Make Your Data Talk

Making Data Talk
Communicating Public Health Data to the Public, Policy Makers, and the Press

A cyber-seminar today (January 26th, 2010) from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Eastern.

This cyber seminar is part of and kicks off a series of monthly events by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The goal of these events is to “engage researchers, cancer control, and public health practitioners in a discussion around the successes and challenges of translating research into practice.”

Obviously, we are very excited about the NCI’s efforts, because one of our goals here at Closing the Science Gap is to engage the academic research community in communicating effectively with the public and shaping science policy.

Read more information about this event.

More details about the event from the NCI:

Event presenters will provide practical suggestions on how scientists and other public health practitioners can better communicate data to the public, policy makers, and the press in typical real-world situations. Following the presentation, you will be invited to share your experiences during an interactive question and answer session.

Featured Presenters:

David Nelson, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, National Cancer Institute

Brad Hesse, Ph.D.
Chief, Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, National Cancer Institute

To register, please follow this link: Register Now!

After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the toll free number, passcode, and your unique PIN. For more information, please contact Margaret Farrell at margaret-farrell@nih.gov or Alissa Gallagher at alissa.gallagher@nih.gov.

Using Art to Close the Science Gap

When we started this website, we sought to identify approaches that would help us in closing the widening gap between science and society.

We decided our first approach will be ART. We are pleased to announce the launch of Science Art Gallery .com.

The goals of Science Art Gallery is to blur the lines between art and science, such that our visitors (especially our non-scientist audience) would appreciate the visual as well as the conceptual beauty that science exhibits.

In addition, Science Art Gallery will feature science-inspired art for sale. A portion of every sale will be donated to fund research.

Taken together, Science Art Gallery is a self-sustaining mechanism to simultaneously close the science gap while raising funds to support cancer research.

Start a Blog!

Would you like to “Close the Gap” between your research and society? Here is a simple solution:

Start a blog! You can create a free blog in about 10 minutes using Blogger or Wordpress. Here is what you can blog about (and why):

1. your research and how it relates to the public.
This will “close the gap” by making your work more relevant to the public. In addition, individuals will understand the importance of your work and how it may help people and society in general.

2. your thoughts about anything!
As a scientist who uses the scientific method, you are almost always guaranteed to present a fresh perspective, critical thinking skills, and a scientific approach to general issues. While it may seem tenuous, I strongly believe that applying a scientific approach to many general areas of life will help many individuals and our society in general to become more responsible.

If nothing else, it will serve as a brief distraction for you… which, in my experience, usually refreshes my mind and help me bring a fresh perspective to any task or project on which I am working.

If you need technical help/assistance with setting up your blog or if you prefer a self-hosted (your-unique-domain.com) blog, please let me know at email [at] ClosingtheScienceGap [dot] com, and I would very gladly help you get started.