As I sit here bobbing about aboard the research ship James Cook in the Antarctic, I have some time to reflect on the online outreach that we're doing, which we developed on a previous expedition.

Back in April last year, we were exploring the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean, which is the world's deepest undersea volcanic rift, in search of deep-sea hydrothermal vents to answer a major question about the patterns of life in the oceans.

The ingredients of seeing parts of our world…

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Michael de Podesta, a physicist and Science Ambassador at the NPL has stimulated a lively debate about the quality of the GCSE physics curriculum in a post on the "How should we teach science?" blog.



He reports on a meeting he attended with the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency,… Continue

As researchers, these days we are exhorted to take part in "public engagement" and "public dialogue", rather than "public understanding of science" (aka PUS) activities.



PUS died because it relied on something called the "deficit model". The idea behind the deficit model is this: if the public are not enthusiastic about a science topic (e.g. GM), it is because they lack knowledge of it. So if you just address that "knowledge deficit" by giving them more information about the science… Continue

As a full time postdoctoral researcher with a passion for Science Communication, I often find myself trying to balance the two in terms of time and money.



It's no secret, that I am passionate about Science Communication to the point where I would like to make a career of it. This means that, like a moth to a flame, I am naturally attracted to the organisation and participation of outreach and enterprise events.



This is great for the University and great for the scientific… Continue

What prompted me to set up this network? Well, there is a lot of fantastic science communication and public engagement going on in the UK, where I am based. The UK's Beacons for Public Engagement project , for example, is at the forefront of supporting science communication in Britain and fostering an university culture that values it. There is a myriad of organisations, projects and individuals across the country promoting and… Continue