Several of us overly online biologists spent years quietly doing an experiment on Twitter, trying to find out if tweeting about new studies from a set of mid-range journals caused an increase in later citations, compared to set of untweeted control articles.

Turns out we had no noticeable effect; the tweeted papers were cited at the same rate as the control set.

Our paper, headed by Trevor Branch, was published today in PLOS One:

#SciComm #Twitter #X #Science

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0292201

Controlled experiment finds no detectable citation bump from Twitter promotion

Multiple studies across a variety of scientific disciplines have shown that the number of times that a paper is shared on Twitter (now called X) is correlated with the number of citations that paper receives.

^{journals.plos.org}

Wonderful! I love the runner-up, 'The Scholar's Dream', on browntail moths, to the music of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFwRMZKODbc

Overview & other category winners here: https://www.science.org/content/article/kangaroo-research-wins-dance-phd-contest

#DanceYourPhD #moth #kangaroo #epigenetics #circadian #dance #zoology #science #SciComm #SocialScience #biology #chemistry #physics

The Scholar's Dream- Dance Your PhD 2024 [𝓡𝓾𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓻-𝓤𝓹]

[2/27/2024: I had a sudden jump in views- turns out my video was a runner-up for Science's Dance your PhD and "might have won the whole thing if not up again...

^YouTube

Sorry I missed this symposium at the #Denver #AAASmtg. If there’s interest, I can send the transcript of a similar event during the 2019 #Tennessee #STEAM Festival; “From Plato to #CRISPR : Communicating #Science through Story-telling.” #STEAMfest #SciComm

https://www.codrescu.com/happeningsappearances-1/2019/10/16/from-plato-to-crispr-communicating-science-through-storytelling

From Plato to CRISPR: Communicating Science through Storytelling — Andrei Codrescu

Third Annual Tennessee STEAM Festival @Middle Tennessee University Through his talk, From Plato to CRISPR , Andrei brings light and heat to the space between science and art

^{Andrei Codrescu}

University-hosted instance social.uibk.ac.at: We are continuing to increase our presence here on Mastodon for science communication. By establishing our own instance, we aim to contribute to a positive development of the #Fediverse.
We are thus (further) limiting our involvement on X.

Organizational units of the University of Innsbruck are welcome to use the instance social.uibk.ac.at!

Details and support: https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/newsroom/2023/university-of-innsbruck-focuses-on-mastodon/

#scicomm #foss

University of Innsbruck focuses on Mastodon

The communications team at the University of Innsbruck will increasingly rely on the microblogging service Mastodon for science communication.

^{www.uibk.ac.at}

A new episode of the EMBO podcast is out. I spoke with Hsiao-Han Chang, Gytis Dudas, and Hedvig Tamman about viruses, hosts, spillovers, public health... And also starting a new lab, the challenges of mobility, mentorship, and Die Hard Dracula.

#EMBOPodcast #scicomm #SciencePodcast #Virology #Evolution #Microbiology

https://www.embo.org/podcasts/its-viruses-all-the-way-down-a-conversation-with-hsiao-han-chang-gytis-dudas-and-hedvig-tamman/

It’s viruses all the way down: a conversation with Hsiao-Han Chang, Gytis Dudas, and Hedvig Tamman –

As COVID-19 and flu season descends, we talk with three new research group leaders who work on host-virus interactions.

^{Thiago Carvalho (EMBO)}

The name is Costa, James Costa; or, how The Inquisitive Biologist is getting ready for a #Wallace triptych. Reviews coming soon to https://inquisitivebiologist.com

@princetonupress @princetonnature

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Evolution #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Scicomm

"It's important to remember that the 'drugs' aren't just the pills we stash in our medicine cabinets. Ask yourself this: is it really acceptable that we only bothered to test sex differences for general anesthesia in 1999? Turns out women wake up faster than men, regardless of their age, weight or the dosage they've been given."

From Cat Bohannon's highly recommended book Eve.

#Books #SciComm #Bookshelf #bookstodon

Thanks @Helmholtz_HZI for the nice press release to accompany our study out now in @CurrentBiology: https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/en/news-events/news/view/article/complete/dna-abstrich-von-blaettern-zeigt-enorme-vielfalt-der-regenwaldbewohner/

If you are a science communicator and have questions or are interested in covering our work - please get in touch! #SciComm #eDNA #PressRelease #NewPaper #Animals @Helmholtz_HIOH @unigreifswald

Detecting a vast diversity of rainforest animals by swabbing their DNA from leaves

Monitoring wildlife species present in specific areas is a critical first step to estimating the risk of transmission of infectious diseases to humans

^{Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research}

PodcastData counts 4,205,339 #podcasts.😲 That's why I don't feel bad about pausing my #podcast without notice.
The cancer of my dog Bilbo has left me completely out of the lurch in my creative work. There's plenty of competition for you to listen to.

The good news: I'm now restored enough to work on a new episode for the end of the month. Stay tuned to #NatureMatchCuts, will you? ▶️ https://naturematchcuts.net #ReconnectingWithNature #kinship #nature #ecology #moreThanHuman #SciComm #NatureWriting

“Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst & uncertainty.”

That survey with only a 5% response rate went viral & got me wondering about other evidence & how the #ScienceTwitter #MastodonMigration was panning out.

So I updated my study tracker & wrote a new post @PLOS : https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/08/20/how-is-science-twitters-mastodon-migration-panning-out/

tl;dr There's been a big recent surge here; the future of #ScienceMastodon looks bright; ScienceX is materially diminished tho the network is still there.

#Science #SciComm

How Is Science Twitter's "Mastodon Migration" Panning Out? - Absolutely Maybe

“Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst and uncertainty.” And Mastodon was the most common destination if they opened…

^{Hilda Bastian (Absolutely Maybe)}

In case you missed it, this was a great conversation with Pavel Tomancak & @tlemberger for the #EMBOPodcast.
Everything from the early days of open science to tips on classic Czech science fiction.
#EMBOPodcast #SciComm #SciencePodcast #DevelopmentalBiology

https://www.embo.org/podcasts/who-reviews-the-reviewers/

Who reviews the reviewers? – Podcast – EMBO

An interview with Pavel Tomancak

^{Thiago Carvalho (EMBO)}

While we are still trying to find ways to clean up problems like oil spills in the ocean, microorganisms in the seas have their own insights to impart.

Oil rich soil from the Guaymas Basin has provided German scientists understanding of a mechanism by which archaea in the Alkanophaga break down alkane molecules and thus degrade petroleum through oxidation.

#Remediation #Bioremediation #Oil #Petroleum #Archaea #Alkanophaga #Science #Biology #Scicomm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01400-3

Candidatus Alkanophaga archaea from Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vent sediment oxidize petroleum alkanes - Nature Microbiology

Oil-rich deep-sea sediments are used to culture syntrophic communities of archaea and bacteria that pair petroleum alkane oxidation to sulfide generation.

^Nature

Be ungovernable, like birds who make nests OUT OF ANTI-BIRD SPIKES. A new study describes resourceful Dutch & Belgian corvids besting evil architecture by stealing metal anti-bird strips and using them like thorny twigs, to construct their homes.

Like thorns, the spikes may protect their nests from predators.

Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra wrote an epic 🧵 about his research that's worth a read: https://twitter.com/AukeFlorian/status/1678703433900064773

Paper: https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/organisatie/publicaties/deinsea/deinsea-21/

#science #SciComm #birds #netherlands

Our universe is rippling with waves caused by massive events, such as merging black holes. Up until yesterday, we didn’t have any evidence of long-wavelength, ‘background’ #GravitationalWaves. But now @nanograv has announced a detection! A network of pulsars measured very carefully has revealed a faint hum in spacetime itself. Though luckily you don’t need pulsars to detect these cookies, a mouth works just fine 😉

#astronomy #astroart #scicomm #science

I am literally finishing a dissertation on how scientific information has been valued & prioritized by Congressional staffers from the 20th century through the Biden administration.

So for now I’ll just say, if you’re interested in the relationships between #science policy, #ClimateChange, lobbyists, researchers, media & #scicomm, stay tuned… /2

As a scientist who studies #science policy & risk communication, as a science journalist who has been writing in popular outlets about #ClimateChange & #scicomm for 20 years, & as a former congressional staffer focused on #climate & #energy policy in the early 2000s… This article is frustrating.

“Scientific communication failures linked to faster-rising seas”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4057045-catch-22-scientific-communication-failures-linked-to-faster-rising-seas/

Anyone still using Biorender and getting tired of their pricing model?
--> there are NUMEROUS free #pictogram collections by now for #scientists to use for #GraphicalAbstracts #SummarySlides #scicomm

🧪
https://reactome.org/icon-lib/
https://bioicons.com
⚕️
https://smart.servier.com
https://healthicons.org
More:
https://fontawesome.com
https://thenounproject.com
https://svgrepo.com
Pretty:
http://gerdarntz.org/isotype.html

Health icons

Free, open source health icons. Use in your next commercial or personal project. Editing is ok. Republishing is ok. No need to give credit.

^{Health icons}

Content warning: Since we are an instance brought together by #scicomm on a federated network where we collectively have the power to shape culture I think we should be advocates of gently pointing out when we see folks who are not considering accessibility when tooting. Click to open/close