From the American Chemical Society, a call for science superheros. I suppose this means the Goreacle is not in the running.
Remedies for science’s shortage of superheroes
DENVER, Aug. 28, 2011 — One of the most serious personnel shortages in the global science and engineering workforce — numbering more than 20 million in the United States alone — involves a scarcity of real-life versions of Superman, Superwoman and other superheroes and superheroines with charm, charisma, people skills and communication skills.
That’s the premise behind an unusual symposium occurring here today at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world largest scientific society. Entitled “Empowering Tomorrow’s Science Super Heroes,” it opens a discussion on how to give scientists a touch of the panache of the stock comic book and Hollywood characters who worked for the public good.
“We are seeking ways to equip scientists to better communicate and connect with the rest of society,” said Donna J. Nelson, Ph.D., an organizer of the session. It is among events at the meeting, which includes more than 7,500 scientific presentations, initiated by Nancy B. Jackson, Ph.D., ACS president. “The well-equipped superhero and superheroine has the communications skills to explain their work and the wonder and importance of science in an understandable way,” Nelson explained. “They have an awareness of public policy, how science connects with societal issues and even the ability to use a bit of humor.”
Nelson, who is with the University of Oklahoma and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said those skills add up to super-hero-level leaders who can inspire students, build public support for science and engage in key public policy decisions. Three of her models for science superheroes are the late Richard E. Smaley, Ph.D.; Harold Kroto, Ph.D.; and Robert F. Curl, Ph.D., who shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “All three have been great organizers and leaders with superb social skills and just the kind of people to get kids interested in a career in science,” Nelson said.
Nelson also praised the Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the Nobel Prizes, presented each year just before the real Nobels, but for 10 unusual or trivial “achievements” in scientific research. The self- proclaimed aim of the prizes is to “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
In addition to a presentation on the Ig Nobel Prize, the superheroes event will include speakers from NOVA’s public scientific information outreach, science cafes, science festivals and other projects that accomplish the superhero mission.
Presentations in the superheroes symposium with summaries of the presentations include:
- Science outreach: Demonstrating the value of science. Jennifer Larese, NOVA Outreach Coordinator. As individuals, people learn in slightly different manners and at different rates of speed. As informal science educators, scientists have a unique opportunity to use a variety of formats, experiences and media to engage and excite their audiences. Today there are countless new electronic media tools being created, almost daily. This presentation will briefly cover science outreach as a transmedia opportunity to connect with the public.
- Infusing moving media into instruction. Janet English, Instructor, El Toro High School, Mission Viejo, Calif. The main job for movie and TV superheroes is to save the world, and this is why many consider scientists superheroes. There are numerous ways that chemists and other scientists can affect children’s learning and help promote a love of science. The media also can play a pivotal role in students’ learning, and teachers can discuss how the media is used (or not used) in a thought-provoking way in the classroom. Scientists also can contribute to improving the mass media and how they can be role models for children.
- Creative engagement at science cafes. John Cohen., M.D., University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Immunology, Denver. A Café Scientifique brings a scientist to talk directly with the public in pleasant relaxed surroundings. PowerPoint is banned to encourage dialog, rather than a lecture. There is no moderator, so the conversation finds its correct level without imposed dumbing-down. Speakers frequently say that talking at the Café Sci was one of the best experiences of their career. So do audiences and organizers.
- Here come the Science Festivals! Kishore Hari, Director, Bay Area Science Festival. There are many ways that science festivals are raising awareness about a tremendous grassroots movement to celebrate and elevate science. Science festivals hope to rally whole communities to celebrate science as alive and local. Festivals aim to inspire youth to consider science studies and careers, and adults to cultivate a life-long interest in science and technology.
- The Ig Nobel Prize: Never dull, never boring awards in chemistry. Marc Abrahams, Editor, Annals of Improbable Research. The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. Every year since 1991, 10 new prizes have been awarded in chemistry, physics and other fields. The winners journey to Harvard University for the gala ceremony in which genuine Nobel laureates shake their hands and hand them their prizes. The “Igs” have spawned live shows worldwide and video features. They celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine and technology.
The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
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I think Josh’s take on Joe Romm as Super Chicken is a good start. Just put a “S” in a crest on him and you’re done.
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If scientists would just start telling truth about their research and quit hyping it to extreme levels of unbelievability, maybe the public would again start putting some trust back into science and scientists.
I’m a retired biochemist who grew up with parents and educators who would have given me an extremely hard time if I had started lying and cheating like the so-called “superstars” of “climate science” do today.
Ethics is not something one learns in a graduate course on ethics. It is something one must start learning from early childhood and never stop learning.
Are there no adults left in these institutions? Is marketing down to a wider audience more important than seeking the kind of audience that will work and study to master scientific self-discipline?
Or have the real scientists gone “on strike”, a la Atlas Shrugged, and are staying out of it while these sundry self-serving societies self-destruct on their own?
May I nominate Syun-Ichi Akasofu, author of “Two Natural Components of the Recent Climate Change” (April 30, 2009. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks), at http://people.iarc.uaf.edu/~sakasofu/little_ice_age.php
I’m an ACS member, closing in on 30 years, and almost resigned a couple of times because of ACS’s stance on AGW (alarmist as one might ressuppose). I plan to make 30 years and then perhaps my resignation letter might be taken as more impactful.
In any case, Rudy Baum, editor of ACS C&ENews is like the Joker of AGW and carbon dioxide is on his axis of evil molecules.
Dan Lee says:
August 28, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Are there no adults left in these institutions?
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Dan you’re exactly right….
It’s the no one fails, everyone can become a scientist.
It used to be that only the best really made it…That’s also
why there’s so much junk science being cranked out.
Let’s go over all those great “scientists” who made the major contributions to society during the 19th and early 20th century..
First was the inventor of the telegraph! Samuel B. Morse. Whoops, sorry, he was a potrait artist.
OK, ok, then let’s cite…the man who invented the:
1. Phonograph
2. Motion Picture camera
3. Electric Light Bulb
4. Useable Microphone and Earpiece for telephony,
Thomas Alva Edison, Whoops sorry, home schooled, no earned degrees, no credentials as a “scientist”.
Well, DANG IT, I can do better than that. How about the great academic Langley? Calculated you
might be able to “fly” using ground effect with a steam power heavier than air aircraft.
Whoops, sorry, died in a crash trying. Done in by two BICYCLE mechanics from Ohio, Orville and Wilber Wright. Again, no scientific credentials.
Come on, I can do it somewhere. Let’s try…RADIO! Hey, the foundation laid by Micheal Faraday.
Whoops, once again, NO formal training. Gosh darn, we do have to admit that James Clerk Maxell creeps in here, and he DID have a formal background. What was that little paper, 1858, “On Faraday’s Lines of Force”. Alas, died before he could DO anything with it.
Then along came Hierick Hertz. DID do real experements, was a real “scientist”. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Died young.
So that torche went to Giliano Marconi, who DID develop a PRACTICAL method of “radio” transmission and detection. Whoops, TELEGRAPH ENGINER, not technically a SCIENTIST.
Well, that’s the end of TODAY’S lecture on the IMPORTANCE of “science super heroes”.
Next week, we talk about great contributors to the field of Phrenology.
Max
It would probably be a lot easier to find “Science superheroes” if only honesty would return to science, and if politics were removed. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen as long as the baby-boomers with their warped, toxic, self-serving worldview are running the show.
Return anthropogenic climate disruption to it’s correct classification as a disproved, or at least unproved hypothesis, and more people will welcome “science” back into their daily thought processes.
God save us from this – they are asking for a more powerful propaganda machine. Do honest work! Have high standards! Put your computers away for awhile and in the silence that follows, think a lot! Stop pushing out low calorie science by the bushel- the kind that is ripped apart here everyday (count 4 dead polar bears all together in a 2 mile wide band visible from the air across 200miles (400sq mi). Divide the area of the arctic by 400sq mi. and multiply by 4 to get the estimated number of dead bears!!!). Scientists for hundreds of years enjoyed respect and even exaltation. They have lost a lot precisely because of this kind of stuff. You could have knocked me over with feather when I learned that the number of scientific papers released by the Harvard grad who outed the paywalled inventory was 2.5 million!! How do these compare with the work of about a couple of dozen people who’s names grace the physical laws that explain the universe. Look to them for models for your superheroes. Batman didn’t do standup, play the banjo and lead the toastmasters – he was a shy, solitary guy filled with humility who lived in a dark cave-like place and couldn’t stand evil, dishonesty, bullying and that kind of stuff.
I think the problem is they can’t find a “superhero” who will push the message they want. If Dr. Nelson really wants to have scientists and engineers “engage in key public policy decisions”, then perhaps they can look beyond those who have a preconceived notion of the state of the theory of AGW.
Hell, I’ve only got my Bachelors in electrical engineering, but I’ll volunteer! But I am missing the key requirement of doting faith in the AGW hypothesis . . .
I’m 64 years old now, an ACS member (sigh), and a chemist. I remember that when I was in high school, they had “real chemistry sets”. You could even get more interesting chemicals from your local pharmacist. I always had ambitions to be an “exothermic chemist”. No such luck.
Maybe there are some science superheros in old Gary Larson cartoons. There surely are plenty of antiheros.
Clearly the folks at ACS didn’t consider that I really don’t want to be saved.
I have it good a lifestyle only afforded to Kings and the Nobility in the past and even they could only dream of the long live I enjoy today.
Todays science has only a shorter more miserable live in store for me with less for me and preferably without me.
No thanks.
Science is moving overseas as American industry and real science is debunked, ridiculed, and people livelihoods threatened by the likes of the mainstream media and anti-science groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the editors of magazines such as Science or Nature, and governmental entities such as the FDA and the EPA, all of which use bogus science as a political weapon.
Dena says:
August 28, 2011 at 1:47 pm
“This is a real sore point with me. I don’t object to a formal education but often a formal education teaches you to only think in one way and is hard for a creative person to conform to.”
Theo Goodwin says:
August 28, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Very true. There are some people who do not travel the beaten path. However, if you can get into a first rate graduate school, you might find that your problems are solved. How do you do that without an undergraduate degree? Take a course taught by a professor of the graduate school that is open to graduates and undergraduates. Sometimes you do not have to graduate to be accepted to graduate school.
Sounds good but in my case I was the first to attend college so my parents couldn’t advise me. My high school adviser put me in Liberal arts instead of Engineering because she didn’t understand my interest and I was never aware that there were resources available and the university that could assist me with issues such as this. Being a bit shy at the time I also didn’t ask or think of questions like this. Think I went to some no name school? This happened to me at Arizona State University. I was lucky that I found Computer Programming and I have been able to support myself with this profession, but the lack of a degree has come into play more than once.
What you suggest is good advice for somebody who already understands the education system but I suspect many students don’t unless they have somebody to help them.
“The main job for movie and TV superheroes is to save the world, and this is why many consider scientists superheroes.”
Uhhh, I think we already have quite enough people who want to “save the world” from something…anything. What we really need are scientists who can develop a vaccine against the current epidemic of stupidity.
Excelsior!!!
@max Hugoson Edison home schooling included R.G.Parker’s scientific textbook Natural and Experimental Philosophy and his mother was a teacher. He was also an alumnus of the Cooper Union and mentored by Franklin Leonard Pope. So while his education was unconventional, it’s not as if he went off into the desert and came back with the lightbulb.
Ditto Goodwin. There are several heroes in the realm of climate. Svensmark and folks like Soon and Baliunas who take a lickin and keep on tickin. Fight for the truth no matter how often the supervillains like Jones and Mann knock them down.
A more direct type of hero is found in agriculture research, where Norman Borlaug and his successors have saved more lives than Superman ever dreamed of. Opposing them, the pork-busting supervillains like Coburn continue to mock and delete useful ag research because it sounds funny to city slickers.
Real Science doesn’t need a superhero, if it’s true science, it’s one already.
Scientists just can’t be superheroes. Insane super-villainy is the way to go.
The scientist is Prof. Tanaka who warns the world that a clam the size of Osaka is going to ravage Tokyo. The hero is the guy who actually believes him, finds out from him how to destroy the monster, and gets off with Prof. T’s beautiful daughter.
The scientist is the nerd in glasses who designs the spaceship. The hero is the guy who flies it out to destroy the killer asteroid, and gets off with the beutiful female co-pilot.
That’s why scientists go mad and become supervillains. They think that if their army of giant robot crabs succeeds in taking over the earth, they might have a chance with Prof. T’s beautiful daughter.
Don’t know about superheroes, but the “non-profit” ACS is home to some super-salaries.
http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2008/01/02/acs-executive-compensations-for-2006/
Imagine what they are five years later.
They don’t want superheroes, they want rock stars. Ask anybody if they know who Bono or Michael Jordan are. Virtually everyone. Then ask if they know the names Kary Mullis or Norman Borlaug. Have them look up the latter two and decide for themselves who contributed more to mankind.
What happened to the days of Richard Feynman when certain scientists were quasi heroes as a result of their intellect and curiosity?
50 years ago my super heroes were,
Test Tube
Bunsen Burner
and their mate
Beaker…..
Steve’s just looking for the telephone booth, and Judy’s in Costume.
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We already have too many scientists who can’t tell the difference between science and science fiction. Do we really want to use fantasy to recruit reality challenged young people into the sciences?