Talking STEM: Recent Episodes

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Written by Georgie Aiuto

Edited by Yvette Marris

Many of us in STEM today would have childhood memories of going to museums, having goofy experts arrive at our schools to do experiments, or competitions where we had 72 hours to find a scientific solution. These are all STEM outreach programs. Over the summer, I conducted a small 6 week research project, as I wanted to know more about the state of outreach programs within Victoria, and see what opportunities were out there for young people and students.

So, I took a look at all of the STEM outreach programs within Victoria for people under the age of 18. Yes, all 1333 programs. And while I still have many more questions for how we are and should be running STEM outreach programs, I did manage to find some interesting imbalances.

Starting with the types of programs, excursions were the most popular with 427 programs, followed by online learning at 229. While working on this, I wondered if the reason for this large number of online learning programs is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be a great further research question.

The discrepancy of discipline is one that most interests me. Especially coming from a Physics and Maths background. Biology takes all at 402 programs followed by Environment at 253! This means Biology makes up almost 6 times more programs than Maths. To me, this is concerning as Maths is a core STEM discipline. Psychology, Health Science and Geoscience are also lacking. However some organisations classified them under Arts or Humanities, meaning I wasn’t able to find the extensive list of these programs as they sit on the border of core STEM subjects.

Another interesting comparison is where these programs are located. Locations were separated into 12 regions, as well as online or N/A, when a program either didn’t specify a location or was a travelling program (incursion or roadshow). Melbourne has 477 programs in its metropolitan region, followed by online and N/A, whereas Phillip Island, Great Ocean Road and High Country have very few. The Grampians have no local programs located within its region. There are still many schools within The Grampians and other parts of regional Victoria which have to rely on incursions or online resources due to there being no local science centre or museums. Although some venues in Melbourne offer transportation grants for rural towns to visit, it is still something we must consider as STEM educators.

This got me thinking, if I - a student who is out deliberately seeking all this information for my research, would eventually find more on each program enough to make more conclusions on where there are gaps within our STEM Outreach programs. Unfortunately, this was quite a trudge through many *many* broken websites with hard to read text, broken links, missing images and more. How could a teacher or a parent seeking out activities for their students or children be able to find these programs? While some websites ask for a call to action to email or call the organisations directly for more information, teachers are some of the busiest and most overworked professionals. Without having accessible programs readily available, it can slow educators down and students may miss out on fun and inspirational activities.

So now with all this data on STEM Outreach programs, how do we know it’s working?

Um…

We don’t.
According to the Australian Government Department of Education (1), STEM education initiatives such as excursions, incursions, residential programs (or camps), and equipment are still “unclear” in their effectiveness. In some cases we know that a lot of these programs provide aid with exams and grades, especially for those students whose schools cannot afford additional teaching material(3). However, whether or not these programs aid in STEM interest is still a mystery.

Answering this question has been attempted by many PhD students and the organisations that run the programs themselves. We could compare if we all stop these programs simultaneously and see if STEM interest diminishes. But can we really risk that, just in case it is working? I myself have a lot of questions and cannot wait to jump into more research around this topic, but for you… reflect on your past and wonder, why are you interested in STEM? Could it be a family member? An epic excursion you went on as a child? A TV show you loved? Maybe it is time to take your younger sibling, cousin, children, students- whoever, on a fun trip to the museum! You never know what spark it might ignite.

References:

1. https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/i-want-know-about-stem-education/different-kinds-stem-education-initiatives
2. https://djsir.vic.gov.au/victorias-lead-scientist/increasing-participation-in-science,-technology,-engineering-and-mathematics
3. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tea.21322

Georgie Aiuto has a passion for Science Communication and closing gaps in STEM education for all Australian students. They currently study physics at Swinburne University of Technology. They had previously been a part of the Let’s Torque committee in 2022, but now are conducting various research projects around STEM Outreach.

If you would like to connect with Georgie, please message them on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgina-aiuto-06a7211b1/

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This blog is a part of the OmniSci magazine’s a Year in Science Summer Edition. Huge shoutout to the OmniSci team, and Tanya Kovacevic for editing this piece for the edition. More info about the OmniSci A Year in Science is below.

It would be hard to write about a Year in Science without having the obligatory COVID article. We hear constantly about the stresses of being a frontline healthcare worker (HCW), and about the signs and symptoms of Long COVID, and the endless vaccine scepticism.

I’d like to tell a slightly different story. The thing about the COVID-19 pandemic was that other infections didn’t just take a holiday and cancers didn’t just stop growing. And now, healthcare workers are dealing with an abundance of patients, delays with diagnosis and some very complex medical cases.

Megan Gifford, who currently works as a Team Lead in the Patient Navigation Department at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, describes her experiences working at the Townsville University Hospital in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Department, the only bone marrow transplant ward outside of the Brisbane area, servicing a large population across regional Queensland.

She describes the difficulties of working within a hospital that didn’t primarily treat COVID-19 patients, but still had to adapt to the constant changing of rules, regulations and policies put in place to protect staff and patients alike from the virus. The stress and burden of trying, not only to assuage their own anxieties but to also provide current, up-to-date information to patients and deliver high quality care. There were the frustrations of unavoidable logistical problems like border closures, stay-at-home orders, preventing access to crucial materials and patient transport. There was heartbreak of watching transplant patients deteriorate mentally, as their will to persist with treatments began to fade.

Pathologists and haematologists also found themselves facing an unprecedented logistical nightmare, including re-allocation of diagnostic and protective equipment for mass COVID testing. Access to essential biomedical material like blood and plasma became increasingly difficult and many suffered as a result.

While Long COVID and increased prevalence of affective disorders, like depression and anxiety, are well documented in media and academia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) hasn’t gotten the same amount of attention. Statistics and anecdotes alike are staggering, both for patients and healthcare workers.

With stressors like an unprecedented number of critically ill patients, capricious disease progressions, high mortality, and ever-changing treatment guidelines the world was sympathetic to the HCW’s struggle (3). Yet with the lockdowns and restrictions over, it would be naïve to think that things would just return to normal. It was found that 29% of HCWs had clinical or sub-clinical symptoms of PTSD, (1) and that this figure was significantly higher for HCWs directly treating COVID patients (2).

Anecdotally, Megan Gifford recalled hearing of patients “patients suffering anxiety attacks when they smell the hospital alcohol rub and hear the familiar beeping of the various equipment”.

Even beyond the mental health scope, logistical issues like delayed learning for medical students or the backlog of elective/non-essential procedures are still placing an enormous burden on healthcare workers, despite the immediate threat seemingly behind us.

But to say that everything is still in shambles would frankly be insulting to healthcare workers, who are working tirelessly to deliver good quality healthcare.

The speed at which pathologists and scientists have adapted to limited resources and supply shortages, and the way in which doctors have shifted their style of care and developed new problem-solving skills are exceptional and should not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ripple effects have brought to centre-stage the consequences of under-resourced healthcare centres on patient care and employee satisfaction, in a way that affected all people, irrespective of geography, class or reputation. The reality is that the conditions in which many metropolitan hospitals found themselves in, with never enough staff or supplies, is a condition that rural hospitals experienced long before COVID-19 ever appeared.

To say that every dark cloud has a silver lining would be horribly cliché, but in this case, there may be truth to it. This edition of the Year in Science is a chance for us to reflect on all that COVID-19 has called attention to and decide to do something about it.

1. Carmassi C, Foghi C, Dell’Oste V, Cordone A, Bertelloni CA, Bui E, et al. PTSD symptoms in healthcare workers facing the three coronavirus outbreaks: What can we expect after the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Research. 2020 Oct;113312.

2. Janiri D, Carfì A, Kotzalidis GD, Bernabei R, Landi F, Sani G. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Patients After Severe COVID-19 Infection. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Feb;

3. Johnson SU, Ebrahimi OV, Hoffart A. PTSD symptoms among health workers and public service providers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Vickers K, editor. PLOS ONE. 2020 Oct 21;15(10):e0241032.

OmniSci is a science magazine at UniMelb, run entirely by students, for students. With fantastic writers, editors, illustrators and graphic designers, the magazine has produced some fantastic pieces, and if you’re a fan of Let’s Torque - definitely check out Omni’s Website: https://omniscimag.wixsite.com/home.

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The Rise of Pharmacogenomics and Personalised MedicineWhen I was 16, I had my first ever surgery - a simple wisdom teeth removal. When I woke up, the doctors told me that apparently I had tried to wake up mid-surgery and even roll off the table.

I am also a redhead. Now these two facts may seem completely unrelated, but as we’ll soon see, maybe not.

The mechanism of action of many inhaled anaesthetics is unclear. Generally, anaesthetics like desflurane, isoflurane or sevoflurane act on inhibitory neurons, like NDMA, or excitatory neurons, like GABA, to induce a sleep-like, low pain state.

In a 2004 study from Liem, Ling and Suleman, they found a 19% increase in anaesthetic requirements in individuals with red hair compared to those with other hair colours.. The study also compared the genetic profiles to identify which commonly present mutations in redheads might be responsible for this. Specifically, the MCR1 gene is responsible for the creation and regulation of pigment, which contributes to the colouring of hair, nails and skin. Variants in this gene, most commonly seen in redheads, result in the decreased function of the MCR1 gene.

Now the correlation between the MCR1 gene, among others, and inhalational anaesthetics is still uncertain. But evidence suggests that three of the MCR1 alleles most commonly found in redheads are associated with decreased stimulation of intracellular cyclic AMP, an important secondary messenger in a number of cellular processes, when activated. Other evidence suggests that redheads have greater sensitivity to heat and cold pain, decreased effectiveness of lidocaine, and greater likelihood of melanoma. MCR1 receptors have also been identified in the brain and spinal cord, potentially playing a role in the amnesic and immobilising properties of inhaled anaesthetics.

Anecdotally, it’s been reported that redheads need up to 20% more anaesthetics. Unfortunately, this detail is not commonly known. This means that a lot of redheads report, not only resistance to anaesthetics, and chilling experiences like waking up mid-surgery, but also greater anxiety and fear towards surgical procedures. Admittedly, this phenomenon depends on the individual and the type of anaesthetic used, but nonetheless, it is pretty incredible.

The MCR1 gene is not the only gene that affects a body’s ability to process drugs. In fact, there is a whole emerging and fascinating field of pharmacogenomics.

Countless genes have effects on drugs. Some of them have a detrimental effect on a patient's health. Another example is with drugs used for leukaemia and other inflammatory diseases like thiopurine drugs. The enzyme Thiopurine Methyltransferase (TPMT) usually metabolises and inactivates the precursor drug 6-mercaptopurine. In a small number of people, they have certain genes that make this enzyme virtually non-existent. The effect of which is a disrupted balance of the active and inactive drug, and unacceptable toxicity of the drug. These days, TPMT levels are tested before someone is given thiopurine drugs, but this is just one example of many.

Pharmacogenomics plays, and will continue to play in the future, a key role in assessing potential efficacy of drugs, to a personalised degree. This makes sure that diseases are treated most effectively, and, when racial or sexual disparities are apparent. According to the CDC, African-Americans have statistically poor heart health outcomes, which has led researchers to investigate genetic factors, along socio-economic factors and bias. An example of genetic mutation that varies across racial identities is in the gene that codes for the enzyme Cytochrome P-450. It’s responsible for the metabolism of many drugs, including beta-blockers, like carvedilol, a drug class commonly used for high blood pressure and heart failure. Even more interesting, is that there is an allele of this gene, CYP2D6, which results in an impaired ability to metabolise these drugs. This allele is practically absent in White and Asian populations, but quite frequent in African American populations.

One day, genetic testing will be sophisticated and accessible enough to be able to routinely predict the effects of drugs on each individual person, and discrepancies between ethnic groups and sexes can be understood and better addressed within the healthcare field. But until then, it’s essential that genetic differences between different populations be studied and taught to all medical professionals, especially general practitioners and pharmacists. The possibilities of pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine are endless, and I personally am excited to see where it goes.

To learn more, check out:

Edwin B. Liem, Chun-Ming Lin, Mohammad-Irfan Suleman, Anthony G. Doufas, Ronald G. Gregg, Jacqueline M. Veauthier, Gary Loyd, Daniel I. Sessler; Anesthetic Requirement Is Increased in Redheads. Anesthesiology 2004; 101:279–283 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200408000-00006

Liem EB, Joiner TV, Tsueda K, Sessler DI. Increased sensitivity to thermal pain and reduced subcutaneous lidocaine efficacy in redheads. Anesthesiology. 2005 Mar;102(3):509-14. doi: 10.1097/00000542-200503000-00006. PMID: 15731586; PMCID: PMC1692342.

National Human Genome Research Institute - 15 ways genomics influences our world https://www.genome.gov/dna-day/15-ways/pharmacogenomics

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Competition is the catalyst but collaboration is what produces real change.

In the study of history there is an old, and somewhat misleading term, known as the ‘the Great Man in History’. Suggesting that the course of history is determined by the actions of one ‘great’ person, this theory from the 19th century sparks much debate amongst academics.

Take for example, a criticism from one of the founders of the science of sociology, Herbert Spencer:

"You must admit that the genesis of a great man depends on the long series of complex influences ... Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."

Indeed sociology, science of knowledge, or Indigenous knowledge, lends weight to the idea that science is the product of many events leading up to a great moment.

And even the ‘great’ moment can be a simple change with profound consequences. .

The Great Person Theory can be moulded to describe a view of scientific discovery - that scientific progress and the success of scientific efforts can be attributed to the discoveries of a few, great scientific minds. Alexander Fleming with the discovery of penicillin, Isaac Newton with gravity or Einstein with his theory of general relativity. It's hard to imagine where we would be, if not for their efforts, and there's nothing quite like a hero story.

But underpinning all this intelligence and grit and determination, lies centuries of foundations and hundreds of small steps that made these ground-breaking discoveries possible.

Sure, fame and acclaim are powerful motivators and one hell of a prize. But for every history-altering discovery made, there are many, many smaller, less noteworthy discoveries to get there. It begs the question, in this modern day and age, who are the real heroes of scientific discovery?

And when all the glam of success is stripped away, how do we keep the spark of curiosity alive? The thrill of the chase? And without it, what is the cost?

By mid-2022, we will all be familiar with at least one truly emblematic example – COVID-19. The power and strength of collaboration in science could not be better illustrated. Since the declaration of an outbreak in late 2019, hundreds and thousands of virologists, microbiologists and immunologists were handed a new project, often at the detriment to already existing projects.

From its initial outbreak to the first vaccine approval in just over a year, it leaves the previous record for fastest vaccine development in the dust – 4 years for the mumps vaccine [1]. And that’s not even to mention the average timeframe for vaccines which is in the range of up to 10 years.

As truly amazing of a feat the COVID vaccine is, examples of scientific collaboration are littered throughout history. The Human Genome Project was one of the largest collaborative research projects in history, with over 3000 researchers involved in the consortium shared authorship, across 13 years all over the world [2]. Similarly, the mission to eradicate polio, establish the International Space Station and the International Rice Research Institute are all global scientific endeavours to generate real, tangible change.

The world came together and recognised these issues as global concerns and were able to act without the financial or labour restraints that so often prevent other projects from having the impact that young bright-eyed scientists imagine.

As uplifting as these projects are, they serve as a reminder of the rarity of these profound, life-changing scientific endeavours. It’s not just the sheer number of people and amount of time needed.

The thousands of scientific minds all working with a single goal is a large part of the tremendousness of the outcomes, on an international scale. But obstacles to this process include the cost and lack of attention from mainstream media. Like two sides of a coin, the flip side is that under this paradigm, only "popular" or "relevant" issues get addressed to the extent that this appreciable change can be made. Or at least within a time frame that those currently suffering can reap the benefits.

Large part of this is due to the seeming perpetuity of the drug development process, in which drugs often take at least 10 years to journey from pre-clinical trials to the marketplace.

Then, with the involvement of investors, the profit motive becomes even more apparent. In a 2020 publication by SOMO, an independent centre researching the multinational corporations, found that despite payouts to stakeholders of some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, increasing from 88% to 123% in 20 years, there was still a disproportionate increase in drug prices.

Argentinian economist Cecilia Rikap recently compared scientific co-publication and patent co-ownership and identified ‘a subordination of the universities, public research organisations and start-ups that have a fundamental role in the former, but an almost negligible participation in the latter’.

Science is messy. Science is complicated. Science is multidisciplinary. With personal agendas, profit motive pressures, lengthy testing and approval procedures, and diverse epidemiologies of countless diseases, there will unfortunately always be issues. But there will always be heroes. Unsung heroes, who work tirelessly behind the scenes, without whom this progress could never be achieved.

It makes me, an overly idealistic, naïve (and certainly self-aware) 20-something year old, wonder what scientific progress could be made in a world without the financial burden of research and stakeholders, the quest for esteem and with nothing more than a burning passion to better the world. Maybe there is no “right way” of doing science. The motivation that comes with the glory of making a ground-breaking discovery balanced against the strength that comes from being a part of a larger group.

Certainly, that is too much to ask of this world, and probably always will be. But I will never stop wondering.

References

[1] Cohen S. The fastest vaccine in history [Internet]. UCLA Health. 2020 [cited 27 May 2022]. Available from: https://connect.uclahealth.org/2020/12/10/the-fastest-vaccine-in-history/

[2] Chial H. DNA Sequencing Technologies Key to the Human Genome Project. Scitable by Nature Education [Internet]. 2008 [cited 27 May 2022];. Available from: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dna-sequencing-technologies-key-to-the-human-828/

[3] Fernandez, R. and Klinge, T. (2020). The financialisation of Big Pharma. [Internet] Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen SOMO [cited 30 Jan. 2021] Available at: https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rapport-The-financialisation-of-Big-Pharma-def.pdf

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STEM Public Speaking Grand Final 2022Written by Georgia Aiuto

Edited by Yvette Marris

It is already November! Wow, the year has gone by so fast.

A month ago, the Let’s Torque crew held the Grand Finals for their STEM Public Speaking competition. It had been a massive year with three workshops building our fellow undergraduate’s Science Communication comprehension, workshops for John Monash Secondary School, multiple blogs, podcasts and other online content. But all of our work had come to a head for our final event of the year.

Held at Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Melbourne, five incredible Grand Finalists presented their speeches to a sold out audience that Monday night. Hosted by Clare Mullen, a Senior Climate Science at the Bureau of Meteorology and a professional science communicator, these finalists went head to head for the 2022 Championship.

The grand finalist presented their speeches:

• Amelia Safai with “Therapeutic Cloning - Will a sheep save lives?”
• Bianca Mazzucheli with “Auditory Sensory Prevention Technology”
• Breana Galea with “Designing our Destiny’s presentation: How Protein Predictions can Change the World.”
• Reah Shetty with “Revolutionising Society with a Chip”
• Nicholas Tze Hoe Chan with “Teaching ML to Smell: making machine learning more versatile”

Getting to the Grand Finals was no easy feat. Participants not only had two rounds of elimination, but also submit a compelling proposal of their STEM idea and its applications economically, environmentally and socially. They were really pushed to think outside the box, and they did so terrifically. The semi-final, held at the University of Melbourne’s busy on-campus bar, challenged them to communicate their ideas to the general public in a noisy and crowded setting. Once again, competitors excelled.

Finally making it to the Grand finals at RSV, the finalists were presented with a new challenge, to give their speech in a professional lecture style room in front of an audience of 50 people. Here, we were fortunate enough to have three extraordinary professional science communicators to be our judges.

Alanta Colley; a comedian, science communicator and storyteller. With a background in International public health, her shows have been; 'Parasites Lost', 'Days of our Hives', and a recent science comedy debate series 'Sci Fight'.

Chris Thompson; the Director of Education at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University and publisher in the fields of spectroscopy and computational chemistry. More recently in the field of science education and is co-author of Australia's most popular foundation chemistry textbook.

And Sara Webb; a researcher focused on observational transient astronomy and a passionate science communicator who has presented on various national/international TV news programs, ABC radio, Joy FM, TikTok, face-to-face, and online presentations.

Not only did we have the incredible Grand Finalists’ presentations, but we also hosted three guest speakers to discuss their career and how science communication has helped them with their journey.

Phoebe de Wilt; a Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology took us through her personal science journey and how she was offered a role in various science communication jobs due to her passions for sharing her work to those who it affects, and being weather - that is everyone!

Daniel Langley, a senior scientist at Universal Biosensors presented about his journey through various disciplines of science. A lot of his work overlapped with quite a few of the grand finalists topics, such as proteins and cloning.

And finally, Ruwangi Fernando, an IT specialist and co-founder of STEMSisters and iSTEM explained the importance of communicating sciences to diverse audiences and how she strives to support women of colour in all STEM fields.

All these incredible presentations were followed by a networking session for everyone to expand their connections. We were also treated with light refreshments and canapés. Let’s Torque crew member Jess has this to say about the event:

“The grand finals was an excellent evening! It was fascinating to hear all the speeches, and I got to hear about a whole variety of topics that I didn’t know much about - plus all of the participants were excellent speakers. It was also so valuable to be able to hear from industry professionals, and what brought them into science communication - the food and networking opportunities were great fun.”

Now, for the moment you’ve probably been waiting for (you might have even scrolled all the way to the button just to read this part), the winners of the 2022 STEM Public Speaking Competition!

People’s Choice: Breana Galea with “Designing our Destiny’s presentation: How Protein Predictions can Change the World.”

Runner Up: Reah Shetty with “Revolutionising Society with a Chip”

And the grand winner of 2022…

Amelia Safai with “Therapeutic Cloning - Will a sheep save lives?”Winners in the various categories were awarded an array of prizes, from cash to book vouchers, and some coveted memberships to some of Melbourne's greatest science establishments.

All these incredible speeches will be uploaded to our YouTube Channel within the coming weeks, so make sure to Subscribe and look out for them soon!

Sad you missed out? Stay tuned for next year’s competition or look out this November to see how you can join Let’s Torque’s 2023 team.

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Being the Best Science Communicators We Can Be…

Tips and Tricks to Communicating your Passion

The Dreaded Public Speaking Anxiety…

If you were to Google: Public Speaking Anxiety, you would find that it comes up with approximately 123,000,000 results.

When talking about public speaking anxiety, performance anxiety, glossophobia, whatever you want to call it, there are two pathways a lot of these results go down. Either how to get rid of it, or why it happens.

We read about the physiological symptoms that we are all too familiar with, the pounding heart rate, the restless stomach and the excessive sweating. We read about the negative mental state: “What if I fail?”, “What if everyone laughs at me?” “What if I forget my speech?”.

Then, we learn that these responses are part of the evolutionary mechanism to protect us from harmful situations, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in so that we can either fight the threat, run away, or freeze - which people generally don’t want to do during a presentation.

As young adults, most of us have experienced public speaking anxiety in one form or another. Finding a way to approach it in a way that is unique can be quite challenging. No one wants to hear the same old rhetoric about the nervous system, and the fight or flight response. I certainly don’t.

Our workshop, “the Science of Language” was designed to approach performance anxiety as a tool, and remind us that that pounding feeling in the chest isn’t something to fear - but something to learn from.

We were fortunate enough to have guest speaker, comedian Alanta Colley, https://www.alantacolley.com , join us and share some of her hilarious stories. As a comedian, public speaking pretty much comes with the territory, and we were excited to hear some of her tips.

Having traveled the world, Alanta tells the story of the time she was working in Uganda, teaching water safety, resulting in her contracting not one, but multiple different parasites. Despite this being a pretty terrible experience all round, she was inspired to combine science and her love of comedy, creating a show all about the incident.

She talks about how when public speaking, like in life, failure can actually be funny, and a great way for your audience to relate to you. It shouldn’t be something to AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Additionally, ditching the jargon, when speaking to non-experts and adding personal anecdotes is another way to captivate the audience.

Though the audience is important to consider (RE: Workshop 1), these tips also focus on YOU, the speaker, and take some of the pressure off.

… And How you can BEAT IT

With that being said, here are some tips that we went through in the Workshop.

Tips to give a great presentation

1. Practice in front of a mirror
2. Record yourself
3. Avoid sounding scripted
4. Using audience interaction: ask a question, Get them to raise their hands, an activity
5. Try an entertaining sentence opener, a story, or a fact
6. Dressing the part!

A lot of these tips aim to not only engage the audience, but help warm up the speaker as well.

Group exercises to improve public speaking confidence

• Over communication: participants would tell the same story in different ways: shy, passionate etc.
• Mini-Speech: participants would be tasked with having to talk about a science topic they were passionate about, with little to no preparation.
• Telephone: focusing on body language communication, without words

To learn more about Public Speaking Anxiety, check out this website

https://nationalsocialanxietycenter.com/social-anxiety/public-speaking-anxiety/#:~:text=The%20fear%20of%20public%20speaking,or%20negative%20evaluation%20by%20others.

We look forward to you joining us for the third, and final workshop leading up to the Let’s Torque Public Speaking Competition, WS3: Design, Delivery and Display.
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/920635?bof=1

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At our first workshop for 2022, Science Beyond the Lab, we had the fantastic A/Prof Chris Thompson share some of his Science Communication wisdom and ran some pretty fun activities. In case you couldn’t make it, here is a wrap up of what happened.

So, what did we learn?Why does Science Communication matter?

Despite the fact that not everyone is as science-mad as the rest of us, there’s no denying that science plays an integral role in the way we live our lives - from the technology that permeates our everyday lives, the medicine we take, to the discoveries that are yet to be made that will revolutionize our way of living.

There is simply no avoiding it. And yet, for something so inescapable, accessibility and understanding is still a huge obstacle. At Let’s Torque, we believe that scientific knowledge shouldn’t just be limited to those who have already committed themselves to the field.

Science communication, as described by Sam Illingworth and Grant Allen, is an umbrella term that centers around four key pillars - Informing, Educating, Raising Awareness and Sense of Wonder.

So, who are we doing this for?

So science has a universal presence but how do we harness it to produce real change? By targeting and aligning three main stakeholders: the general public, policymakers and business leaders and aspiring scientists. Without the support of all three, it would be impossible to get enough support - either in the form of public interest, or financial backing. We’ve seen this interrelation clearly in the last two years, with the COVID-19 outbreak. When the interest of the general public, aspiring scientists and policymakers all align, the advancements in science and technology are monumental.

The general public is the most important stakeholder, as what we do must help people and in turn pressure from the ground up drives influence and change - particularly when policymakers and businesses are looking for a financial motive to invest in an issue.

Finally, the future of society, health, technology and the environment are dependent on passionate and articulate scientists who can effectively communicate the importance of their work to the rest of the stakeholders.

Workshop Activities

With all this in mind, we shaped our workshop with the goal of exploring Science Beyond the Lab.

The first activity was called the Abstract Prompt - where we gave participants a list of technical abstracts for articles, typified by jargon, and were asked to write a new title, to be captivating and engaging - without compromising the scientific integrity.

Huge shoutout to Joshua Nicholls - Head of Education 2022 and Winner of Let’s Torque 2021, for this example!

Participants did an incredible job with this activity. Using language tips and tricks, such as word play, alliteration and rhyming, the groups were able to flex their writing skills as well as their knowledge of science. The results: a series of very funny and engaging titles, from a range of frankly quite overwhelming abstracts.

The following activity was an activity about understanding the Audience and how that might shape how you pitch the information. Groups were assigned an audience and new article at random - and were asked to plan and present how they might communicate the information in the article.

Combinations of articles and audiences included an article about evidence against the proposal that vaccines caused autism to be explained to Karen, a middle aged, suburban mother of three. Or an article about the potential therapeutic benefits of Naltrexone to help with alcohol addiction, to be explained to a disgruntled bartender.

The resulting skits were, again, hilarious and engaging. It was fantastic to see participants really understanding the importance of knowing the audience in order to effectively communicate scientific concepts.

“The event was in general really fun and an eye-opener for me into science communication” Sirui Fang, a second year Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University told us, “and the activities we had, made the day more interactive and engaging”

Overall, it was a great evening and the team at Let’s Torque is so grateful for all those who showed up and got involved! The online resources are now live on our website and we encourage you all to follow us on social media and stay tuned for updates about the next workshop on May 30th.

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If you want to get a stunning look at the science inside our minds, it’s worth taking a look at the amazing ThoughtForms exhibit by Dr Kellyann Guerts and Dr Indae Hwang in the Science Gallery, at Melbourne Connect, Melbourne University.

ThoughtForms is an amazing blend of technology, science and self-reflection, where users are able to produce a snapshot of their own thoughts, with a mobile EEG (brainwave detector) and a 3D-printer. Inspired by some of her own lived, mental health experiences, Dr Guerts explores finding order in disorder and bridging the divide between the inaccessible thoughts and our physical world.

So, how does it work exactly?

The technology involved is incredible, not unlike something seen in a sci-fi movie. In the simplest of terms, it’s creating a visual, physical representation of what’s going on in our heads.

More specifically, to generate the shapes, she uses a mobile electroencephalogram, or EEG, to detect and map brain activity across different regions of the brain. These readings are input into a data visualization platform, transforming the data into abstract 3D shapes. These can be manipulated by the individual wearing the headset, along different axes associated with the various brain regions measured, and activated, depending on what the person is thinking.

If the parietal lobe is more activated, then the axis associated with parietal lobe activity would have a greater value. All you need is 3 regions, to get three axes, and boom, you have a 3D shape. Granted, the classification and extrapolation process are a little more complex than that but nevertheless, it is incredible.

To produce the “Thoughtform”, the 3D printed abstract shape, participants were asked to think of a thought and press “Print” when they felt ready.

But what does it all mean?

Now left at that, all the measuring produces is copious amounts of numbers and squiggly abstract shapes. But this is where the Circumplex Model of Affect comes into play. Developed in the late 90s, by American psychologists James Russell and Lisa Feldman Barret, it proposes that all affective states are the result of a combination between arousal, or activation, and valence, i.e., positive or negative. Affective states are longer lasting moods.

Using this model, and the participants’ own self-reflection on the category of their thoughts, commonalities between the shapes could be considered. Do happy thoughts have similar shapes? What might this say about the way the brain experiences happy thoughts? One thing they did notice was that focused, low-arousal thoughts were more spherical, smaller and compact. In contrast, high arousal thoughts were elongated, narrow and constantly moving. So, the data and model create something that gives us a bit of an insight into what’s going on

Where will this take us?

Unfortunately, at this stage, not particularly far. There is just too much of the brain, cognition and consciousness that we just don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that there aren't extraordinary implications for this technology further down the track. That’s why we love science!

In her paper, published 2018, Dr Guerts describes the abstract shapes to be “like biological specimens awaiting classification, the random fragments depicting mental states arranged in this image in order to observe and interpret”.

From a clinical psychology perspective, there are potential implications too. Transformation imagery is an example of a technique used in therapy. Patients are encouraged to visualize their distressing feelings or thoughts. In doing so, they are able to regain control of their feelings, improve emotional regulation and processing. Using guided meditation in addition to a visual aid of this process could be very beneficial.

The Science Gallery on Swanston Street, Melbourne, is a branch of an initiative founded by Trinity College Dublin. Their mission is to create exhibitions that explore the intersection between art, technology and science, centered around a particular theme. Since their founding in 2008, they now have exhibitions in 8 cities around the world. Their exhibit MENTAL is open until Apr 23, 2022.

If you would like to learn more about the Science Gallery, you can visit them at the Melbourne Connect Building, 114 Grattan St, Parkville.

Website: https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com

Instagram: @scigallerymel

Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more amazing SciComm!

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Amidst the excitement of Science Week, Let’s Torque held their annual STEM public-speaking competition.

We were honoured to witness the sharp and engaging presentations from some of the finest undergraduate science communicators!

Our fantastic judging panel featured esteemed science communicators: Catriona Nguyen-Robertson (@CatrionaNR), Dr Leonie Walsh (@lkw_sci) and Dr Shane Huntington (@DrShaneRRR).

The keynote address from Zoos Victoria’s wonderful Dr Marissa Parrott (@drmparrott) discussed the need for effective science communication to tackle misinformation and spark environmental protection.

It was inspiring to learn about the widespread impact of campaigns such as “When Balloons Fly, Seabirds Die”. Although this began as a call-to-action initiative discouraging plastic balloon use, the campaign succeeded with the recent statewide balloon ban.

Moving on to the competition. Another special thanks to each of the grand finalists for your enthusiasm and diligence behind the scenes. We are deeply grateful for your swift adaptation to the online transition of competition.

Fourth-place finalist, Luke Antzoulatos provided an insightful introduction into the novel application of nanoparticles against bacterial infection. Will a “cocktail” of nanoparticles become a remedy in the near future?

Nano-Terminators - Luke Antzoulatos

Sticking to the theme of a small-scale concept catapulting into far-reaching effects, audience favourite, Georgina Aiuto pondered how a snappy second affects GPS accuracy. Following the 2019-2020 bushfires, conservation of native animal populations may depend on how we define a “second”…

Take a Second for the Future - Georgina Aiuto

Just narrowly short of first-prize, Sanjeeban Chattopadhyay’s impactful delivery addressed a fresh solution to urban flooding. To keep your stroll in the streets flood-free, permeable pavements can absorb and redirect excess rainwater.

Permeable Pavements: A Key Design for a Water-sensitive Future - Sanjeeban Chattopadhyay

Finally (drum roll please), our first-place winner, Joshua Nicholls glimpses into the technical advancement of the bionic eye. Although replicating an organ is its own feat, it will have profound benefits for the visually impaired community.

Bionics: Seeing into the Future - Joshua Nicholls

Deepest gratitudes to RSV and our advisory board, as well as the Let’s Torque team for pulling this event together.

Missed the livestream? Don’t fret! Watch the 2021 Grand Final here.

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In the lead up to the exciting GRAND FINAL, let’s look back on our semi-final.

As well as the Olympics, early August held another spectacular competition.

Let’s Torque had the chance to meet our talented semi-finalists and listen to their stunning presentations.

Topics ranged from the recycling of cells from umbilical cords for medical application to the novel use of nanoparticles to fight against bacterial infection!

Although our fierce competitors were behind monitors, their charisma and passion were received loud and clear.

The snappy 4-minute time-limit definitely proved to be a challenge. However, our semi-finalists successfully assured us of a fascinating future for STEM ahead.

A warm congratulations to our semi-finalists, we’re incredibly proud of you all!

Get into the spirit of Science Week and join us this Saturday (20 August) for our GRAND FINAL from the comfort of your own home.

Don’t miss your chance to watch the next generation of STEM communicators.

• Georgina Aiuto - "Take a Second for the Future"
• Joshua Nicholls - "Bionics: Seeing into the Future"
• Luke Antozoulatos - "Nano-Terminators"
• Sanjeeban Chattopadhyay - "Permeable Pavements: A Key Design for a Water-sensitive Future"

Judging some of the most promising future STEM solutions will be the esteemed: Catriona Nguyen-Robertson, Dr Leonie Walsh FTSE, and Dr Shane Huntington OAM.

Visit our Facebook event for more info and to find the link to our livestream. Hope to catch you there!

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In our third episode, Tess interviews Amy (Runner Up) and Nathan (Winner) on their experiences with the virtual Let's Torque competition, what they believe makes for effective SciComm and more!

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Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

These blogs ideally take 2 hours to write, and somehow I’ve consistently stretched this into an 8-hour endeavour.

Sure, there’s background research to accomplish. Editing. Paraphrasing. Fixing sentence flow. Spell-checking, grammar checking, sanity checking.

H O W E V E R .

My other browser tabs include looking up how to make the best toasties. Scrolling Instagram. Watching videos of people’s pets. Binging Netflix. Frequently checking on the COVID situation in Victoria. (You know how it is.)

We’ve all been there.

What’s the science behind this?Maybe like me, you’re hoping for some sort of reassuring scientific explanation. Spoiler alert: they exist!

Your body is constantly receiving stimuli from the external environment. This could be the burning pain your fingertips feel when you carelessly fish out a slice of burnt raisin toast. For instance.

Once the neurons in your fingers have sensed this pain stimuli, they release neurotransmitters which carry chemical messages.

Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash

It’s somewhat like a lazy baton relay. The neurons are like the ‘runners’ except they don’t move. Instead, they toss ‘batons’ of neurotransmitters to other neurons nearby, causing them to toss their own neurotransmitters. This repeats until the message reaches the ‘finish line’ at the brain.

The brain processes the pain message and then sends out new chemical messages using the same process, ordering your hand to flick away from the cruel toaster. (I will neither confirm or deny the vague burn scar I may or may not acquired).

This is how your body reacts to the external world. This process can help build habits too.

Dopamine, famously known as the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter is a ‘baton’ that is passed around. It is found capable of positively reinforcing your actions.

A positive outcome tends to encourage you to repeat a behaviour next time.

Unlike the (hypothetical) toast disaster where a bad outcome of a burnt finger discourages you from poking a toaster again, receiving money for a good grade can prompt you to study just as hard for the next test.

Dopamine boostersYou can create ‘dopamine-boosting’ environments to help rewire your brain.

• Celebrate the small wins: instant gratification from checking off a to-do list can help reinforce your achievements. When you feel like you’re making progress, the effects of dopamine can have a greater impact.
• Share your results: talking about your results (positive or negative) will allow others to recognise or praise your work.
• Micro-deadlines: breaking up a whole mission into small habits to be completed one-at-a-time can help you stay focused. As Dr Fiona Kumfor, a senior researcher at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre says “The brain finds it easier to cope with habit than to make decisions every day”.

Most importantly, a lack of motivation could stem from burn-out. This does not reflect laziness! Some fresh air or a break can massively help.

Dopamine is a complex chemical that’s not fully understood. Sometimes it also takes some grit and determination to surmount demotivation too.

Photo by Ahmed Zayan on Unsplash

The long gamePeople often study with one of two types of goals in mind.

• Mastery goals: to understand the content and develop their skills.
• Performance goals: to perform well in comparison to others.

A study suggests that performance goals are better suited for short-term learning and mastery goals are best suited for long-term learning.

Hence, it may help to put your goals and visions into perspective, thinking where you would like to be in the long game.

Contagious motivationCompetition is found to have a very minor effect on performance.

Meanwhile, you can be inspired by observing others. Surrounding yourself with people passionate about a subject that you initially find dry can inspire you to find it enjoyable. Maybe joining a study group or watching some inspiring TedTalks can help cure your demotivation.

the science of motivation is a complicated puzzle yet to be fulfilled.Further reading

• American Psychology Association’s article
• An ABC news article
• Scientific paper: Do exerciser weight status and perceived motivation predict instructors’ motivation and beliefs about the exerciser? A test of motivation contagion effects
• Dopamine and motivation to study

Sometimes getting some mental wellbeing support can help too. Here are some sites with resources and external contacts:

• BeyondBlue
• Kids Helpline

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Let’s recap our very first (and technically second) workshop of 2021!

Jack from Let’s Torque introducing Workshop 1.

On a chilly April evening, we were lucky enough to host Workshop 1 and take shelter within the cosy function room at the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV).

We had the wonderful, singing scientist Catriona Nguyen-Robertson as our guest speaker. The PhD candidate and lecturer at The University of Melbourne is known for outreaching STEM online towards fresh, non-traditional audiences through her catchy scientific earworms.

It was inspiring to hear Catriona share her own passion, visions and some first-hand experiences as an avid science communicator!

Workshop 1 focused on exploring and appreciating the importance of science communication. As well as how to tailor complex scientific concepts towards varying audiences.

Interestingly, as science progresses into more specialised and complex forms, a study finds that research papers are becoming more difficult to read. This is problematic as it can catapult the general public away from trusting and engaging with STEM.

Miscommunication or a lack of understanding of science can erupt confusion and conflict within society and politics. This can be seen in the varying responses to COVID-19 globally.

Catriona Nguyen-Robertson (on right) helping some workshop attendees reinvent lengthy scientific abstracts and press releases into captivating headlines.

Caitlin from Let’s Torque introducing Workshop 1.

Royal Society of Victoria (RSV)

Contradictorily, while scientific papers with amusing titles are more likely to attract everyday audiences, readers find these papers to be less credible.

Attendees were tasked to solve this conundrum. Each group was missioned to create both informative and compelling headlines from a set of abstracts and press releases.

While it was tricky enough to translate the strings of jargon and convoluted concepts into a snappy sentence, the twist was that each group had a unique target audience. They ranged from extraterrestrial life to Medieval peasants to modern day toddlers.

This lead to some very creative and entertaining answers…

Thanks again to Catriona for spending her Wednesday evening with us! Thanks to RSV for the lovely venue!

To meet both the flattering popularity of the workshop and gathering limits, the team swiftly adapted our ONE 90-minute workshop into TWO back-to-back sessions. Despite the all the chaos and coordination, it was rewarding to see it all through! Thanks to all the Let’s Torque team members for their efforts behind the scenes and in front of the scenes!

Finally of course, thank-you to everyone who attended!!

The Let's Torque Team (from left: Eloï, Mitchell, Matthew, Jack, Caitlin) with Catriona Nguyen-Robertson

We’re excited to launch our official second workshop in the lead up to our STEM public-speaking competition! Just a reminder to submit your Talking Points before the June 30 deadline.

Workshop 2: Science Speaks Louder than Words will deep dive into the overlooked non-verbal aspects of science communication. Come along to learn how you can enhance your communication skills and engagement with your audience. We’ll explore the design psychology behind successful visuals and how to employ effective physical communication such as through body language, stance and posture.

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By Eloï Ducasse

Differences and variations witnessed in fossil remains that are thought to be of different species due to their geographic location could possibly be misinterpreted cases of notable physical variations within the same species.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Homo Sapiens - The One Who KnowsEven long before Darwin published his most notorious and polemic piece, the same everlasting question has been left unanswered by science: where do we come from?

To a certain extent, so much is known and yet so much is still ought to be discovered. Humans are undeniably primates, but our genealogic tree is not so simple.

The genus homo is believed to have diversified in a complex branching of various traits and characteristics. But scientists can only gather tangible data from bone remains and other artefacts in archeological findings.

A Bone To PickA vast majority of currently living species display physical variations between sexes known as sexual dimorphism. Another witnessable occurrence of such morphological differences also find its roots at a molecular level and is defined as polymorphism.

In humans, morphological differences between different individuals can be compared to a rainbow of variety. However in contrast to our closest relatives, humans tend to have a low degree of facial sexual dimorphism for instance.

When it comes to determining and classifying fossils, the task can be seen as herculean. Different characteristics have to be taken in consideration and compared to other identified specimens in order to establish the most accurate taxonomy.

The idea that each individual is unique with some of their traits shared among other related individuals can cause debate within the scientific community. For instance, specimens of our own lineage that are currently thought to be of a different species might actually belong to the same one to some extent.

Skeletons In The ClosetFor now, science might not be able to come to a concrete conclusion about our origins but with every new archaeological find whether it be remains, footprints, relics etc… Every discovery offers new and further insights on our own evolutive history and ultimately what makes us human.

In such, in our quest for truth and understanding, we are retelling the story of life and death accompanied by the echoes of the symphony of a Danse Macabre.

Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

Further Readings:Review: Most human origins stories are not compatible with known fossils

Morphological variation in Homo erectus and the origins of developmental plasticity

Morphological Variation in Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens in the Levant

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By Eloï Ducasse

The caesarian-section (c-section) procedure has increased in prevalence in the recent decades and so has the average quality of life for most countries. Could there be an underlying correlation between those two tendencies?

Ave Caesaria Stories have been told for centuries if not millennials, but sadly like it is sometimes the case in human history, the truth can be distorted and altered after every account.

According to the historical records and oral traditions, the procedure of physically removing the child from the womb has been used around the world but the term is said to have gotten its name from the story of the birth of Julius Caesar. However, it is more likely that it was named after a Roman law that aimed to secure the prosperity and growth population if the life of the foetus was in jeopardy.

Photo by Christian Bowen on Unsplash

Birth - A Physical ChallengeThe fight for survival does begin in the womb, but the first real challenge of mankind is to be brought upon this world with a minimal amount of complications. These can equally affect the mother and the child in some instances.

From the first use of anesthesia to the mastery of the epidural, generally speaking women can now rely on medicine to ease their pain. The pain of childbirth is indeed due to its laborious task; while compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, humans have undergone through a succession of changes under a relatively short period of time.

One of these physical changes is the shift to bipedalism, in order to be able to stand where humans are today, physical modifications were naturally selected within our lineage such as a narrower pelvis for optimal weight distribution.

Another prevalent change concerns our brain and cranial size that has gradually increased throughout our evolutive history. Alongside the selection of a narrower pelvis this resulted in what is now known as the obstetrical dilemma. Put simply, the head of the child barely fits through the female birth canal during labor.

Human SelectionIn our modern times, c-sections are now used in instances where the mother has not physically dilated enough to allow the child to pass through without suffering too much constriction and ultimately brain damage.

It is no secret that a healthy population will produce healthy babies, such data shows that the average birth weight and size of human babies has increased steadily over the last centuries but our pelvis did not get any wider.

Our intelligence has freed our species from the pressures of natural selection. Thus the mind does wonder, with the advent of in vitro fertilisation and scientists working on artificial wombs techniques, are we destined to move away from the natural birth methods?

Photo by Meta Zahren on Unsplash

Further Readings:Secular changes in body height predict global rates of caesarean section

We may one day grow babies outside the womb, but there are many things to consider first

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By Michelle Nguyen

New evidence from subatomic particles ‘wobbles’ our understanding of unseen particles and forces in the universe

Muons – a heavier, unstable counterpart to electrons – challenge one of science’s most watertight theories, the Standard Model of particle physics.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Like electrons, muons are also negatively charged and have a quantum property called spin. In a magnetic field, spin allows muons to wobble like spinning tops. A muon wobbles faster under a stronger magnetic field.

Additionally, when muons mingle with other short-lived particles – imagine bubbles popping up and disappearing from soapy water – it can wobble ~0.1% faster than expected. This mysterious boost is called the anomalous magnetic moment, which can be further tweaked by the presence of unknown heavy particles…

The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model attempts to explain how all particles in the entire universe behave. With excellent precision, it guesses how frequently a particle wobbles. It’s currently humankind’s best mathematical explanation and considerably the most successful scientific theory.

However, it’s incomplete. Since a toolbox is only as handy as its tools, the accuracy of the model depends on being sure about every. Single. Particle. In the universe.

In 2001, the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York found that muons may wobble slightly faster than model’s prediction.

Witnessing this anomaly again is said to be a 1 in 40,000 fluke.

Fast-forward 20 years to just last Wednesday, researchers at Fermilab announced that their Muon g-2 experiment have defied these odds!

The Muon g-2 experiment: its potential & its controversyHow did the Fermilab researchers do this? By shooting particles into a 14-ton circular tube and seeing what happens. Sort of.

Before firing a beam of muons into a magnetised ring at high speed, the subatomic particles were gathered by filtering from debris resultant of pairs of protons smashing together. As muons whirl inside the ring, the powerful magnetic field gradually rotates the particle’s spin axis.

By millionths of a second later, or rather after a few hundred cycles within the ring, the wobbling muon decays into an electron. The detectors along the track’s inner wall catch the flying electron and reads the emitted energy. The speed of the parent muons is solved by discerning the different energies at various times.

So, what’s all this hype about an invisible particle wobbling a little bit faster than expected? The thing is physicists around the world have long been trying to push the boundaries of the Standard Model in order to explain the holes in the theory.

However, test after test, the theory stubbornly sticks. The deviations from the model observed by muon behaviour could be a gateway into a new physics!

What’s even more exciting is that although this result appears promising, a recently published Nature paper suggest that the muon’s wobbliness is exactly expected by the Standard Model according to different mode of calculation by BMW.

While the BMW and Fermilab calculations are being contested, the fact that both could simultaneously be correct is brewing tension within the physics community. Whether or not the Femilab team is chasing ghosts, this makes for a fascinating puzzle.

As theoretical physicists, Nima Arkani-Hamed (who wasn’t involved in the research) puts it:

“The attitude to take is sort of cautious optimism.”Although the team of over 200 scientists across seven countries at Femilab have been actively experimenting since 2018, they are keeping in mind that the results aren’t a “discovery” yet.

By strict standards, researchers need to ensure that results achieve a statistical certainty of ‘5 sigma’, or rather show that this anomaly only occurs randomly once every 3.5 million times the experiment is run.

Fermilab researchers are well on track with their current estimate of 4.2 sigma! If Fermilab’s results remain consistent it could take a couple of years to draw firm conclusions from this Nobel-Prize worthy effort.

For further reading, have a look at:

• Fermilab’s own news report
• Quanta Magazine’s highly insightful and extensive article
• National Geographic science news article
• Nature paper: Leading Hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic moment from lattice QCD

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By Michelle Nguyen

It was collision of two specks in the sky.

With each hurtling at 35,000 km per hour into one another only to crash and shatter into a thousand pieces. The spectacular crash scattered broken fragments and shrapnel some 800 km above our heads. One of the specks went silent.

We lost contact with the once active U.S.-based communication satellite Iridium 33. This accidental collision in 2009 with the already inactive Russian Cosmos 2251, was the first time we knew about satellites colliding in space. It was a confronting wakeup call about the issue of space junk.

It wasn’t the last either, since January, 2020 saw a near miss between two large satellites.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Much of the 2009 wreckage still remains in orbit around Earth. Until the fractured parts completely disintegrate, they will stubbornly smash into each other again and again. Meanwhile, swimming above the clouds and just out of sight lies the other million pieces of space junk. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is so polluted that it is renowned as a graveyard. It mostly consists of human-generated objects such as parts of spacecraft and rockets, inactive satellites and even tiny flecks of paint from spacecraft.

According to the European Space Agency, in 2019 there was over 5,000 objects spanning over 1 m in size and an overwhelming 130 MILLION fragments of about 1 mm. Along with the deliberate destruction of Chinese Fengyun-1C spacecraft in 2007, the 2009 collision has magnified the large orbital debris population in LEO by about 70%!

Space junk can’t be much of problem when most of it is smaller than a fingernail, right? Well, most space debris can travel at EXHILARATING speeds. The impact of pea-size fleck of paint can be as powerful as a plasma gun! (which can puncture solid metal…) Space debris can whirl at up to 18,000 miles per hour, which is almost 7 times faster than a bullet.

While surviving space establishments brandish their bruises and fractures, about a handful of satellites, telescopes and space objects are lost yearly. This might not sound like much, but since debris from one collision can trigger a chain reaction of further destruction this is quite alarming. A single bullet of impact is capable of offsetting a chaotic cycle worthy of multiple machine guns.

This could be harmful to people in both space and on Earth. Also losing all of our satellites means we may have to resort back to 1970s technology: a time before the internet, GPS and modern weather and natural disaster forecasting. We may have also created our own prison. In the future, it might be dangerous to launch anything into space. We would be grounded from space travel, future explorations and a potential interspace existence.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

While this situation seems a little over our heads… Don’t fret, innovators are coming up with solutions. Here’s a list of some ideas:

• The CLAWWW; which operates just like how claw-machines collect plush animals
• Harpoons; which works like spear fishing.
• Magnetism; which could be a safer option since space fragments are less likely further fragment when they’re just dragged along a new path using magnets.
• Lasers (pew pew); to shoot space junk out of a collision pathway.
• Recyclable rockets; could be a more sustainable option to traditional disposable boosters.

While these concepts still need more time to develop, but for now who knows if space rubbish collector could be one of coolest jobs in the future.

For further reading, check out:

• Updates on Space Junk and its Solutions
• 2009 Iridium-Cosmos Satellite Collision
• End of Space – Creating a Prison for Humanity
• NASA – Space Debris
• Science Alert News Article
• National Geographic Article
• Chapter from A Handbook for Management on Space Waste and its Management

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By Michelle Nguyen

A global pandemic has reinvented much of our lifestyle – from the way we interact, work and learn. The drag and drop of our existence onto monitors and LCD screens has been quite draining. Yes, I’m recalling those never-ending zoom classes… Despite all of this, science communicators are embracing digitalisation and getting creative. They’re now connecting with a wider and more diverse audience by swapping their scientific stage for the screen.

As a many of us know, science can be tricky to explain, let alone understand. Concepts can be so convoluted that in the time it takes to convey a crux of quantum chemistry, you could probably bake a cake. Or two.

Now what if I told you, you only had a quarter of a minute to do so?

Some science communicators are now taking on this challenge. They’re connecting with a global audience from their living rooms through TikTok, a social media platform based on posting brief informal videos, most popular from ages downwards of 24. With TikTok surpassing a staggering 2 billion lifetime downloads world-wide, STEM is being outreached to a younger and wider viewership beyond a niche of specialists! Creators are capturing our short attention spans by linking abstract ideas to our everyday lives through skits, dance routines and art. You don’t need a scientific background to understand the concepts. It’s an opportunity for anybody to learn and interact with convoluted concepts from the couch.

After being encouraged by his students, chemistry teacher, Phil Cook (@chemteacherphil) posted his lab demonstration of a gummy bear exploding into flames while being oxidised in a test tube of potassium chlorate. Cook says “I went away for the weekend and came back to 5,000 or 10,000 followers.” To date, he has earned over 3.4 million followers!

Other social media including YouTube, Instagram and Twitter also home a growing voice for science communicators. Chemistry and physics teacher, Jonte Lee transformed his kitchen into at-home lab to broadcast his lessons through Instagram Live. He noticed that despite the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, his students’ marks improved compared to previous terms; no student earned less than a C! Lee was even contacted by viewers beyond his hometown, Washington.

As digital communication takes on innovative forms, there is an exciting future for sci comm as well.

Although social media can be a messy landscape, this kind of STEM outreach has an immense scope of benefits. By making complicated content more engaging, it can break down the illusion of STEM being elitist. Since STEM is vital for understanding how the world works and how we exist in it, these ideas should be more accessible to society. These ideas should be less alienating, more relatable and easier to grasp. We as scientists have the power be creative in how we present ideas and findings.

Sharing new discoveries or explaining older theories can help the community trust science more. While online media can be shallow and misleading, by making STEM more accessible to the public, we can inspire curiosity, as well as critical thinking. Social media can also get more people talking about an issue and raise awareness. There is opportunity to shine a light or a new tone on an overlooked topic.

This opens conversation beyond a specific and specialised group of experts. It welcomes more people from different walks of the life to get involved regardless of their background. Issues like how to overcome a pandemic or how to achieve sustainable future impact everybody in some way. It makes sense to involve as many voices as possible to come up with the best solutions to suit a diversity of needs. This could greatly assist with policy making and lead to further research to ultimately

While digitalisation places a glass barrier between us, it also refracts creative alternatives for how we connect with one another. How else can we revolutionise sci comm?

Take a look at these #scicomm accounts:

• @chaoticallyscience (TikTok)
• @lab_shenanigans (TikTok)
• @mrp_chemistry (TikTok)
• @rememberthewild (Instagram)
• @scidocmartin (Instagram, Twitter)
• @nyuroscientist (Instagram)
• @scigallerymelb (Instagram)
• @lkw_sci (Twitter)
• @LynPlen (Twitter, Instagram)
• @hypothejess (Twitter, Instagram)
• @DjukeVeldhuis (Twitter)
• @isobelccampbell (Instagram)

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In our second episode, we interview Dr Jen Martin, renowned science communicator and longtime presenter on Triple R community radio.

Listen as we discuss Antarctica, climate change and possum sex!

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Thank you to all participants for your hard work and commitment to enhancing your science communication skills. After a lengthy discussion, we’re proud to announce our six Grand Finalists for 2020. They will be judged through a live Q&A panel made up of three expert science communicators.

Tune into our Facebook livestream on 22 August at 6pm to support our competitors and vote for the People’s Choice Award!

2020 FINALISTSAmy Xie

Bobby Le

Declan Jackson

Nathan Higgings

Sam Mackay

Rachel Stewart

Grand Final Judges

Dr Jen Martin Jen is a former field ecologist who founded and teaches the University of Melbourne's award-winning Science Communication Teaching Program. She talks about science every week on 3RRR and was named the 2019 Unsung Hero of Australian Science Communication.

Twitter | Linkedin | Personal Blog

STEM Women Network | Unimelb Science Communication Blog

Professor Alan DuffyAlan is a Swinburne astronomer working on dark matter, galaxy formation and cosmology. As Lead Scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia, he regularly communicates science on TV, radio and print as well as public events nationwide.

Twitter | Website

Alanta Colley Alanta is a comedian and science communicator with a Masters in International Public Health. She has toured nationally with her science comedy debate series 'Sci Fight', and was a recipient of the 'Inspiring Australia' Science Arts Grant in 2019.

Facebook | Website

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In our first episode, we interview Monash University’s Dr Djuke Veldhuis. We discuss her career with FameLab, the broader scientific and social impact of COVID-19 and climate change and her tips for scicomm students!

Let’s Torque is an undergraduate student run organisation promoting and teaching science communication skills. Read more about us on our website: www.letstorque.org

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Kirsty Costa’s connection to nature and wildlife was nurtured by a childhood of camping trips, bushwalks and ocean swims.

She has spent more than 20 years working in education and sustainability. Kirsty has been a classroom teacher, an education consultant for hundreds of schools and worked at an executive level in large not-for-profits.

As Learning Innovation Leader at Zoos Victoria, she designs education programs that help teachers, young people and wildlife to thrive in our changing world.

What is your role at Zoos Victoria?As Learning Innovation Leader, I collaborate with the education teams at Victoria’s three great zoos – Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo. We find new and authentic ways to provide students with real-world learning experiences. As a zoo-based conservation organisation, Zoos Victoria also delivers programs that involve young people in action for wildlife. Another part of my role is to help coordinate professional development programs that support Zoos Victoria’s 4000-plus teacher members to grow their confidence and skills.

How is STEM and science communication applied at Zoos Victoria?With thousands of animals, hundreds of staff and millions of visitors, each zoo is a STEM playground. Science communication happens at every level, from our website to our signage, to our keeper talks. Underlying our communication is a behaviour change and education model called Connect-Understand-Act. We emotionally connect people to animals and nature in order to foster wildlife friendly attitudes and values. We help people understand animals and conservation in order to create wildlife-friendly beliefs. We inspire people to act in their everyday life through wildlife friendly behaviours.

Have you always strived to involve STEM in your career?Interestingly, I gave up science in Year 10 at high school. I didn’t enjoy learning from a textbook and I didn’t like activities where I had to guess the right answer. However, I grew up loving the natural world and also technology. That being said, STEM has always been part of my career, from working in community development to my roles in education. I’ve had the privilege of teaching STEM to people of all ages, focusing particularly on the human ingenuity used to solve environmental and social problems.

Why is communicating your science to a wider audience important?Zoos Victoria’s vision is to fight extinction and secure a future rich in wildlife. Science communication allows us to build partnerships with local communities, fellow conservationists and like-minded organisations — close to home and in far-flung corners of the world. Communication also enables us to provide profound zoo-based animal encounters to connect people with wildlife. Communicating our science to a wider audience gives animal species hope of survival.

Are you communicating to people with a science background? If not, what considerations do you have to make?Zoos Victoria communicates with people from a variety of groups, cultures and backgrounds. They have a range of science knowledge and skills so we need to tailor our communications accordingly. We communicate through our education programs, through media, our social media channels and directly to those who visit our properties – Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary. Our Community Conservation campaigns are designed to be accessible to everyone and encourage individuals, schools, workplaces and communities to take simple actions that can have real and positive effects and a big impact on the fight against extinction. These campaigns are designed to empower people to save wildlife, regardless of their background.

What's important when explaining something complicated to a young audience?We use a series of techniques to educate young people about complicated topics. First, we explore ‘the why’ and link the topic to what young people already know or have experienced. Next, we break ‘the what’ into bite-sized pieces so the information can be easily digested. This can include images, stories, data and infographics. We then discuss ‘the how’ so that young people understand the skills and steps used in real-life scenarios. Finally, we give time for young people to think about how they might use what they’ve learnt by asking, “what if”. You could argue that this same technique should be used for adults too!

What is your favourite part about working at Zoos Victoria?There are so many things I love about working at Zoos Victoria. From the committed staff, to the amazing animals, to our collective purpose. My favourite part of my work is that I get to mash my passions together – education and conservation. I’m part of a team that provides young people with an education worth having, while also helping our community achieve positive outcomes for wildlife. It’s incredibly rewarding.

What are your tips for standing out, engaging an audience and being an expert science communicator?An audience won’t engage with a message if they sense that the communicator’s goal is personal gain. The best communicators are authentic and they genuinely want to know what their audience thinks and needs. They listen as much (or even more) than they talk. This is our approach at Zoos Victoria – we spend endless hours listening to our visitors, members, partners and the wider community. We have conversations with them (instead of talking at them) and this conversation allows us to communicate in a way where everyone feels heard and valued. This builds a trust relationship where science can be communicated and people inspired to take action for wildlife.

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With the deadline for talking points coming up, we’ve been hearing a few people have been struggling to come up with topic ideas. So, we’ve put together five ways to find something to talk about!

1. Something from a lecture
Has your lecturer been talking about some super cool research or science that you could talk about? Maybe this is a chance to look into it a little further?

2. News sites
Websites like Cosmos or The Conversation have loads of interesting articles that could spark a speech topic. Try searching by your STEM field to see what you find!

3. Things that you care about
Do you love the environment? Maybe there’s an amazing new piece of technology that extracts pollution from the atmosphere. Or is public health a passion? What about an exciting new, low-cost medical treatment to improve the lives of many?

4. Research to address an issue in your area
Think of an issue affecting your area. Is traffic out of control? Water pollution reaching an all-time high? Mental health issues becoming a bigger problem? Look online for research trying to address this issue, who knows what exciting solutions you might find!

5. Topic of a university project
Have you spent the last 12 weeks focused on one nitty gritty topic? Well you’ve already got half the content sorted – talking points will be easy! You’ll also nail any questions.

Remember, your talking points don’t need to be about something you’ve come up with on your own. All you have to do is find some exciting STEM research, and communicate it!

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Imagine the photos that adorn the various surfaces of your home; those photos are probably displayed within frames of different shapes, sizes and materials. Now, have you ever considered how your choice of frame can change mood and message conveyed with your photo? Exhibits displayed below.

One frame exudes a feeling of modern moodiness and mystery; the other frame manifests a vintage vibe. In the same way a frame can influence how a photo is perceived, so too can our mannerisms influence how our presentation is perceived by others. Undoubtedly, we have all met passionate people who have sent us to sleep when talking about their passions. Not necessarily because the content was sleep-inducing , but because the way those people spoke didn't do their topic justice.

We may be passionate and have the best ideas or information in the world, but if we can’t present it in a succinct, relatable, engaging manner, then our audience misses out. If that's the case, what can we do to put ourselves in the best position? As you craft a presentation, or even communicate in the everyday, consider the following:

• TEMPO - the speed at which you speak
• BEATS - the change in volume and speed. Imagine a drum - it can heavily influence the mood that music exudes simply by changing the rate and depth of percussion
• ENUNCIATION - the oft-underrecognised reason why people struggle to convey ideas. Avoid being a mumbler.
• MOVEMENT - use the "stage" to your advantage. Occasional movement to and fro will help your presentation become more dynamic and engaging. Similarly, an appropriate amount of hand gestures can help you emphasise your points and provide a physical frame for your words
• EYE CONTACT - the first thing people think of when they want to make a good presentation. Remember that eye contact should be made to EVERYONE. Do slow scans of the room to ensure you are providing equal amounts of direct speaking time to different parts of the room

A great example of the above can be seen here in Simon Sinek's presentation on "Why good leaders make you feel safe".

Next time you do any form of speaking, remember that your frame is just as important as your picture.

Audilia Sujana

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Have you ever wondered what persuaded you to buy a particular product? Maybe it was those new pair of earphones you bought last week even though you have various pairs lying around your home. Did you buy it because the sales assistant was cute? Probably not. Chances are, they presented an excellent sales pitch to you. Perhaps, they even made an appeal to your head and heart. But what exactly do we mean by "your head and heart"?

An appeal to the head is done through the presentation of knowledge and logic. This may come in the form of facts, statistics and graphs. On the other hand, an appeal to the heart made through an emotional connection. Storytelling and a call to action are often used.

Now, going back to our cute sales assistant. Maybe they started off by informing you of the features and benefits of these earphones. Portable, noise-cancelling, stylish. Yet that was insufficient in convincing you to make the purchase. Thus, they moved on to sharing why you personally needed the product. These earphones would revolutionise your life and provide you with the perfect auditory experience. Whether it be during study, travel or workouts, these portable gadgets would provide amazing sound clarity and were ergonomically perfect. Bam, you were hooked.

In the same way, we should always consider how we can appeal to the heads and hearts of individuals. Why should people believe you and why should they care? If we can answer these two questions for anyone (whether it be in a presentation or day-to-day conversation), then we’ve paved the way for them to come on board with us and take up our point of contention or call to action.

Some excellent strategies to be used are:

HEAD* Use statistics, graphs, figures * Structure your presentation in an ordered manner e.g. Cause-Effect-Solution * Features and benefits

HEART * Use personal, individualistic stories * Mention people and show faces - humanise the issue * Utilise emotive language * Explain the consequences of not agreeing with what you have to say

Remember, the aforementioned tips are only a starting point. You are the creator of your own presentation. How will you appeal to your diverse audience?

Audilia Sujana

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Talking – a mastery of humanity. Communication, however, is an art, one that must be tailored to engage the audience. The words themselves need to be understood, and not only by colleagues but by outsiders and the general public.

Communication is an essential part of everyday life as a scientist. They must connect with a variety of audiences, by writing papers and proposals, presenting talks, and educating others both within and outside of the science community. Science has been around for thousands of years, and one would have thought that with such experience in communication, scientists would have the art down pat. No such luck. Whilst there has been an improvement in the past decades, a gap remains between the science community and the general public.

Science is exciting and thrilling, providing the opportunity to experiment and research. We are seeing ever more ambitious and pioneering studies being conducted globally, and into space. However, this rapid growth has led to increasing outflow of information and a change in the way scientific information is valued. The media frequently controls this, giving priority to the speed of information dissemination to the public, rather than focusing on the reliability and quality of the source. “Frightful risk” and “new miracle cure” have become common headlines in our local and national papers despite the uncertain reliability of information sourced from a single study.

Uncertainty is inevitable in science, and scientists understand that their research often provides a mere snapshot of reality, and that cognitive bias may play a role in their interpretation of results. However, those who are uninformed about the uncertain nature of science may react to findings with unwarranted alarm or misguided hope. Others see findings and dismiss them, no longer trusting a scientific community which seems to regularly publish unhelpful and conflicting claims. The media regularly inflates these issues.

Effective science communication can remedy this problem by providing stronger evidence for claims and a link to the relevance of the research within society. Effective communication focuses on conveying a message clearly, simply and succinctly. The audience relies on engagement by the writer or presenter, prompting them to question the relevance of the information being offered.

Outstanding communication can capture the mind and imagination. It stimulates meaningful conversation and debate, granting science greater importance within society. Science festivals and television shows have already allowed this to occur, bringing popular science and research into the public domain. The uncomfortable awareness that I cannot set foot in the wild without David Attenborough’s soothing voice playing in my ear convinces me of this!

Scientists have a deep understanding of certain subjects. They are experts, but in order to communicate effectively they must be driven by the words of Albert Einstein:

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

Scientists must know their audience and adapt their words accordingly to present the essential messages – why does it matter? Why is this research important?

Science must be made accessible to the public. In turn this will create a stronger union between scientific and public values. Effective communication has the potential to escalate the impact of science in multiple spheres.

Amelia Pearson - Let's Torque Content Manager