Engagement

Reviewing the National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan – Twitter on steroids?

by Andrew Maynard November 27, 2010

Here’s a bit of trivia: with the 4000 character limit on comments on the National Nanotechnology Initiative Draft Strategic Plan, you might as well ditch the official portal, and tweet your comments to the Office of Science and Technology Policy – 28 tweets would do it! As you can probably guess, I’ve just been compiling [...]

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What happens when you cross a spider with a goat? Complete the story:

by Andrew Maynard October 27, 2010

Complete the following: Setting: A well known and sometimes off-beat technology commentator explores new breakthroughs on a popular TV science and tech show. Story: Spiders’ silk is incredibly strong, but in short supply (ever tried harvesting silk from a spider?). So why not take the gene responsible for making spider silk, and splice it into [...]

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Rehabilitating “Risk”

by Andrew Maynard October 14, 2010

Now that I’ve had some time to get to grips with my new position as Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, I thought it was high time I started letting people know something about where the Center will be heading over the next few years.  Cross-posted on the Risk Science Center’s home [...]

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Is nanotechnology suffering from “silent rave” syndrome?

by Andrew Maynard August 26, 2010

I couldn’t resist finishing the August in the Archives series with this piece on “silent rave” syndrome, which I am sad to say still seems to inflict the emerging technologies community! Originally posted October 5 2008 The silent rave might seem a rather bizarre social phenomenon; a group of strangers converging in a public place [...]

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I’m A Scientist – where the prize money went

by Andrew Maynard July 14, 2010

I love books – the old fashioned kind, printed with ink on paper.  As a kid, books were my source of education, inspiration and entertainment.  As an adult, I still find there’s something oddly satisfying about picking up a sheaf of printed and bound pages and immersing myself in them. So it’s perhaps not surprising [...]

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Scientist listen to the public? Surely you’re joking Mr. Mooney!

by Andrew Maynard July 4, 2010

With apologies to Chris Mooney, and all the many scientists that really do get the need to listen to people.  And also with a rather large tongue in my cheek: Dear Mr Mooney, I’ve been way too busy this week doing important sciency stuff to engage with the trivialities of the popular press.  But this [...]

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I’m A Scientist – A brilliant British idea that needs to come to the US!

by Andrew Maynard June 23, 2010

Today was a tough day on I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here – three live chats almost back to back, followed by the first evictions.  And believe me – even though I live to fight another day, the evictions were traumatic!  But more of that below.  At the end of a long day, [...]

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Welcome to real science!

by Andrew Maynard June 19, 2010

The way science is taught, the way it’s portrayed on TV and in the press, he way it’s promoted by science-advocates and science bloggers, often seems to adhere to a rather pompous and hubristic view of science as the ultimate bastion of truth and certainty.  So it’s been rather refreshing this week to see a [...]

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Day one of I’m A Scientist – It’s the teens who are training us!

by Andrew Maynard June 15, 2010

It’s a quarter to one in the morning Eastern Time, and I’ve just polished off the last question of the day on I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here!  I should be heading off to bed, but I wanted to capture some initial thoughts on this exercise first. I’ve lost count of how many [...]

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A spectator’s guide to I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here!

by Andrew Maynard June 13, 2010

If you want to participate in the rather fab science event I’m A Scientist, Get me Out Of Here I’m afraid you are out of luck – unless you happen to be one of the 100 scientists and 8000 teenagers taking part. But you can still get a thrill from watching the competition unfold on-line [...]

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I’m A Scientist – Check out the competition!

by Andrew Maynard June 1, 2010

Reading the Twitter feeds, it seems that a number of scientists participating in I’m A Scientist, Get me Out of Here have struggled with their profiles.  It’s one thing to design an elegant experiment or write a smart paper – but describing yourself in three words or telling a joke that’s actually funny isn’t something [...]

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Deja vu and synthetic biology – will we learn the lessons of nanotech and genetic modification?

by Hilary Sutcliffe May 25, 2010

A guest blog by Hilary Sutcliffe, Director of MATTER, a UK think tank which explores how new technologies can work for us all. The other day, I wrote a piece on the implications of synthetic biology where I  suggested that we “need to place discussions on a science basis, and not get over-distracted by ethical [...]

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I’m a scientist – and I’m going to be hanging on for dear life’s sake!

by Andrew Maynard May 17, 2010

I can’t sleep, I’m distracted, I keep breaking out in a cold sweat.  And the reason?  I have a deceptively simple question going my head – and I don’t know the answer! The question… well, I’ll come to that in a minute.  I’d rather put the moment of embarrassment off for at least a few [...]

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Found in translation – Journalist Andréia Azevedo Soares’ take on a Brazilian nanotechnology documentary

by Andrew Maynard April 25, 2010

Language is often seen as a barrier to communication.  But sometimes it provides a valuable buffer between hearing, understanding and responding, and allows unique perspectives that are often drowned out to be heard. A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Brazilian TV presenter Luís Fernando Silva Pinto for the TV Globo program Ciência & [...]

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The secrets of engaging teens with science

by Sophia Collins April 13, 2010

A guest blog by Sophia Collins, producer of the on-line teen science event “I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!” “itz hometime but we want to stay and ask questions” These are the words of a 14 year old student, at a school in inner-city London. The school has some of the poorest academic [...]

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Making sense of nanotechnology – a piece of cake!

by Andrew Maynard April 4, 2010

The quality’s a bit flaky, but I thought I would upload this video for a bit of fun.  It’s the first – and possibly the last – time I will simultaneously attempt to unravel the mysteries of nanotechnology… while baking a cake! Filmed at the National Museum of American History as part of Nanodays 2010, [...]

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“I’m a Scientist…” – Seriously addictive science engagement!

by Andrew Maynard March 24, 2010

The website “I’m a Scientist – Get me out of here” should come with a government warning – something along the lines of “Visiting this site could seriously disrupt your professional, social and personal live while altering your perceptions on getting kids hooked on science – proceed with extreme caution.”  In fact I would probably [...]

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