Saturday, August 16, 2008

Greetings and Many Happy Readings

Science is one of those entities which is all around us, this computer I am typing on, the pen you used to write down a message with, the tap you just turned on to wash your hands – these are all examples of what science has been able to give us. However, despite the degree to which the products of science are integrated into our lives, in general, scientists themselves are not very good at communicating with the wider community.

It is this travesty, which I am aiming to try and lessen through this blog.

My name is Bethany van Hameren and I am currently studying science at the University of Queensland. To be more specific I am studying the Bachelor of Biotechnology. During my studies I have come across much scientific information which I believe isn’t very widely known to those not currently studying science, but which should be because it is important or highly interesting information. None of the opinions or ideas which I may express in this blog are associated with the University of Queensland or any of its staff, it is simply the university where I study.

I hope to use visual aids as much as possible throughout this blog (just not in this first entry obviously) to make it clearer and more interesting. Most of the images which I will use will either be created or photographed by myself, or I will use only with the express permission of those whose image it is and with credit to them. If I ever fail to do this, I encourage you as readers to let me know so that may correct it. My other aim is to write this blog in an order which will hopefully make sense. So that I have given enough related background information on a topic before I talk about it, thus eliminating confusion.

Although I will take the utmost care to make sure that the information which I post on this blog is correct, I also welcome any information to the contrary. I will also try to present information in an unbiased way, however because of my own personal opinions, I won’t be able to do this as successfully as I would like. Thus, I will do my utmost to present both sides of topics when they arise, no matter what the issue, it will probably be obvious however, on which side of the issue I stand.

I also hope to throw in some humor as well because I certainly like to laugh and I think that the more laughter in the world, the better. However, I have been told quite a significant number of times that I am not funny, so I hope that I don’t embarrass myself too much in my attempts to be humorous.

Now to explain a little bit more about why I feel the need to write this blog:

Unfortunately, scientists are not very good at explaining to the public what it is they do, or the reasons for which they do things. We tend to forget that not everyone has the same background knowledge we do, and thus race forward in our details of our new idea/theory/research without stopping to explain important background information about our idea/theory/research. It is this tendency which has led to the building of a wall between lay people and scientists. In the worse cases, this can lead to scientists feeling as though they are underappreciated and that “everyone else” is uneducated, while “everyone else” feels as though scientists are nerdy people with test tubes in uncomfortable places. This can cause very large problems, particularly when it is very important for the scientific community to work hand in hand with the rest of the world to solve a global problem such as, of course, climate change.

So, I hope to use this blog to try and knock down some of the wall which has formed between the lay person and the scientist, to try and improve the world! …at least in some small measure.

Hopefully the first “real” entry into this blog will not take very long to put up.

Wish me luck, I wish you, very many happy readings in the future.

- Bethany


2 comments:

Unknown said...

So good......

Anonymous said...

hey! just want to say ur doing a great job with ur blog so far haha =D keep up the good work!