We are the Pharm SciComm Society, a group of students from the Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology program at Stony Brook University committed to expanding the reach of our talented graduate students. To introduce ourselves and get an idea of what our goals are with this group and blog, I asked our President, Yasharah Raza, a few questions about science communication, what it means to her, and our mission.
“We have so much exciting research going on in the Department of Pharmacology,” Yasharah tells me. “So many talented and diverse individuals with inspiring stories to tell about their research, their experience in the department, as well as their own life stories that have shaped them as people and as scientists.”
Our main objective is to provide a platform for our students to express themselves through words, art, and media. We plan to feature our department’s research, graduate student life, and most importantly our inspiring community. We also want our members to have the opportunity to accurately feature science news and current events in science to polish their skill in distilling and communicating science. “I wanted to create a platform where we can share our stories, our research, [and] our experiences,” Yasharah explains, “ and hopefully teach and inspire others along the way.”
It’s no secret that science communication is a hot topic right now. Googling “science communication” returns 1.5 billion results—even the phrase “scicomm” returns about 1 million results. Related questions that Google suggests include: “what is science communication and why is it so important?” and “how do you get into scicomm?” Science communication is exactly what it sounds like: it is the act of communicating, educating, raising awareness, and informing others about science, whether that is to the general public or to scientists from other fields. But there are also many nuances to science communication—it’s not quite as cut-and-dry as the title suggests.
“Simply put, SciComm is the skill of being able to convey science-related ideas to a wide range of audiences, and specifically those who are less familiar with the field in question,” Yasharah describes. “More extensively, SciComm not only encompasses the sharing of information, but also the very human aspect of communicating ideas. It’s about using effective communication skills like empathy, confidence, honesty, and open-mindedness to raise awareness about science-related information and scientists in general.”
Just scrolling through Instagram, I find that half of my suggested Reels are short science videos from accounts like the hilarious Darrion Nguyen. My Twitter feed is mostly made up of content from amazing science communicators like Dr. Raven the Science Maven or Dr. Samantha Yammine. And this excites me: in this age of Internet and social media, science has never been more accessible than it is now.
Unfortunately, on the flip side, this also means that misinformation is just as easy to find.
“There is quite the information overload in the media these days,” Yasharah says. “It’s important for good, accurate content to come from people who are well-informed and well-educated about the topics they choose to convey, whatever the field may be.”
If the past two years have been any indication, science communication is more important than ever before. Misinformation has fostered fear and doubt during the pandemic; biased opinions and falsehoods have been spreading alarmingly faster than science-based facts. We, as scientists, must make an effort to reach out, to make sure our science can be understood, and to heal the disconnect that misinformation has caused. Although we are a small, student-run group, we are striving to do our part, and hope that our efforts will help make science even a little more accessible to those who are curious.
“There is immense power in words,” Yasharah says, “and it is so special to be able to wield them carefully and deliberately to expand and diversify people’s minds, and ultimately lead to positive change in combating misinformation and ignorance.”
Join us as we embark on this SciComm journey; we hope you’ll stick around!