The Ethics of Distributing Scientific Knowledge: Epistemic and Ethical Injustices in Context

Science communication is fundamentally about distribution, knowledge distribution. Like all distributions, it raises issues of justice. This paper discusses core issues for contemporary science communication by mapping them onto well-defined theories of distributive justice. Importantly, considerations of epistemic justice force us to look not only at the classic recipients (the audience), but also at the distributors (science communicators), as they are, themselves, also recipients of knowledge

Assessing the journey of technology hype in the field of quantum technology

The 'second quantum revolution' promises new technologies enabled by quantum physics and has been the subject of substantial hype. We show that while creating expectations has helped secure support for quantum research, their iterative effects can come to affect the field in concrete ways. These iterative impacts for quantum include emerging discussions about ethics and the delivery of promised outcomes. Such contestations could open up alternative quantum futures, but this will depend on how the 'hype helix' of iterative expectations unfolds.Die 'zweite Quantenrevolution' verspricht neue, durch Quantenphysik ermöglichte Technologien und hat einen großen Hype ausgelöst. Die durch diesen Hype geweckten Erwartungen haben zu erheblichen Spekulationen und Investitionen von Nationalstaaten und Unternehmen geführt. Wir zeigen, dass das Schüren von Erwartungen zwar die Forschung im Bereich der Quantenphysik vorangebracht hat, ihre iterativen Auswirkungen jedoch auf unerwartete Weise nachwirken können. Es tauchen auch umfassendere Fragen zu Quanten auf, die sich mit Ethik, Energie-Fußabdrücken und unmöglichen Versprechen befassen. Diese Auseinandersetzungen könnten im Prinzip alternative Quantenzukünfte eröffnen, dies wird allerdings davon abhängen, wie sich die 'Hype-Helix' der iterativen Erwartungen entfaltet

Blogging Biology & Podcasting Physics: Authentic Learning via Student Creation of New Media

The ALTC-funded ‘New Media for Science’ project explores ways to engage science students in authentic learning — to develop both their content knowledge and graduate attributes — via science communication. Specifically, we are looking at ways for students to create multi-media publications for the web and assessing the effectiveness of such learning activities. This paper offers twenty examples of new media assignments, including blogs, wikis, podcasts and video creation. We describe assignments that students are already completing for university classes in Australia and New Zealand as well as listing similar assignments that may be employed by science lecturers. The attraction of these methods of teaching and learning are addressed, along with reported and perceived difficulties in conducting and assessing new media projects

Procurement of human tissues for research banking in the surgical pathology laboratory: Prioritization practices at Washington University Medical Center

Academic hospitals and medical schools with research tissue repositories often derive many of their internal human specimen acquisitions from their site's surgical pathology service. Typically, such acquisitions come from appropriately consented tissue discards sampled from surgical resections. Because the practice of surgical pathology has patient care as its primary mission, competing needs for tissue inevitably arise, with the requirement to preserve adequate tissue for clinical diagnosis being paramount. A set of best-practice gross pathology guidelines are summarized here, focused on the decision for tissue banking at the time specimens are macroscopically evaluated. These reflect our collective experience at Washington University School of Medicine, and are written from the point of view of our site biorepository. The involvement of trained pathology personnel in such procurements is very important. These guidelines reflect both good surgical pathology practice (including the pathologic features characteristic of various anatomic sites) and the typical objectives of research biorepositories. The guidelines should be helpful to tissue bank directors, and others charged with the procurement of tissues for general research purposes. We believe that appreciation of these principles will facilitate the partnership between surgical pathologists and biorepository directors, and promote both good patient care and strategic, value-added banking procurements

Motivate students by having them publish in new media: An invitation to science lecturers to share and test

Can science undergraduates be motivated by activities that have them express science content in ‘new media’ – the popular communication forms that increasingly impact on their lives? In this paper, we are describing rationale, approaches to date, and a new project designed to develop the content knowledge and graduate attributes of science students via science communication. Specifically, the project is designed to foster student publication on the web – a medium of learning and publication that students find engaging, staff increasingly see as practical, and employers value as relevant. The aim is to enable science lecturers to exploit a growing number of publication opportunities provided by the web to enhance not only the learning that can be gained from a video production process, for example, but also the motivation to select science and to engage effectively in its study at university. The web also offers ready opportunities for cross-university and international collaboration. This paper serves as a prospectus, an invitation -- based on our research and experimentation -- for science lecturers to participate in the project

Can video improve grant review quality and lead to more reliable ranking?

Multimedia video is rapidly becoming mainstream, and many studies indicate that it is a more effective communication medium than text. In this project we AIM to test if videos can be used, in place of text-based grant proposals, to improve communication and increase the reliability of grant ranking. We will test if video improves reviewer comprehension (AIM 1), if external reviewer grant scores are more consistent with video (AIM 2), and if mock Australian Research Council (ARC) panels award more consistent scores when grants are presented as videos (AIM 3). This will be the first study to evaluate the use of video in this application. The ARC reviewed over 3500 Discovery Project applications in 2015, awarding 635 Projects. Selecting the “best” projects is extremely challenging. This project will improve the selection process by facilitating the transition from text-based to video-based proposals. The impact could be profound: Improved video communication should streamline the grant preparation and review processes, enable more reliable ranking of applications, and more accurate identification of the “next big innovations”

Can video improve grant review quality and lead to more reliable ranking?

Multimedia video is rapidly becoming mainstream, and many studies indicate that it is a more effective communication medium than text. In this project we AIM to test if videos can be used, in place of text-based grant proposals, to improve communication and increase the reliability of grant ranking. We will test if video improves reviewer comprehension (AIM 1), if external reviewer grant scores are more consistent with video (AIM 2), and if mock Australian Research Council (ARC) panels award more consistent scores when grants are presented as videos (AIM 3). This will be the first study to evaluate the use of video in this application. The ARC reviewed over 3500 Discovery Project applications in 2015, awarding 635 Projects. Selecting the “best” projects is extremely challenging. This project will improve the selection process by facilitating the transition from text-based to video-based proposals. The impact could be profound: Improved video communication should streamline the grant preparation and review processes, enable more reliable ranking of applications, and more accurate identification of the “next big innovations”

Good practice guides for the science threshold learning outcomes

In 2011, Susan Jones and Brian Yates led the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards (LTAS) project for Science. This project laid the groundwork for educational change by catalysing a national discussion of learning outcomes for Australian science graduates. The Science Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for graduates of bachelor-level degrees in science are endorsed by the Australian Council of Deans of Science and are publicaly available in the Science Standards Statement (Jones, Yates & Kelder, 2011). The next step is implementation of the Science TLOs through building a common understanding of how student achievement of the TLOs can be evidenced through learning activities and associated assessment tasks. This is timely as the sector positions itself to respond to the Learning Standards developed by the Higher Education Standards Panel (HESP). The Science Good Practice Guides (GPGs) are designed to provide practical advice and exemplars to assist with embedding the Science TLOs within programs. Each GPG includes: a short review of national and international research and practice, an annotated bibliography of resources, and a brief selection of good practice examples of teaching and assessment. They are authored by disciplinary experts recruited via a national call for expressions of interest. The Good Practice Guide for TLO 1 ('demonstrate a coherent understanding of science') has already been published (Yucel, 2012). In this presentation, we launch four more Guides to complete the set of Good Practice Guides (GPGs) for the Science TLOs. These GPGs will form the foundation of a shared suite of resources to be hosted on the ACDS Teaching and Learning Centre (http://www.acds.edu.au/tlcentre/)