黑料网

Et Tu Isotope?

黑料网 environmental studies and sciences professor Hari Mix recently was asked to summarize his research on how nature and topography impact certain types of rainfall, to a roomful of students. 

But there was a catch to this particular talk: he could use only words allowed by the scientific language-simplification tool known as UpGoer Five, which restricts users to the 1,000 most-used English words.

That鈥檚 hard to do for a presentation titled, 鈥淓valuating the Roles of Topography and Aerosols in Atmospheric River Rainout Using a Paired Stable Isotope and Ice Nucleating Particle Time Series Approach.鈥� In UpGoer speak, it sounded quite different: 鈥淗ave you ever noticed how the person on TV doesn't always tell you when it will rain, or how much or where鈥攐r if it'll be rain or ice rain?鈥� Mix said as part of his five-minute talk. 鈥淪o, we need to learn how water trains in the sky work,鈥� he said, using water trains as a substitute for 鈥渁tmospheric rivers.鈥�

UpGoer Five is a movement among scientists challenging them to convey their research as simply as possible, in much the same way that 鈥渄esign thinking鈥� urges them to think of the end user before launching a new innovation.

鈥淭he point of UpGoer in an academic setting is to explain your research in a way that is accessible to a broad nonacademic audience,鈥� said anthropology professor Michelle Bezanson, who organized an UpGoer event for the anthropology department last year. She argues that professors have an obligation to explain their work to the public in order to improve awareness, understanding, and appreciation of their research and how it is pertinent to people鈥檚 lives.  

Another benefit? 鈥淭he students really pay attention,鈥� noted Prof. Virginia Matzek in her e-mail inviting a half-dozen Environmental Studies and Sciences Department and other faculty to present at the most recent session. 鈥淭hey are riveted by the language choices and trying to figure out the jargon-nonjargon equivalencies.鈥�

UpGoer Five got its name from an that in 2012 impressively explained the Saturn V moon rocket using only a diagram annotated with words in the 1,000 most-used word list (up-goer was their word for the moon rocket). Scores of scientists subsequently latched onto the concept, and anwas created to test one鈥檚 work against the allowable word list.

At the ESS event, Bezanson went for the abstract to explain her work, 鈥淧rimatological Research in an Age of Extinction鈥濃�攚hich examines whether researchers are having detrimental or unintended impacts on primates and their environments.

In UpGoer speak: 鈥淢y work shows that crazy people like to study the same things that other crazy people study,鈥� she said to surprised laughter at her choice of words to replace 鈥渞esearchers.鈥�

鈥淭his will not help the other weird hair-covered large-brained animals live,鈥� she continued. 鈥淢any are disappearing fast, but they are not the ones being studied. This is bad.鈥�

Then there was environmental studies and sciences professor C.J. Gabbe, describing his paper on the impact of land-use regulations on housing stock in Los Angeles, which he dubbed the 鈥渂ig city by the water known for its movie stars.鈥�

鈥淭here's not enough housing for all the people who want to live in the city,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd people who lead the city are trying to figure out how to get the people who build housing to build more of it in good places, like near train stops.鈥�

Other professors who presented their research  at the ESS event included ESS professors Iris Stewart-Frey and John Farnsworth, and civil engineering's Ed Maurer.

After the ESS event, the professors reflected on the challenge. Maurer, while expressing outrage that 鈥渋sotope鈥� wasn鈥檛 on the approved-word list, nonetheless said it was a good reminder to simplify.

鈥淐ommunication is really where you get the payback for science,鈥� he mused. 鈥淚f you aren't communicating it to the broader society, then it's not going to have any influence.鈥�

Gabbe added that it was nice to clear away jargon. 鈥淚n urban planning there are so many words like 鈥渕ixed use鈥� and 鈥渢ransit-oriented development,鈥� even 鈥渨alkable鈥� and 鈥渓ivable鈥� and stuff,鈥� he said. 鈥淗aving to deconstruct what I was trying to mean, and tailor my findings for this limited palette of words was challenging, and kind of fun.鈥�

Students in attendance enjoyed the exercise too, and understood how their own futures as scientists will include a need to be able to explain their work鈥攂e it to peers, funders, customers, or others.

鈥淲e all know kind of what their research is, and they are clearly trying not to dumb it down,鈥� said senior Jack Williams. 鈥淚t鈥檚 cool to see someone try to communicate that better鈥攖o know that a problem with a lot of science is it's not really communicate-able.  It's something we're all going to have to do.鈥�

Others liked the refreshing simplicity, and had a suggestion for their professors.

鈥滻f more classes were like this, or more professors were forced to use this kind of ideology,鈥� said senior Travis Osland, 鈥渋t would be really cool.鈥�