On Thursday, the eagerly awaited 9th SoNYC<\/a>\u00a0event took place,\u00a0a super social media week special event at the\u00a0American Museum of Natural History<\/a>! \u00a0The topic for discussion was, \u201cBeyond a Trend: Enhancing Science Communication with Social Media.<\/a>\u201c\u00a0The panel included:<\/p>\n – American Museum of Natural History educators who are developing a \u201ctool kit\u201d of mobile apps, websites and more to help middle school students collect, share and present data on urban biodiversity<\/span><\/p>\n – Ben Lillie, the co-organizer of The Story Collider, which tells science stories by combining verbal narratives with podcasts, Twitter and an online magazine<\/span><\/p>\n – Matt Danzico, a BBC journalist who conducted a 365-day blog experiment called \u201cThe Time Hack\u201d looking at how we perceive time<\/span><\/p>\n – Carl Zimmer,\u00a0a science journalist whose latest book,\u00a0Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed,<\/em>\u00a0is based on feedback he received on his\u00a0Discover Magazine<\/em>\u00a0blog when he asked the question: are scientists hiding tattoos of their science?<\/span><\/p>\n – Moderator: Jennifer Kingson, day assignment editor, Science Department,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n You can catch up on the discussion via the recording of the\u00a0livestream<\/a>\u00a0or read our\u00a0summary post<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>which includes a\u00a0Storify\u00a0<\/a>of the online conversations.<\/p>\n The next SoNYC takes place on Tuesday 20th March when we’ll be discussing “Keeping the research record straight” with Retraction Watch blogger, Ivan Oransky as well as John Krueger\u00a0of the Office of Research Integrity and Liz Williams, Executive Editor of the Journal of Cell Biology. If you’re in NYC and would like to attend, you can sign up here<\/a> or watch our livestream<\/a> if you can’t make it in person.<\/p>\n Guest posts and interviews\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n To complement this month\u2019s SoNYC event we ran a series of guest posts, recounting experiences where social media has been a key part of an education project.\u00a0You can find our introductory post\u00a0here<\/a>, including a presentation by\u00a0Christie Wilcox on\u00a0Science and the Public: Why Every Lab Should Tweet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>To start the discussions,\u00a0Dr Alan Cann<\/a>\u00a0from Leicester University\u00a0gave us an\u00a0academic\u2019s\u00a0viewpoint on how social media can be used as part of the curriculum. His post considers how\u00a0the effects of social media usage can be measured and what the future holds for such technology.\u00a0Next we heard from Ben Lillie, co-founder of\u00a0The Story Collider<\/a>,who discussed the ways social media can also be used to tell a\u00a0science\u00a0story. Finally we interviewed\u00a0Allie Wilkinson<\/a>,\u00a0creator of the \u201cThis is what a scientist looks like\u201d\u00a0initiative:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cThis is what a scientist looks like.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Developed by science writer and multimedia specialist\u00a0Allie Wilkinson<\/a>, the concept is simple, a Tumblr\u00a0blog which collates pictures of scientists from all walks of life. Allie explains, \u201cthere is no cookie-cutter mold of what a scientist looks like. A scientist can look like you, or can look like me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The project aims to challenge the stereotypical view of a scientist, \u201cthere is no rule that scientists can\u2019t be multidimensional and can\u2019t have fun.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Continue to the\u00a0post\u00a0<\/a>to find out how the project aims to challenge the stereotypical view of a scientist.<\/p>\n Social media\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n To tie in with our social media extravaganza, our hub bloggers also joined the discussion.\u00a0Tinker Ready<\/a>, our Boston blogger, interviewed Joi Ito, Internet pioneer and head of the MIT Media Lab, on science, social networking and \u201cthe shape of ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen we get these really rich data sets with which we can understand\u2026 the shape of ideas within the context of society.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He also offered a very concrete example. This spring\u2019s Research Update session \u2013 usually open only to the Media Lab\u2019s corporate and philanthropic sponsors \u2014 will become a Tweet-up. For the first time, most of the previously private sessions will be live streamed and the lab will solicit input through Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe more you get your ideas out there, the more likely you\u2019ll find people to collaborate with,\u201d Ito said.<\/em><\/p>\n Continue to Tinker\u2019s\u00a0post\u00a0<\/a>to hear more from\u00a0Joi Ito.<\/p>\n Joanna Scott, our London blogger, interviewed\u00a0Jack Ashby<\/a>, Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL, about\u00a0QRator<\/a>, the pioneering project the Grant Museum is working on to allow the public to engage with museum collections by contributing their own interpretations:<\/p>\n Do you think social media is going to be very important to museums and outreach departments of universities in the future? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the\u00a0comment thread.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Nature Education<\/em>\u00a0Launches Interactive Biology Textbook<\/strong><\/p>\n Nature Education,<\/em>\u00a0the educational division of Nature Publishing Group, announced this week the worldwide release of\u00a0Principles of Biology<\/a>, a $49 interactive university-level biology textbook:<\/p>\n Principles of Biology\u00a0is a \u201cborn digital\u201d textbook, with all materials designed specifically for consumption by students via browsers on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Each of the 196 modules in the text is a self-contained learning experience, integrating text, images, interactives, and continual assessment, which feeds an automatic gradebook through which instructors can track student progress. Instructors can customize\u00a0Principles of Biology\u00a0to meet their curriculum by rearranging modules, turning sections within modules on and off, adding their own material, and integrating the textbook into their campus learning management system. In addition to accessing all materials online, students can download a Desktop Edition for use when not connected to the internet as well as printable versions of each module.<\/em><\/p>\n Principles of Biology\u00a0follows the successful launch by\u00a0Nature Education<\/em>\u00a0in 2009 of Scitable<\/a>, a collaborative online learning space for individual life science students now used in more than 180 countries. You can find out more about this in the\u00a0official press release.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Google +\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This week the\u00a0Nature Blogs Google+\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0page reached the 1,000 circles milestone. Thanks to everyone who is circling us!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget that you can find other NPG\u00a0journals and products on Google+. \u00a0See our circle featuring all the\u00a0NPG\u00a0Google+ pages.<\/a>\u00a0This circle will be continuously updated as and when accounts are created.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The AAAS meeting in Vancouver<\/strong><\/p>\n The AAAS annual meeting has been taking place in Vancouver since last Wednesday, comprising <\/a>of a mix of plenary talks, smaller discussions and exhibits. You can read Paige Brown’s Storify summary<\/a> of Saturday night’s “Science is not enough” plenary featuring Hans Rosling and discussing the challenges of science communication.<\/p>\n Some upcoming events in Cambridge, UK.<\/strong><\/p>\n Two dates for your calendars if you’re in or around Cambridge, UK. \u00a0March 2nd is when the next #camscitweetup will take place in The Empress pub. A chance to meet others interested in science for an evening of relaxed chatting, everyone is welcome to join in.<\/p>\n April sees the return of SciBarCamb<\/a> – an unconference for scientists and technologists, taking place on the evening of Friday 20th April and all day on Saturday 21st. The earlybird tickets have now sold out, but there’s another chance to reserve your place<\/a> from 10am on February 29th. \u00a0If you’d like to find out more about the event, read what co-organiser, Eva Amsen has to say<\/a> about it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communities Happenings is a weekly post with news of interest to NPG\u2019s online communities. The aim is to provide this info in one handy summary. Listings include tweetups and conferences which we\u2019re attending and\/or organising as well as new online tools, products or cool videos. We also occasionally flag up NPG special offers and competitions plus updates about NPG social media activities such as new accounts you might want to follow. Do let us know what you find most useful! Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[45,32,28,78,55,34,77,33,76,75,49,30],"class_list":["post-1933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communities-happenings","category-science-online-nyc-sonyc","tag-camscitweetup","tag-iamscience","tag-sonyc","tag-aaas","tag-ebooks","tag-google","tag-grant-museum","tag-ipad","tag-mit-media-lab","tag-scibarcamb","tag-scitable","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/files\/2012\/02\/media-lab.jpg\" "\\"media")
<\/a>In a conversation earlier this week, he offered a hypothetical example of how emerging tools are creating new ways to analyze information generated by online networks. Take data from the history of books, together with trends from search queries and Twitter and connect it all to scientific references, he said.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/files\/2012\/02\/ipad1-150x150.jpg\" "\\"ipad\\"")
<\/a><\/em>QRator<\/a>\u00a0is a project that allows our visitors to get involved in conversations about the way that museums like ours operate and the role of science in society today. In the Museum are ten iPads which each pose a broad question linked to a changing display of specimens. We are really interested in what our visitors think about some of the challenges that managing a natural history collection brings up, and other issues in the life sciences. They change periodically, but at the moment our current questions include \u201cIs it ever acceptable for museums to lie?\u201d, \u201cIs domestication ethical?\u201d, \u201cShould human and animal remains be treated differently in museums like this?\u201d and \u201cWhat makes an animal British?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/files\/2012\/02\/pob_cover.jpg\" "\\"pob_cover\\"")
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n