Video: Gaia Cantelli's six top tips to find science you can trust online.

In an increasingly online world, many of us turn to the internet to inform ourselves on all sorts of topics. However, due to the unbridled availability of information in the absence of context, it is easy to become confused or poorly informed by the huge amount of  - often conflicting - information. In the first installment of ScienceSeeker's video series 'Science you can use', join Becca Hall as she runs through Gaia Cantelli's six best ways to make sure we can trust the scientific infomation we find online.

Five ways adults can get involved with local science

Being a test subject is one way to see how research is done
Image credit: NIAID

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

You love science. You think it’s cool. But science is not your job – so what can you do if you would like to find out more? Going back to college and getting another degree in molecular biology is probably not on the cards. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved with science while balancing everything else you have going on in your life. Here are some hot tips on how to get started!

 

Five ways to reach out to your non-science friends

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

These tips will help avoid that glazed-over, unimpressed look.
Image credit: Quasimime, used via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0 licence.

It’s every science enthusiast’s nightmare: the glazed-over look of the terminally uninterested. As you talk with your family and friends about current events, the news, things that interest you or even your day-to-day job you will sometimes face anti-science backlash. Whether the people in your life are skeptical or plain uninterested, it can be hard to communicate if they just switch off. Here are a few tips to help you draw them in:

Five tips on how to have a constructive science debate

Get your point across effectively, not aggressively.
Image credit: Circuito Fora do Eixo
via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 licence

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Whether you are a scientist, a science student or a science enthusiast, you probably like to talk about science with people in your life. A lot of science conversations, however, tend to turn into heated debates and, if you are not careful, into full-blown arguments. Many areas of science, such as evolution, stem cell research or global warming can be highly controversial because they clash with people’s moral, ethical or religious beliefs. If you are talking to another science enthusiast, you may disagree about a science article or a piece of science news andon the impact it may have on society.

Here are some tips for you to have a productive science debate with anyone, whether they are a lay-person or a professional in the field. Hopefully these will help you connect with people, get your point across and overcome your differences. 

Five reasons why a career in STEM can change your family's trajectory

STEM careers span many parts of life: These scientists
at KU Leuven in Belgium help brewers make better beer.
Image copyright: Andy Extance 

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Have you ever thought about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)? You may know that jobs in manufacturing and farming are not predicted to do too well in the coming years. Such change is scary, but it could also be a great opportunity for yourself and for your family. More and more jobs require additional qualifications after high school, so you might be considering going to college, or getting a diploma in something that can help you. This is where thinking about STEM comes into play. Becoming a scientist or a doctor, however, may seem out of your league or too expensive. There are other options that seem more focused on landing you a good job – a job that can help you live a better life than your parents did. A business degree, for example, would scream “employable” from the top line of your resume, right?

Wrong. While in the US business and finance are predicted to open up around 900,000 more jobs by 2022, healthcare jobs are going to create over a million new jobs for nurses and physicians assistants alone. Meanwhile, the same studies showed that there are 1.7 open computing jobs for every unemployed computer science professional, which means that we need more computer scientists! Not only are there going to be many more science and technology jobs in the future, but these jobs are going to be secure and relatively high-paying. They may be your ticket to changing your family’s trajectory altogether.

Working in science is not what TV would have you believe – a bunch of egg-heads nerding out on a university campus. Most STEM professions are normal jobs for normal people. No matter how much time and money you are able to invest in your education, investing in STEM training is a great way to land yourself a bright future. 50% of US STEM jobs are available to those without a four-year degree and can therefore be very efficient and very wise investments, even if your means are limited. In the US, graduates of STEM programs earn on average 10% more than those with similar qualifications in other fields. They also enjoy the security of knowing that their skills are going to be in demand.

Here are a few ideas on how you can start working towards your STEM career right now, no matter where you are in life:

Causation vs Correlation: How tell when someone's trying to feed you baloney

Don't fall for people misusing evidence to
tell you what you're doing is wrong.
Credit: Arlette Cifuentes Meneses via Flickr CC BY 2.0 licence.

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Last time that somebody told you that what you were doing was bad, did they offer evidence - and did you believe it? 

In an age obsessed with fake facts, hopefully you have an armour of skepticism forming already. But here's a chink in the armour you may not have thought of: perfectly true facts can also be warped to manipulate people. One of the most common ways to do this is by mixing up causation and correlation.

Causation and correlation are both extremely boring statistical words that underlie very simple concepts. Two events are correlated if they happen at the same place, or at the same time. For example, in children, shoe size is most likely correlated with the number of books they have read – older children have both read more books and have bigger feet. The two things do not cause each other but do happen at the same time. Causation, on the other hand, means that one of the two events is happening because of the other. For example, students who do better in exams also have a higher acceptance rate into college - because grades are one of the things that college considers when evaluating an applicant.

A snowball’s chance in hell? How understanding probability can change your life

Even though there have been many lottery winners, the
chances of any one of us winning are hard to think about.
Credit: adrigu, used via Flickr Creative Commons licence. 

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

What are your chances of winning the lottery? How about of making it big in Hollywood, transmitting a genetic disease to your child or dying of cancer? Some would say it’s 50:50, you either do or you don’t. But they’d be wrong.

Many decisions in life, big and small, are based on understanding probability. But how well do you really know how probability works? Taking the time to understand it could change your life.

Probability 101
We are all familiar with the idea of probability as the likelihood that any given event is going to happen. In mathematical terms, however, it is defined as the ratio of “favourable” cases, or the scenario whose probability you are measuring to the whole number of possible cases. This sounds complicated, but it’s really not. Say that you have a drawer full of pens and you know that ten of them are blue and three of them are red. You want a red pen – this is your favourable case. What’s the chance of getting a red pen?

The probability of you putting your hand in the drawer blind-folded and pick up a red pen is the number of red pens – three – divided by the overall number of pens – the three red pens plus the ten blue pens, which makes thirteen pens. Three divided by thirteen is 0.23, or 23%. So you have a 23% chance of picking up a red pen if you stick your hand in the drawer.

A simple calculation of probability is very useful for some events where everybody’s chances are the same, like buying a lottery ticket. For example, the US Lotto sells about 30 million tickets every draw. Therefore, if you only buy one ticket your probability of winning is one over 30 million, which computes at about 0.000003%. That’s much, much less than 50:50. But what does such an extreme number actually mean? Hold on, we’re getting to that.

Five science books to add to your 2018 reading list

Turn off whatever device you’re reading this on, and go pick up a book instead. Honestly, it’s the only sane way to deal with modern life. Non-fiction books in particular are vital in understanding the basic principles that make today’s world what it is. They can help us all decide how to tread the best path through it.

Still here? Perhaps you need a little advice on what to pick up? In that case, you’ve come to the right place. ScienceSeeker's editors have chosen some of the favourites we’ve read this year, which lift the veil on gender, trees, the animals we eat, our feeling for time, and how science emerges from chance. Have a read of any or all of them, and inform yourself!

Andy Extance, chemistry and physics editor and ScienceSeeker editor in chief's pick is Inferior by Angela Saini. He says:

In an extremely readable way, Saini explores how the 'just so' stories that science supposedly tells us about human gender, and specifically women's inferior qualities, often don't bear great scrutiny. Evolutionary psychology explanations are often built on studies of animals where males dominate and overlook those species where females do. Anthropology studies that imply that women's place is in the home similarly overlook evidence to the contrary. For example human mothers kill their babies or leave them to die, which suggest that motherhood in particular is not innate. Saini both brings together the best, latest, evidence and explores the internal politics of science that has distorted our attitudes to women. I highly recommend you read Inferior, and find out about the real story of women and men.

Jennifer Tsang, ecology and policy editor's pick is Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. She says:

Trees are everywhere, but we often walk amidst them without wondering about their daily lives. What controls the come and go of leaves with the seasons? How do they survive such drastic changes in temperature? How do trees communicate with one another – how do they cooperate or compete with each other and other species? These are just a few of the questions that Wohlleben addresses to describe the amazing ways tree survive and evolve. Written to educate and entertain, I found myself fascinated over and over again throughout this book.

Natalie Holmes, science communication editor's pick is Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat by Barbara J. King. She says:

Recent scientific developments are radically changing how we see and understand animals. By engaging with research from a wide range of disciplines, Professor of Anthropology, Barbara J. King, addresses the dissonance between how we feel about our non-human cohabitants and what we choose to eat – in turn creating a nuanced, thoughtful and provocative book.

Teodora Stoica, neuroscience editor's pick is: Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time by Dean Buonomano. She says:

This book explores how the human brain not only tells time but creates it, engagingly explaining the concept of “mental time travel” and addressing profound questions such as: “What is time?” and “Is our sense of time’s passage an illusion?” Illustrating these ideas using multi-disciplinary data, Buonamano's book is an engaging and entertaining book that makes time fly by.

Thanassis Psaltis, art, photography, physics and general science editor's pick is: Causality and Chance in Modern Physics by David Bohm

This book was published in 1957, when there was a lot of discussion on the interpretation of the quantum theory, despite the fact that the Copenhagen interpretation pioneered by Bohr and Heisenberg was widely accepted by physicists. The book has a foreword by Louis de Broglie, one of the pioneers of quantum physics, who postulated in his PhD thesis that matter behaves like waves. Prof. Bohm discusses in a very concise way how causality and chance can describe physical laws and he presents his interpretation of the quantum theory. It's great reading for science students, since Prof. Bohm, one of the most rounded scientists of the twentieth century, guides the reader into the inner workings of natural laws, using quantum mechanics as an example.

Ten science talk tips for the holidays

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Credit: Dennis Crowley, used via Creative Commons licence

The holidays are upon us, with people everywhere beginning their annual migrations to be with family for a few days of eating, drinking, exchanging presents and catching up. However, most people will also have relatives whose views are radically different from theirs – and seem to bring them up at the most embarrassing time possible. If you are a scientist yourself, or simply a science enthusiast, one of the most challenging breeds of embarrassing relative is undoubtedly the science-denier. You want to help them, while at the same time you probably don't want to argue under the Christmas tree. Here are some of my best-tested top-tips for dealing with your festive nightmare.

When scientists disagree: 5 (or 6) steps to understanding scientific controversy

With real scientists, the gloves are off. Credit: Ryan McGuire/StockSnap

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

US scientists’ research on how to promote healthy eating in schools is deeply flawed, watchdog researchers have found. The original studies gained much media attention, secured millions of dollars in funding and are being implemented in thousands in schools. But independent scientists have found that they are filled with problems, including mathematical impossibilities and duplications. 

If you ever look up scientific theories online, it won’t be long until you encounter at least one story like this. Because science is a living subject and constantly evolving, scientists will inevitably disagree and controversy will arise. Choosing who to believe when you are not a subject expert yourself is tricky and confusing, especially if you are trying to use science to make an important decision. Here are 5 (or maybe 6) steps you might want to consider to make up your mind.

Five tips on using science to live a better, healthier life

Image credit Thomas_H_photo, used via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0 licence

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

You have just woken up. You check your phone and have a look at the news. What do you see? Most days, a key headline will have something to do with science – and with good reason. We live in what many consider a golden age of discovery. Science is making advances we never thought possible and is helping us work out problems we never thought could be solved. We can look for water in outer space, use light-activated nanoparticles to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria and use drugs to correct errors in our DNA to fend off deadly genetic diseases.

However, that’s only one side of the coin. At least half of the science news seems to be urgently pointing at a new problem. Just over the past few weeks, even the most casual news-readers could have found themselves worrying about involuntarily increasing their risk of getting breast or lung cancer by doing apparently healthy things like going outside and taking vitamins. You may have been stressing about compromising your heart’s health by sitting too much or being too tall. And that’s before you’ve even gotten out of bed!

So how can you use science to make more informed decisions? Here are a few pointers to empower you to make a change.

Do your research! Six ways to find science you can trust online

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Credit: Tim Abbott, used via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 License

If you wanted to know more about a medical condition would you take a trip to the library and pore over medical textbooks? Of course not, you’d look it up on your phone while you’re still in your doctor’s waiting room.

Looking up things online is essentially second nature for most of us – but do you ever worry if you can trust what you find? Most of us get all our information from the Internet – and science and medicine have been made far more accessible by the Internet and mobile phones. It’s incredibly convenient, but it is also a minefield of potential misinformation, misunderstanding and, even worse, fraud. How can we know if we can trust what we see online? Here are some of my best pointers to use this amazing resource to obtain reliable and relevant information – especially when it comes to science and medicine.