Darwin’s birthday; Cochrane reports; the future of museums in a web 2.0 world

Science Communicators

Celebrate Darwin with a smorgasbord of events next week. And join science communicators this week for session on healthcare and the future of museums in the age of web 2.0.

This is my first bulletin for 2009 to Victorians with an interest in science communication.

This Wednesday join our friends from AMWA – the Australian Medical Writers Association – for a session on the Cochrane reviews – improving the evidence-base to healthcare.

On Thursday preview a forthcoming conference that looks at how scientific and cultural communication is changing in business, broadcasting, museums, libraries and education.

Then it’s time to celebrate Darwin – starting with a church service at St Paul’s on Sunday at 2 pm, followed by public events every night for a week and culminating in a birthday party at Melbourne Museum where you are invited to eat your way through the evolutionary tree (stopping before primates).

Assessing the effectiveness of healthcare: this Wednesday

Cultural and scientific communication in a Web 2.0 world: this Thursday

Celebrating Darwin at St Paul’s: this Sunday

Eat your way through 4 billion years of evolution: Thursday week

And more evolution: all next week

Web 2.0: an ASC workshop: April

ASC Vic planning: 19 Feb

Media and communication training for scientists: March through June

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Assessing the effectiveness of healthcare: this Wednesday

There are so many healthcare treatments and interventions available today, how do you separate those that are effective from those that aren’t and identify treatments that may be harmful?

The Cochrane Library can help answer these questions. The Cochrane Reviews are systematic assessments of the effectiveness of different healthcare treatments and interventions that are intended to help people make informed decisions about healthcare.

Hosted by the Australasian Medical Writers Association

Speaker: Veronica Pitt, lecturer Australasian Cochrane Centre

Where: Upstairs at the Redback Brewery Hotel, 75 Flemington Road, North Melbourne

Cost: Free (drinks and meals at bar prices)

Date: Wednesday 4 February 2009

Time: 6.30pm for a 7pm start

RSVP and enquiries to L.E. Ohman  LE@medicalwriters.org or Jacinta Miller jacmil@bigpond.com

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Cultural and scientific communication in a Web 2.0 world: this Thursday

Web 2.0 technology is changing the way we communicate. From corporations, to broadcasters, to cultural organisations such as museums, libraries and science centres, it seems everyone is looking to transform themselves with this new technology.

And audiences are using social networking to communicate more about what they want.

Theses ideas and issues are some of the topics to be covered at the Transformations in Cultural and Scientific Communication conference on at Melbourne Museum 5 and 6 March.

Preview the discussion at the pub this Thursday with Angelina Russo from Swinburne University, and Laura Miles and Anne Thoday from Museums Australia Victoria.

And read about the conference at http://nlablog.wordpress.com/conference-2009/

Where: Redback Brewery Hotel, 75 Flemington Road, North Melbourne

Cost: Members: free; Non-members: $10, Non-member students: $5 (drinks and meals at bar prices)

Date: Thursday 5 February 2009

Time: 6.45pm for a 7pm start

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Celebrating Darwin at St Paul’s: this Sunday

This Sunday, a church service at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne kicks off a year-long celebration of evolution.

Entitled Science and Faith: The Intersection the service will be the first official event of Evolution – the Festival, a public celebration of 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 150 years since the publication of the book in which he set out his theory of evolution by natural selection, On the Origin of Species.

2009 is also the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating 400 years since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky.

Given that many Christian groups still dispute the idea of evolution by natural selection, and that the Roman Catholic Church placed Galileo under house arrest for his view that the Earth revolved around the Sun, the service sets out to explore whether faith and science can be harmonised as different paths to truth.

Speakers:

· The Most Revd Dr Philip Freier, the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, whose first degree was in biological science

· Prof John Pilbrow, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Monash University, who is current president of the Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology (ISCAST)

· Prof Phil Batterham, a committed Baptist, who is associate Dean of Science at Melbourne University.

Where: St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Corner Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne

Date: Sunday 8 February

Time: 2pm

More at: http://evolutionaustralia.org.au/index.php?page=church-service-science-and-faith -the-intersection

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Eat your way through 4 billion years of evolution: Thursday week

Celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin with a cocktail dinner at the Melbourne Museum.

Graze your way through the evolutionary tree starting with crusty arancini symbolising the earth’s crust. Then move onto primordial soup – represented by shots of seafood bisque – and filled with invertebrate life – represented by scallops, prawns and oysters.

Continue on through fish and move from the oceans to the land with dinosaurs, birds and mammals.

And Chris Darwin, Charles’ great great grandson, will cut a unique 200th birthday cake modelled on an Aldabra Island tortoise from the Museum’s collection. (These tortoises grow to over a metre and can live for more than 100 years demonstrating the gigantism that Darwin saw on the Galapagos Islands.)

The menu was developed by John Long, one of Australia’s leading palaeontologists, and head of science at Melbourne Museum.

Entertainment will be provided by the National Institute of Circus arts and their spectacular Whale Evolution show, IMAX film features, and the museum’s own exhibits.

Where: Melbourne Museum, Carlton

Cost: Tickets are available for $150 which includes all food and beverages during the night and entertainment

Date: Thursday 12 February 2009

Time: 7pm start

Details and bookings at http://www.evolution09.com.au/festival-dinner.php

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And more evolution: all next week

See Steve Jones, Bill Ballard, Michael Ruse, Tim Flannery, Bert Roberts, Geoffrey Miller, Frank Nicholas, Marcus Feldman, Jon Marks and a host of others at a series of public talks.

Details at http://evolutionaustralia.org.au/index.php?page=public-lectures -february

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Web 2.0: an ASC workshop: April

Following on from the successful session at the Redback last year, RMIT are hosting a workshop for the Australian Science Communications on using web 2.0 in their work place. The course will be tailored to the needs of attendees.

Date: Friday 3 April 2009

Venue: RMIT

Time: late afternoon to 9pm

Price to be advised but likely to be in the range of $250 to $300 per person.

All enquiries and RSVPs to Jason Major jmajor@unimelb.edu.au, (03) 9348 2784.

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ASC Vic planning: 19 Feb

Have you got ideas for ASC session? Would you like to get involved in running ASC? Join us at the Redback for a planning session on 19 February for an informal planning session.

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Media and communication training for scientists: March through June

Science in Public runs media and communication workshops for scientists once a month. This course is for scientists and anyone who needs to communicate complex and technical ideas via the media. The workshop will help you create and present a compelling view of your research to the media, the public and your stakeholders.

The dates for thte first Our media and communication workshops for the first half of the year are

· Wednesday 11 March

· Tuesday 7 April

· Tuesday 5 May

· Tuesday 9 June.

Three working journalists will join us in the course of the day to talk about newspapers, radio and TV, and conduct practice interviews. Journalists we have used in the past have included Gerard Scholten from Channel Ten, Chee Chee Leung from The Age, Dina Rosendorf from the Herald Sun and Donna De Maio from 3AW news.

Previous participants tell us that after the course they feel more prepared, not just for media interviews but also for other presentations to stakeholders, customers and the public.

This workshop is a modified version of the courses developed by our colleagues at Econnect Communication and is licensed from them.

Each course is limited to 12 participants.

For more on the course and future dates visit http://www.scienceinpublic.com/mediatraining.htm

Time: 9.30am-5pm

Where: Redback Brewery Hotel (upstairs), 75 Flemington Road, North Melbourne

Cost: $650 + GST per person. Morning and afternoon tea and lunch will be provided.

Discount available for financial ASC members.