Paul Weissfellner

Prof. Fenn

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

October 17, 2016

This article, entitled “Can the U.S. Really Get Astronauts to Mars by 2030?”, was published in response to an enormous announcement by the Obama administration: the United States is planning on launching human-staffed missions to mars by 2030. This article takes a unique approach, in that it is about science but does not focus that much on the science itself. Rather, the emphasis is on what is possible; it lays out a series of common questions about the proposed mission and answers them in a clear, concise way. The science of the mission itself is extremely complicated: the engineering behind the rockets, the life support systems, etc. are all far too complex for the average person to understand, so the article attempts to take this exciting news closer to home by making it relatable and bringing as many people in, regardless of their level of scientific literacy.

Simon Lee                                                                     Approximately  180 Words

Shl5@geneseo.edu

Scientific Writing 105-19

Why a Goat may Stare at You with Puppy Dog Eyes

This article is about why certain animals that are domesticated, such as dogs and goats, look at humans with the unmistakeable “puppy dog eyes”. These researchers conducted a simple experiment by putting food in a container with a lid and making the goat open it. Once the goats were successfully able to do that the researchers made the lid unremovable. When humans were looking at the goat, the goat would almost immediately look at the researchers when it was not able to remove the lid. The researching team suggest that many animals will exhibit similar behavior only after spending significant amounts of times with humans.I think this is an effective public-facing article because it is short and captivating.  The writer is able to remove all the complex scientific terms that would be in a typical scientific article and made it so that people without a scientific background could enjoy the article and learn something.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/why-a-goat-may-stare-at-you-with-puppy-dog-eyes/

Juniper Tremper
Scientific Writing 105-19
Geneseo, NY
~265 words

Plebians Prefer Twitter over Science Magazines
Juniper Tremper

The biggest trouble scientists run into when trying to publicize their work is the inability of the general public to maintain interest long enough to gain understanding of the subject material. Therefore, a style of writing has evolved to present modern science in such a way as to not scare away the people who stop reading after the first two sentences. Rachel Nuwer’s article, “Twitter May Be Faster Than FEMA Models For Tracking Disaster Damage,” which is visible online, utilizes the format by breaking the textual element into pieces. The long and descriptive title, with an equally lengthy subtitle, makes no effort to mislead as to the article’s content. Each paragraph is only two or three sentences long, and each makes an immediate point, often referencing other case studies or professionals involved without explaining anything in detail because since the article is published online, any external information links directly to its source. Nuwer’s article discusses the very real potential to analyze the path of a storm by tracking its Twitter presence, which in itself could become a lengthy article citing specific numbers and the reliability of the corrolation, but the author abbreviates each point into extremely concise statements which are easy to follow from one paragraph to the next, and easy to remember for the reader to tell their friends about later. The actual values and scientific evidence are, unfortunately, virtually unimportant. The inclusion of a graphic, or a map, as Nuwer uses, is all the reader needs to put faith in the conclusion they are presented with, and share news of the article with friends and acquaintances.

For reference, Nuwer’s article can be found at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/twitter-may-be-faster-fema-models-tracking-disaster-damage-180958391/

Will Gerber                      About 240 words

10 MacVittie Circle

Geneseo, New York 14454

(315) 250-9687

wrg1@geneseo.edu

Neurological Impact of of Poverty on Depression

By Will Gerber

Quality public-facing science writing appeals to readers by maintaining the complexity of the topic it is discussing without flying over the readers’ heads. Susan Scutti’s article “Effects Of Poverty Impact Gene Expression In The Brain” does this exceptionally well. It provides enough background on the topic for the reader to understand without being overwhelmed, and explains the results of the study in a similar fashion. It begins at the top, with a quick synopsis of DNA’s role in protein production, how chemical tags can modify the amount of a protein produced, and seamlessly connects these to the role of the neurotransmitter serotonin’s role in depression.

Scutti does not get into too much detail about the experimental process, but rather affirms its validity by describing its population size and bias removal (132 white teenagers from differing socioeconomic statuses). When relaying the experiment’s results, she returns to her introductory science lesson about protein production; “Teens growing up in impoverished households accumulated, over the course of three years, greater quantities of the chemical tag SLC6A4, the depression linked gene.”

To wrap up the article, Scutti outlines the importance of this specific study and describes further research. In doing this she makes the reader look forward to new developments in the field.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/effects-poverty-gene-expression-major-depression-387656

Alec Toufexis

agt9@geneseo.edu

INTD105-19 Scientific Writing

3D Printed Bones

Cassie Martin demonstrates her ability to write an effective public-facing science article in her piece, “Superflexible, 3D Printed Bones Trigger New Growth”.  Her article expresses a very relevant topic that may intrigue both experts in the medical field and those who are less knowledgable with the subject. The concise nature of the article gets straight to the point that this new material can pose a number of advantages over the traditional natural bone grafting material. The fact that the article delves into the main points keeps the reader from getting confused or distracted by unnecessary verbiage. The author also references to the inventor of the material and the constituents that make it up. She seems well read on this material and this acts as a way to fortify her credibility with the audience. Also, to make the article more noteworthy, she adds effective videos that demonstrate the flexibility and strength of the material.  Actually seeing the material in action is a good way to draw the audiences attention. The author also gives a relevant finding in an actual experiment with a monkey and how the material integrated new bone into its skull within a few months. The experiment acts as proof that the material is effective. Overall the article gives the audience the impression that this new material is an important innovation that can make the bone healing process less grueling and less expensive than traditional methods.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/superflexible-3-d-printed-%E2%80%9Cbones%E2%80%9D-trigger-new-growth?tgt=nr

Mike Emanuele    10/16/16

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing 220 words

The Importance of a public facing science writing piece is to convey an event in the science community to the members outside it. Science writing authors can interpret lab reports of data and discoveries inside the scientific world, into translation for the general public. “Unusual bird-human partnership runs even deeper than scientists thought” by  Elizabeth Pennisi is an exceptional example of public facing science writing. The article discusses the mutual relationship between African honey hunters and the breed of bird “the greater honey guide.” According to the article, the honey hunters make special bird calls, resembling a trill grunt, that in response to the call these birds will guide the hunters to nests. The article continues by providing the results of experimentation and anecdotes from several researchers to support its claim. This helps readers understand the substance of the results.

What the article fails at is connecting the “why is this important to us” idea. It only briefly wrapped it up in a sentence. However, some readers could use their imagination as to what could come of the findings. But, I believe the author could include at least a few ideas within reason considering her resources and time invested into the subject. Otherwise, the piece successfully explains to the reader a science experiment simple enough for large portion of readers to understand it.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/unusual-bird-human-partnership-runs-even-deeper-scientists-thought

Patrick Jones                                                               Approximately 250 words

pwj2@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19

Two Factors of Public-Facing Science Writing

There are two factors that make a piece of public-facing science writing good, and “Why a goat may stare at you with puppy dog eyes” by Nsikan Akpan is a great example of these two factors. Firstly, a good piece of public-facing science writing has to build integrity and data without losing the readers. Science writing can often get confusing and complicated due to the need to introduce multiple sources and figures, but most of the public doesn’t have the background knowledge or patience to read through paragraphs of numbers and results. Akpan does a great job of integrating important facts and figures without getting too confusing. For example, Akpan wrote, “The farm animals typically made eye contact within 20 seconds when the researchers faced forward, but then waited six times as long when the researchers had their backs turned.” Within this one line Akpan was able to share the results of the experiment without losing the attention of the reader. The second factor is the information must affect or interest a large group the public. For example, Akpan uses a quote by Narworth that says, “We are interested in the exact purpose of this human-directed behavior, for instance, if they use it as a direct request for help from humans,” which connects the experiment to a large group of animal loving readers by allowing the reader to think about how this information could change the relationship between humans and domesticated animals. By incorporating these two factors, Akpan’s piece qualifies as a good example of public-facing science writing.

Justin D’Souza                                                                                         250 Words       INTD 105 Science Writing

A good public facing piece of science writing must convey many facets of a topic, such as its significance to the reader, data, and summarize rigorous studies into layman’s terms. The article “Malaria drug causes brain damage that mimics PTSD: case study” by Patricia Kime does a good job of fulfilling these requirements. The article gives insight into a serious issue, that a drug “mefloquine,” used by the US Army to help Malaria victims, may in fact lead to symptoms normally characteristic to PTSD, such as rage, anxiety, and other cognitive issues. The article effectively establishes the significance of this by giving an anecdote about a soldier who was unable to take care of his family due to the side effects, allowing readers to grasp that this drug issue is a problem.

The article also does a good job of summarizing studies looking at this drug. The author recognizes that the case study that produced the example of the solider and his family was one “snapshot” and not everyone might experience the same results. But they analyze more in depth studies and reveal that such problems with the drug have been noted before. This allows the reader to understand that this issue is not a fluke but something more serious and real.

The article did not use much technical language and instead relied on easy to understand numbers and timelines of events to convey information, allowing it to educate a broader audience on the issue.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/08/11/malaria-drug-causes-permanent-brain-damage-case-study/88528568/

Rachael Natoli                                                                                                  10/15/16

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing                                         About 230 Words

“Why a Goat May Stare at You With Puppy Dog Eyes” by Nsikan Akpan is a very good example of public facing science writing. It explains the topic clearly and simply to a an audience who possibly would not understand and or is not interested in hearing every piece of evidence about the subject that was studied. Including a lot of data can bog down an article making it an arduous task to read and difficult comprehend to the general public, even if the topic in general interests them. A good piece of public facing writing must teach the reader about the research generally and compellingly while also explaining why the experiment or finding is important to the reader and how it may affect them in the future. In this article specifically, enough but not too much complex information is included about an experiment in which goats are trained to do a task and then when the same task is made more difficult the goat would look into the eyes of the human in the room. The researchers seem to believe this eye contact is a form of animal to human communication. The article then goes on to explain why this response of eye contact is unique and important because it is rarely seen in undomesticated animals; they wonder if the animal is requesting help from the humans. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/why-a-goat-may-stare-at-you-with-puppy-dog-eyes/