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The worst mistake people make in a press release — and how to avoid it

August 5, 2011 by marymulv

The worst mistake that people make when they write a press release, is also the most common mistake.  It isn’t forgetting to include contact details, or a date, or spelling someone’s name wrong, or including too much jargon — though we regularly see all of those mistakes.

No, the worst mistake that people make in a press release is much simpler, and more devastating.

It is telling people what you want to tell them — and not what they need to know, or what they might be interested in.

Most importantly, this is the mistake that ensures a journalist will delete your press release within seconds, because it doesn’t look relevant or interesting.

This is the kind of press release that might start by announcing…

‘Scientists from Our Institution have made an important discovery.  And the discovery was published in today’s edition of This Important Journal.  And the research team was led by Dr A. N. Other.  And now we’ll give you some background…’

But think about it.  If the discovery really is newsworthy, then an effective press release should lead with what the discovery will ‘mean’ for people.

So, a more effective press release might start by announcing:

‘A cheaper, faster test for disease A could be available as early as next year, thanks to new research.  The new test should  cut waiting times for patients, and save the health service €x million a year.

The improved test took scientists N years to develop in painstaking research at Our Institution.  But the long haul was worth it, according to team leader Dr A. N. Other. . .’

Even experienced press officers and organisations regularly make this mistake, but it’s relatively simple to avoid.

The key is to ask yourself: what does our latest development mean for people?  Answer that question, and you’ll have the opening sentence, and the headline, for your press release.  It really is that simple.

And if you’d like to learn more about how to write an effective press release, our next half-day training workshop is in Dublin on September 6.

Posted in Communicating science | 2 Comments »

Symmetry, antimatter and the LHC

March 30, 2010 by marymulv

Q: How much theoretical physics can you condense into a 5-minute Ignite talk?

A: A surprising amount!

Enlighten us, but make it quick!

You know the Ignite format?  Five minutes, and 20 slides.   That’s not much time, and rather a lot of slides.

Yet it is proving to be a popular evening’s entertainment at Dublin’s Science Gallery, where it is now a monthly attraction.

Most talks that I’ve seen steer clear of attempting to communicate scientific concepts.   So I was sceptical when my resident quantum mechanic announced that he would attempt to explain symmetry, antimatter, Dirac’s equation and the LHC’s search for the Higgs particle.

It took a huge amount of work, yet I think he pulled it off.

And the image of the dragonfly missing a wing was, for me, a very effective metaphor for how Dirac discovered the existence of antimatter.

But what do you think?

Other talks that evening included Mark Conguista on death by bullet point, Peter Lynch on his Commodius Vicus walk around  Ireland, and a performance by DJ Harry Moschops.

And if you fancy the challenge giving a talk at the next Dublin Ignite event (on April 14), contact Conor Haughton, who keeps his finger on the Ignition switch here.

Posted in Communicating science | Tagged , | 6 Comments »

Ada Lovelace & keeping our WITS about us

March 24, 2010 by marymulv

March 24, 2010 –: when we honour Ada Lovelace, the ‘enchantress of numbers’ and the world’s first programmer.

Ada LovelaceThis year’s Ada Lovelace day (ALD10) –  when bloggers celebrate women in technology and science — falls in the week when Ireland’s national broadcaster began looking for the “greatest Irish person ever” .  . .  with not one scientist on the shortlist, and only three women among the 40 candidates.

So, for my small contribution to ALD10, I want to remember all the women in Irish science and technology, and especially my colleagues and friends in the WITS network which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

WITS has, over the past two decades done tremendous work for women in Irish technology and science.   It was instrumental in getting Science Foundation Ireland to establish

WITS has also run training and mentoring programmes for women returning to work, compiled a ‘talent bank’ of women for nomination to State boards and authorities, published numerous policy documents,  established a successful careers programme for schoolgirls, published two books on the lives and legacies of Irish women scientists (RTE please note!), hosted numerous public events, as well as helping members with their professional and personal development.

Not to mention the wonderful support and friendship down the years.

So, to all the women in Irish technology and science, I say a big ‘Thank You’ for all you have done.  Long may you continue.

Posted in Science and society, Women and science | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Let’s put a scientist on RTE’s list of ‘greatest Irish’ people

March 23, 2010 by marymulv

Vote now, and help to put a scientist on RTE’s list of the greatest Irish people ever.

If you’ve been following the story so far, you’ll know that the short-list of 40 candidates includes three people associated with Boyzone, only three women, and not one scientist or engineer — for what promises to be a high-profile, prime-time series in the autumn.

Now, the good people over at Science.ie have come on board, and organised an online voting campaign.

We’ve suggested some historic Irish scientists to get you started, or you can nominate someone you think merits the title of Greatest Irish Person.

So, y’all get on over there now, and start voting.  And spread the word!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

No scientists on RTE’s greatest Irish shortlist??

March 22, 2010 by marymulv

Care to join me in organising a poll of the greatest Irish scientist? And let’s try and get a scientist on to RTE’s list for the greatest ever Irish person.

RTE is asking us to vote for the greatest Irish person from a shortlist of 40 people.  The top five will then each become the subject of a one-hour documentary on their life and legacy.

NASA couldn't have put a man on the moon without this Irish scientist

It’s an intriguing (hopefully controversial!) list.

Among the usual suspects  of poets and politicians, artists and actors — Daniel O’Connell, Wolfe Tone, Sean Lemass . . . –  are Stephen Gately, Colin Farrell and golfer Padraig Harrington. And about half of the 40 are still alive (shurely, you should be dead and buried and a decent time elapsed before we can judge your legacy?).

The two glaring omissions are the shortage of women — only three!! Adi Roche, Mary Robinson and Sonia O’Sullivan — and the absence of any scientist.

So, to get the ball rolling, here is my top 10 Irish scientists, in no particular order . . . 

Charles Parsons, who made it possible to electrify 20th century with widespread power generation, when he invented the steam turbine.

Harry Ferguson who revolutionised farming with a lightweight tractor that replaced the horse and plough.

Dr Dorothy Price instrumental in the fight against tuberculosis, introducing the BCG vaccine to Ireland in the 1930s (and shamefully, doesn’t yet have a Wikipedia page!)

Arthur Leared, invented the modern stethoscope in 1851, so fundamental for medicine.

William Rowan Hamilton, made it possible to put a man on the moon and satellites into space, with his radical new ‘quaternion’ algebra, invented in 1843, .

John Tyndall, explained why the sky is blue and was the first to propose the greenhouse effect (as in: global warming)

John Philip Holland, revolutionised warfare at sea when he invented the first commercial successful submarine

William Thompson, Baron Kelvin, formulated some of the early laws of thermodynamics, and among his many inventions made it possible to connect the Old World and the New  with a transatlantic telegraph.

Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, x-ray crystallographer, who revealed the structure of benzene and diamond.

George Gabriel Stokes, yet another great physicist of the 19th century … his contributions to science are too many to list here!

Robert Boyle, acknowledged as the ‘father of modern chemistry’, no less.

Nicholas Callan, invented the modern induction coil, essential to electric motors

Got any favourite of your own to suggest?

And anyone know how we can start an online vote in opposition to RTE’s??

Posted in Science and society, Women and science | Tagged , | 26 Comments »

What has Ireland done for the world?

March 16, 2010 by marymulv

Did you know that the Irish invented Shamrock, put a man on the moon, changed the face of modern warfare and electrified the world?

What Ireland has done for the world, is the topic for the Big Ideas discussion, as part of the St Patrick’s festival (tonight).

William Rowan Hamilton's quaternions helped to put a man on the moon

Against a panel of writers, musicians, politicians and commentators, I’ll be pushing the case for Ireland’s inventors and scientists, and the many ideas and discoveries they have given the world, from military to medical and everything in between, including  flavoured crisps and cream liqueurs, which went on to become international industries.

Here, from among the many hundreds of Irish inventions and innovations down the centuries, are a few key ones.

1. We put a man on the moon! (And satellites into space)
The Apollo missions could not have happened without a type of algebra invented in 1843 by William Rowan Hamilton.  Engineers use Hamilton’s ‘quaternions’ to calculate an object’s position in space and time.  And on the Apollo missions, one astronaut would be responsible for doing the quaternion calculations during a mission. These calculations are still used to orient spacecraft, and now also in 3D computer graphics.

2.  We changed the face of modern warfare
. . . by inventing the first successful submarine.  Designed by John Philip Holland in the late 1800s, his submarines changed the nature of naval battles forever.

3.  We took away the pain
. . . when a Dublin doctor invented the hypodermic syringe at the Meath hospital in 1843.  He used it to deliver a local anaesthetic to a woman who had severe pain in her face.

4. We revolutionised farming
Harry Ferguson’s tractor was light, safe and manoeuvrable.  It replaced a horse and plough, and changed farming beyond recognition.

5.  We electrified the world
Large-scale electricity power stations would not be possible, without the steam turbine invented by Charles Parsons in the 1880s, and still used in power stations around the world.  If it wasn’t for him we would never have been able to deliver widespread electricity and electrical appliances to everyone.

These are just some of the many stories featured in my book, Ingenious Ireland — with a new updated edition due out later this year.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The future is in data

February 11, 2010 by marymulv

There are many reasons for studying mathematics, at school and college.  Everyday practical use being a big one, or maybe just the sheer joy of the logic, if you’re that way inclined. (And below, a fascinating TED talk about what we can learn from health statistics.)

But here’s another good reason: because, in a few years, mathematics is where the jobs will be.  We just don’t know what those jobs will be.

Mathematics is where the jobs will be

Back in 1995, I had a lovely radio series with RTE, looking at what life would be like in a quarter century’s time, and called appropriately 2020 Vision. One contributor — if memory serves me, ‘futurologist’ Gerard O’Neill, now with Amárach  Research — said that children at school in 1995 would go on to have jobs and careers that hadn’t even been invented then.

Sure enough: my radio producer’s son, then at school, went on to study bio-informatics, not something that had been on the career guidance list at the time.

So what careers await today’s school students? One thing is sure, mathematics will be central.  Because the future is in data, and in data mining.

Just consider, the enormous amount of data accumulating on a daily basis now, across all disciplines, from DNA sequences to twitter tweets.

If we are to make sense of all this data, then we will need people with mathematical skills who can extract meaning from the mess, and make sense of the noise.

Consider: the  many tens of thousands of tweets that circulated last summer sparked by the Iranian elections and riots in Tehran.  But when analysed, those tweets, according to venture capitalist David Blumenstein, speaking  at Innovate Media 09 last December,  actually came from just  five sources.

Not so much news, then, as mostly noise.

(The news:noise ratio is something journalist Mark Little is beginning to explore for Irish media, albeit in a different way:

Meanwhile, reams and reams of data are accumulating, even as I write this, and you read it.

(You know I never knew why we call it Information Technology, when really it should be Data Technology.)

And if the future will be mathematical, then it’s even more important that we in Ireland improve our mathematical ability. As  Dr Craig Barrett, former Intel chairman and “the man credited with bringing Intel to Ireland over 20 years ago”  said, earlier this week in an address to the Royal Irish Academy: Ireland is now distinctly average, and average is not good enough.

There have of course been numerous reports, taskforces and conferences addressing the problem in recent years, and especially the falloff in student interest in mathematics and science subjects at school and third-level.  (Here is Engineers Ireland president, Chris Horn, on the topic – and even mining some economic data, here.)

Just this week, Engineers Ireland launched a survey of mathematics teaching.    Among other things, most people believe mathematics teaching will improve if maths teachers are obliged to have a degree in mathematics.  Tellingly, however, most people also believe that these maths teachers should not be paid a premium.

But will a mathematics degree necessarily produce a better teacher? And will we not need those mathematicians in industry and business?

Myself, I believe the answer lies in incentivising, not the teachers, but the students.  Make it worth their while, and they will follow.  But that argument is for another day.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this fascinating TED talk on the information that can be mined from international health statistics, given by Swedish professor, Hans Rosling.

Rosling invented Trendalyzer, a powerful software tool that allows people to compare and contrast large volumes of data with animated charts,  as you’ll see in his talk.

And see if you can you pass his pre-health test? Pause, and try . . .  and see if you’re better than the chimps and Karolinska profs.

Posted in Education, Policy, Science and society | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Science, cliques and the cloak of anonymity?

February 8, 2010 by marymulv

Should reviewers in science remain anonymous?  In peer-reviewing papers?  What about reviewing grant applications?

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society in London and, with that, arguably, the start of the modern scientific establishment, including the principle of peer review.

Yet, thanks to the ‘climate gate’ e-mail controversy (see here for the Guardian’s special investigation), that establishment has probably never been more shaky.

Recent days have also seen stem cell researchers accuse some colleagues and journals of blocking publication of some research.  In a New Scientistreport one researcher in the field, Prof Robin Lovell-Badge allowed that:

“It’s all done in secret, so it’s very hard to gather information”

On the plus side, the public now knows that science is just like any other human activity: with egos and jealousies and all that goes with people defending their own little patch.

And today the stakes in science are very high: multi-million-dollar grants that will make (or, if not granted, break) a career; priority for a patent; and of course, prestige.

One of the tenets of peer review is that reviewers remain anonymous.  Yet climate gate and the stem cell research accusations mean this must now be questioned.

Worrying exchanges among climate change reviewers, quoted recently in the Guardian by Fred Pearce, include:

“Confidentially I now need a hard and if required extensive case for rejecting [an unnamed paper] – to -support Dave Stahle’s and really as soon as you can. Please.”

And:

“If published as is, this paper could really do some damage . . . It won’t be easy to dismiss out of hand as the math appears to be correct theoretically . . . “

Given that the authors of papers are identified — and it would be impossible to hide an author’s identity — shouldn’t reviewers be obliged to stand publicly over their opinions?  Over any delay they took in reviewing a paper, that might be construed as obstruction?  Rather than hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

And, if in journal reviewing, should this not also happen in assessing grant applications?  Which are arguably as or more important than publishing.

There are, these days, too many vested and competing interests in research.

Much has been made in recent years about public access to journals, especially for research which is publicly funded.

A more fundamental question is surely researchers’ access to space in those journals, so that the public has something to read.

Posted in Policy, Science and society | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Cheap, easy building technique with humanitarian potential?

January 21, 2010 by marymulv

Back in the late 1940s, when Europe was starting to rebuild after the devastation of the wartime bombings, an Irish engineer developed a quick, cheap and easy building technique using just canvas and concrete — in essence, a concrete tent, but one that could be quite large.

Can’t help wondering if this could prove useful in Haiti?

Jim (J. H.) Waller’s technique  was popular in the time, but is not well known now.

Timber arches are first used to form a mould, or scaffold. Then you simply drape some canvas over the arches and daube on the concrete. Once the concrete is set, you can remove the timber arches, and use these for the next building.

Typically, the fabric sags between the timber ribs under the weight of the mortar, giving the final structure a corrugated or ‘jelly mould’ appearance.

The technique has numerous advantages: it is quick, cheap, and easy to construct, and uses readily available materials, and can be used for small structures (apparently, hen houses were popular) as well as large buildings such as hangars, with the added advantage that the self-supporting concrete shell has no internal supports to get in the way.

Waller's Kilbeggan 'jelly mould' warehouse

Waller  (1884–1968) was motivated by his own humanitarian outlook, and the shortage of steel in the 1940s.

Quite how these structures might perform in an earthquake zone, I don’t know — perhaps that information already exists?  Or it might make for an interesting research project.

On the plus side, as concrete structures go, I would have thought these were relatively lightweight, and less damaging than heavy traditional concrete buildings.

The timber arched shape Waller devised was inspired by Baghdad’s ancient Great Arch of Ctesiphon (pronounced ‘tessifon’), which he saw while working in Iraq as a surveyor, and his technique came to be known as Ctesiphon construction. That original arch, built of crude brick, lasted over 1,600 years thanks to its design: taller than it is wide, it is a ‘catenary’ arch, and the weight is evenly distributed across all points.

Waller’s approach enjoyed a certain vogue in the 1940s and ‘50s. It proved especially popular in Africa where it was used for everything from small hen houses to large aircraft hangars. The British Ministry of Works also built and tested various Ctesiphon structures.

The best surviving Irish example is the Cooley Distillery whiskey warehouse at Kilbeggan, aka the ‘ jelly mould’ building, which can be seen from the road beside the distillery museum (see picture).

Waller was born in Tasmania, but his family came from Nenagh and he went to college in Ireland. During World War I he watched soldiers camouflage their tents by daubing them with concrete, and realised the approach could be used for buildings. There is more information about Waller’s buildings at the Architectural Archive, Dublin.

Posted in Science and society | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

Carbon taxes, cash for clunkers, and the tragedy of the commons

December 9, 2009 by marymulv

Question: what do Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, ‘eco-nomics’ pundit David McWilliams, and the Nobel Prize committee have in common?

Answer: a growing realisation of the need to factor the environment into the economy.

Lenihan’s budget today will at last introduce a carbon tax and, with it, the principle of ‘the polluter pays’.

US economist Elinor Ostrom shared this year’s economics Nobel prize for her work on ‘the tragedy of the commons’.

And David McWilliams, in his recent TV series, discovered that all the world’s production of ‘stuff’ is taking its toll on the environment.

Interestingly, for a country averse to taxes, there have been few complaints about the forthcoming carbon tax.  Perhaps the recent floods have brought home to people the stark reality that we need to do something fast about climate change and CO2 levels.

There have however been vociferous calls for a car scrappage deal in today’s budget, mostly from the ‘car industry’, which is to say the car sales industry… who, by their own admission, would not get work in any other industry.

Scrappage schemes are often touted as environmental measures, taking polluting old bangers off the road and replacing them with clean, green fuel-efficient ones.

Yes, new cars may be more fuel-efficient than old ones, but the combined energy and environmental costs of manufacturing a new car outweigh those meagre improvements in efficiency.

Perhaps more importantly, producing new cars, and indeed producing new anything, also uses up ever dwindling resources.

Forget peak oil — that’s only the tip of the (fast-melting) iceberg.  We are also running out of lots of other scarce resources. Or, as David McWilliams put it, we are now facing “peak everything”.

Our best estimates suggest that world reserves of indium – used in LCDs and flat screen TVs – could run out by 2017. Platinum, a vital constituent of catalytic converters and fuel cells, could be exhausted by 2020 (so much so that some researchers are already trying to ‘harvest’ the metal from road dust). Hafnium (used in computer chips) could be gone by 2017.  And terbium (used in fluorescent light bulbs) could be all gone as early as 2012. (Figures from ‘Earth Audit’, by David Coen, New Scientist, issue 2605, 2007)

These are rough estimates, and we may discover new sources for some of the rare elements that buy us a few more years. Landfill mining could yet be the next big thing! But eventually, supplies will run out.

Which is why we need to husband our resources sustainably, not waste them for the sake of a few short term jobs. And which brings me to the ‘tragedy of the commons’.

When something belongs in common to everybody, it belongs to nobody.

So, in the old days, with the village common ground:  it was in every farmer’s interest to graze as many of their livestock as possible on the commons, and conversely, it was in nobody’s interest to apply fertiliser.  Result: overgrazed, and undernourished pasture.

More recently, we have seen the same exploitation of fisheries, to the point where some fish stocks are so overfished that they may now be beyond rescue.

And the same is true of our wasteful and unsustainable use of all the world’s resources.

Biology and medicine has a name for such uncontrolled growth at the expense of the surrounding environment. They call it cancer.

Later today we will know the details of the new carbon tax, and whether Brian Lenihan has yielded to calls for a car scrappage scheme.

It would be nice to think he will say No to the car industry.  That instead he’s  going to introduce new measures to sustainably support the car maintenance industry, perhaps even courses to reskill salespeople as mechanics. After all, if anyone knows about the damage that can be done by a poorly controlled financial sector, it’s the Minister for Finance.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Posted in Carbon, Policy, Science and society, Sustainable living | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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