Communication and Translation: “sorry I’ll just stop you there”
One of the greatest pleasures I’ve had working in the Central Communications unit of a University this year has been writing stories on complicated research.
Throughout my life I’ve always been told my strengths lie in a humanities direction, and this can force a person to get a bit slack when it comes to passing Year 10 Science. Resting on my literary laurels a bit I left school relieved that I’d get to spend the rest of my life pursuing things more in my mental ball park.
Imagine my surprise then when in my internship I discovered my success hinged upon the subject of piezoelectricity and how it can be used to generate surface acoustic waves on a lab on a chip!
I soon realised there would be no room for any resting on any literary laurels as I sat across from the researcher in an extremely busy cafe listening to a long winded explanation of his life’s work. He spoke with such pride and excitement, but to a layperson the words were almost parseltongue.
We came up with a savvy process where I’d widen my eyes in stress and interest, write notes and then stop him and ask for things to be repeated to me as if I was 10 years old. In terms of scientific knowledge, mentally I am 10 years old but it is a little known fact that this is roughly the intellect level journalists write for- and that is not even a sneaky joke about the Herald Sun.
With a few subsequent lattes, much hand waving and almost too many “ok I’ll just stop you there…” s for my subject’s divine patience, I finally knocked up a story which you can find here.
Being surrounded by like minded and passionate people can sometimes be a bit of a curse when it comes to bringing your story to a new audience not as well versed in the specifics of microfluidics. At the same time, encountering people whose success in life does not solely rest on their ability to communicate presents its challenges. So my work this year has been an interesting exploration of how communications and science can intersect and benefit each other.
Often research discoveries which would benefit and be of interest to a mainstream audience go unnoticed due to the sector’s unfamiliarity with translating things to the language of the common man.
So I’ve enjoyed pushing great stories out there this year and would love to pursue a role in science and technology communication in the future.
It turns out PR is more than just Edina Monsoon style schmoozing with like minded arty fartys named Giles or Sandstorm….
Some highlights of my scientific immersion:
Laser technique offers nano breakthrough