and understanding. Without them, science would progress in a vacuum, which would make it slower and the creative environment wouldn't flourish. Sometimes one article can entirely change the course of a PhD (I've seen it happen)! If you wanted to put science learning down to a basic unit, the journal article is it.
My goal with this blog is to help demystify journal articles I and you find interesting, as well as provide updates on the research experiences I go through as a upper-year PhD candidate. I will do my best to explain articles in an accessible way, and it'll help with my goal of reading more, too! If you have recommendations or curiosities, please send them my way! If you'd like information about graduate school in the sciences in general, I'd be happy to answer questions to the best of my ability as well.
If anybody is interested in guest-writing an article for this blog or having an article edited, please let me know via messages! I really like editing work too. I love writing in general and do creative writing as a hobby. I am hoping to turn writing into my career.
I hope everyone who see this will enjoy what the blog has to offer! Apart from the introductory posts, my tentative post schedule will be once per week -- three general posts and one journal article dissection to start. I will let everyone know if this changes due to other circumstance.
Thanks for joining this journey with me, and please consider giving this blog a follow if it piques your interest!