2019-2020 Live Chat #6: Promoting Science Advocacy in Your Community

[Stephanie Vose]

2014 LATP Fellow, @Maira BiccaPhD,  will lead a discussion on Promoting Science Advocacy in Your Community on Thursday, May 28 from 10:00a.m. to 11:00a.m. EDT. This live chat will take place on the LATP Community, in the thread below. 

Maíra Assunção Bicca is currently a Neurosurgery postdoctoral (PD)-fellow  at the Sleep and Pain Research Lab, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. Previously, Neurobiology PD-fellow at Northwestern University, Evanston, USA  and Immunopharmacology PD-fellow at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. Graduated in Pharmacy (2010), Master (2012) and Doctor (2016) of Pharmacology, with emphasis in Neuroscience - UFSC, Brazil.  Research on the cause-consequence effects in between sleep disturbance and pain sensation with projects focused on the underlying mechanisms by which one affects the other. Research interests also include the amyloid-beta induced toxicity in a variety of AD experimental models and Clinical trials. Collaborator in a number of projects that engage Brazilian and International researchers concerning the immunobiology of viruses and bacteria, pain, inflammation, PTSD, anxiety and depression, Parkinson's disease, and cancer.

Can't attend this chat live? That's OK! You can start the conversation by adding your questions/comments now or continue the conversation later by adding your questions/comments afterwards! 

[Maira Bicca]

Looking forward to our Chat!

[Stephanie Vose]

Good morning everyone! @Maira Bicca feel free to begin with an introduction whenever you are ready

[Maira Bicca]

Good morning!

 

[Maira Bicca]

Hello all,

 

This is Maira. In such difficult times we live, it becomes more than ever imperative for the public understanding the importance of science. The scientific method, the questions, the hypothesis, the tests. We need to practice communication and rapprochement, even though we are social distancing. Based on my experience, I could share with you experiences and thoughts. Here are a few topics we could talk about today in view of Science Advocacy in our community:

To organize a group in your department

To organize events for the general public

To create online tools to “spread the word” of science

To use social media to engage people in what we do

[Raquel Maria Campos]

Hi Maria! 

Can you talk about some events that you organized?

 

[Juan Zegers]

Hi Maira ! Thanks for sharing us your expirience ! 

[Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza]

Hi Maria!

In your experience, what is most effective: using our personal social media accounts to do some scientific awareness and communication or creating actual projects to that end?

[Veronica Pastor]

Hi Maira and everyone! Would you give us any advice on how to start if we have no experience? Thanks!

[Maira Bicca]

1 minute ago, Raquel Maria Campos said:

Hi Maria! 

Can you talk about some events that you organized?

 

Hi Raquel,

Sure. I graduated from the department of Pharmacology at UFSC in South of Brazil. There, we had a solid group working on Neuroscience. We organized few events for different public. For instance, we organized a science fair about the brain physiology and pathology, focusing on kids and seniors and we brought this event to a shopping mall. Another example, we used to promote summer courses to community high school students on drug discovery, actions and side effects. Of course, you need financial support for these types of events, that is why we were trying to engage local small business to contribute with us.  

[Maira Bicca]

4 minutes ago, Juan Zegers said:

Hi Maira ! Thanks for sharing us your expirience ! 

You're more than welcome. Let's chat about it and exchange experiences!

[Ramiro Tintorelli]

Good morning Maira and everyone! what types of online tools can be created to spread science?

[Raquel Maria Campos]

For theses past events where did you get the financial support? Did your departament help somehow?

[Larissa Nascimento]

Hi everyone! Hi Maira ! Thanks for sharing us your experience !

[Lester Rosario-Rodriguez]

Hi Maira! What are your strategies to reach your community?

[Maira Bicca]

4 minutes ago, Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza said:

Hi Maria!

In your experience, what is most effective: using our personal social media accounts to do some scientific awareness and communication or creating actual projects to that end?

That is a really good question! I am glad you brought it up Isis. 

I firmly believe we have to use social media in our favor. Specially in these times we are distant and the world future is relying more than ever in science and scientists. I do both of them, as we can reach maybe different public by doing it.

So, I use my personal account to share important news and topics about what I work directly, as people that know me already are aware that I work for example with Alzheimer's and Pain, so I share content on it, from reliable sources, but most importantly I try to mention what has been done in the community by scientist that are not far away. I believe this way, people that are in my close circle can relate better to what we do and maybe get rid from that idea that science is something magical, distant, crazy...

I also participate in projects were we create a Instagram profile directed to share science news and to answers peoples questions about science. In this sense, we usually reach more people, from different places. We gather a small group and everyone is responsible to feed the page and keep things going.

I think this is a great way of using social media to spread reliable information and engage specially young people on our cause. 

[Rodrigo Paz]

Hello Maria!

I think that one of our most important roles as scientists is to effectively communicate science and raise awareness in our communities that science is important and that it has to be supported by public administrations. And most of the time I feel that we don't know how to do so or we're not good at it.

So, how do we learn to be good communicators?

Another topic I'd like to bring: Do you think that after this pandemic people will be more aware about the role of science in our society?

[Larissa Nascimento]

Is there any research in your laboratory on the relationship of microglia with Parkinson's disease?

[KathiaRamirez]

Hi Maira, Thanks for sharing! 
Any tips for how to create or improve our science contents for social media? 

Could you recommend us some websites to find more information? 

[Maira Bicca]

6 minutes ago, Ramiro Tintorelli said:

Good morning Maira and everyone! what types of online tools can be created to spread science?

Hi Ramiro,

Thank you for asking that. Here are some things I did in the past or do currently. 

1) A blog. There I do not specifically talk about science. I talk about my life and my experiences, which include science. So, in other words I am talking about science but avoiding jargon, using examples and metaphors, using pictures. I find it useful to engage people on what I do and to see science is for everyone. 

2) A Facebook page. I post things in my personal account but I also participate on pages that I created with other students to talk about science. For instance, there is a Facebook page created by researchers from Rio de Janeiro, they invited my to participate on. In this page, every other week a grad student or post-doc is invited to post about their thesis/dissertation but it needs to be in a format easy to read by the general public, like a story or a novel. I find the idea marvelous, as people seem to be very curious to read things we post and that also forces us to be more aware of how we communicate with people. We need to put ourselves in their shoes. 

3) A Instagram profile. This seems to be the more effective way so far. Instagram has been growing more and more and with it people are very frequently using it for business not solely to "share pictures". Again, I use my personal account and also have profiles w/ other students. We have lab profiles, where we post things that we are working on in the lab, department profiles, etc, just give a few examples. Also, profiles created by students, we invite people to write to our page and also to talk. As people seem  to be interested in Instagram lives, specially during pandemic situation, we try to use this tool as much as possible. I engage to participate in friends lives about science and they do the same, so we support  each other and help to spread the news so more people can access the content we are posting. 

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

Hi, Maira! How are you? Thanks for sharing your experience with  us. What websites would you recommend to us to create online tools to “spread the word” of science? For example, is there any wesite that you know that allows us to build a nice content (videos, jingles, etc) that is free and easy to handle?

[Maira Bicca]

8 minutes ago, Rodrigo Paz said:

Hello Maria!

I think that one of our most important roles as scientists is to effectively communicate science and raise awareness in our communities that science is important and that it has to be supported by public administrations. And most of the time I feel that we don't know how to do so or we're not good at it.

So, how do we learn to be good communicators?

Another topic I'd like to bring: Do you think that after this pandemic people will be more aware about the role of science in our society?

Hello Rodrigo, 

EXACTLY! We need to communicate effectively. How we do that? I think to myself what I like to watch? I gets my attention. To learn to be a better communicator I have watched videos with many views but not science-related. I figured that me and many people like memes, like jokes, like fun ways of speaking things, they like to feel included. So, what I try to do is to apply that when I am communicating science. Using life examples, being light in my words and body language, using layman terms, trying to diminish that gap that has been created in between the public and scientist. We can not put ourselves in a superior position, the public needs to feel we are regular people as well, we willing to share, we also have doubts and uncertainties, and we don't know everything, and it is okay to know everything, this is why science is so important. Practice! It will not be perfect at first but we need to keep trying to communicate better. Talk to your family, to your neighbors, try to make them understand, that is a good initial step. 

I think we need to use this "pandemic times" to show people how important is what we do. If we just sit an watch nothing will change. We need to make ourselves visible, and transform the general fear and worries of the public into knowledge and confidence on what we do. 

[Maira Bicca]

15 minutes ago, Larissa Nascimento said:

Is there any research in your laboratory on the relationship of microglia with Parkinson's disease?

Hi Larissa,

In the current lab I work no. I used to work with microglia and Parkinson's when I was a grad student back in Brazil, though my main research even after leaving Brazil was on microglia and Alzheimer's. Currently, I work with pain and sleep, microglia is to be studied in the course of our projects. 

[Mei-Li Diaz Hung]

Hello Maria! Thanks to share your experience. Have you work with children? 

[Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza]

I was trying to find a interview by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (and failed haha), where he broadly speaks about the resistance from the own scientific community with scientists that work on scientific awareness. As if we are not giving the correct amount of time to lab work when we do that, effectively going against the terms and conditions of fellowships and work contracts. However, I don't think this is something we must dedicate ourselves to exclusively in our free time! It is, like Rodrigo said, a role we must take as scientists, it is, indeed, our job. Have you found any resistance from PIs or institutions when dedicating to scientific awareness projects?

[Juan Zegers]

In the time that you have been posting in social media, have you argued with someone that dont believe in cientific facts ? I m tried to explain certain topics to some guys in Facebook but they belive in farmaceutical conspirancy  and things like that

[Maira Bicca]

10 minutes ago, Ricardo De Sousa said:

Hi, Maira! How are you? Thanks for sharing your experience with  us. What websites would you recommend to us to create online tools to “spread the word” of science? For example, is there any wesite that you know that allows us to build a nice content (videos, jingles, etc) that is free and easy to handle?

Hi Maira, Thanks for sharing! 
Any tips for how to create or improve our science contents for social media? 

Could you recommend us some websites to find more information? 

 

Hi, 

I'll answer here both Ricardo and Kathia 'cause they have kind of similar questions. First of all, I am doing fine Ricardo, thank you for asking. Sometimes, I feel like my brain has left my body and sometimes I feel like my brain can't stop..I blame the pandemics...lol Lots of exercising, reading, watching videos, listening to music, and videochating with family and friends to stay sane. Hope you are doing fine as well.

I'll answer here both you and Kathia 'cause you guys have kind of similar questions. 

Well, I do not use particular websites to create content like videos, jingles, etc but I do use apple and windows video and picture editors to add figures, gifs, color, music, to my posts. I try to be simple but fun in general. Here are two tips on tools that help me create content:

1. Mindthegraph. Is a platform to create infographs, charts, etc. The drawings are so cool and so colorful, you can create many things using their templates. When the figures and content you present are nice and clean, people will pay attention. 

2. Resultados digitais. Instagram: @resdigitais. They are specialized in create content for social media, to engage people. I watch videos from them, check their memes, to get inspired and try to apply that to my content. As they are very directed to social media they are frequently on top pf their game about memes that are "trends for now". I found interesting and efficient  to use these memes, that people really like, to communicate science. 

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

Another question that I would like to make to you is about the fact that not only you, but the scientific community firmly believe we have to use social media in our favor. Although we face a lot of issues about this. You see, not all scientists think on the same way and there are those that will use social media to spread what they believe, their opinion, wheter this is or not true. In general, they are not sending fake news , they are sending to the public their points of view based on  their researches . Now, during the covid-19 pandemic, for example, there was that french researcher that published a study saying that chloroquine would be effective to fight covid-19.  When doctors and scientists express their points of view based in researches like this and spread the information that they believe is true, even if it is based in one or a few studies that have poor methodology or that you can not trust the results at all, how should we act? We, as scientists, when see a study like this ...we know that there is some kind of failure and the study must be done once more in order to eliminate those failures. But the general public does not see on this way. What they usually see is the fact the scientist A says ¨it is good¨ and scientist B says ¨it is bad¨. Finally, as you  are brazilian, you probably have heard about  a ¨Doctor of Philosophy¨ named Olavo de Carvalho that spreads things like the Earth is flat, covid-19 does not exist , etc... so...  how can we fight this type of propaganda in the social media??? Because a lot of people believe in people like Olavo de Carvalho , for example... what do you do when you see a scientist spreading fake news?

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

3 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

Hi Maira, Thanks for sharing! 
Any tips for how to create or improve our science contents for social media? 

Could you recommend us some websites to find more information? 

 

Hi, 

I'll answer here both Ricardo and Kathia 'cause they have kind of similar questions. First of all, I am doing fine Ricardo, thank you for asking. Sometimes, I feel like my brain has left my body and sometimes I feel like my brain can't stop..I blame the pandemics...lol Lots of exercising, reading, watching videos, listening to music, and videochating with family and friends to stay sane. Hope you are doing fine as well.

I'll answer here both you and Kathia 'cause you guys have kind of similar questions. 

Well, I do not use particular websites to create content like videos, jingles, etc but I do use apple and windows video and picture editors to add figures, gifs, color, music, to my posts. I try to be simple but fun in general. Here are two tips on tools that help me create content:

1. Mindthegraph. Is a platform to create infographs, charts, etc. The drawings are so cool and so colorful, you can create many things using their templates. When the figures and content you present are nice and clean, people will pay attention. 

2. Resultados digitais. Instagram: @resdigitais. They are specialized in create content for social media, to engage people. I watch videos from them, check their memes, to get inspired and try to apply that to my content. As they are very directed to social media they are frequently on top pf their game about memes that are "trends for now". I found interesting and efficient  to use these memes, that people really like, to communicate science. 

Thanks for the tips. I already use mind the graph. Will have a look at resultados digitais! Thanks!

[Maira Bicca]

4 minutes ago, Mei-Li Diaz Hung said:

Hello Maria! Thanks to share your experience. Have you work with children? 

Hello Mei-Li

Yes, indeed. We use to run a project every year at a middle school in Chicago, very simple but, very efficient. We would bring light microscopes to the school and present to them a range of things for them to evaluate over the scope. I was always impressed and happy with the result. For instance, their curiosity and surprise faces when discovering how sugar and salt look very similar, but when looked over the scope the crystals are very different. These type of activity keeps them engaged as we would evaluate things from day to day life and they would raise questions, and hypothesis, as well as get involved in preparing samples to be looked at the scope, and of course, having fun. 

[Ramiro Tintorelli]

38 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

That is a really good question! I am glad you brought it up Isis. 

I firmly believe we have to use social media in our favor. Specially in these times we are distant and the world future is relying more than ever in science and scientists. I do both of them, as we can reach maybe different public by doing it.

So, I use my personal account to share important news and topics about what I work directly, as people that know me already are aware that I work for example with Alzheimer's and Pain, so I share content on it, from reliable sources, but most importantly I try to mention what has been done in the community by scientist that are not far away. I believe this way, people that are in my close circle can relate better to what we do and maybe get rid from that idea that science is something magical, distant, crazy...

I also participate in projects were we create a Instagram profile directed to share science news and to answers peoples questions about science. In this sense, we usually reach more people, from different places. We gather a small group and everyone is responsible to feed the page and keep things going.

I think this is a great way of using social media to spread reliable information and engage specially young people on our cause. 

 

29 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

Hi Ramiro,

Thank you for asking that. Here are some things I did in the past or do currently. 

1) A blog. There I do not specifically talk about science. I talk about my life and my experiences, which include science. So, in other words I am talking about science but avoiding jargon, using examples and metaphors, using pictures. I find it useful to engage people on what I do and to see science is for everyone. 

2) A Facebook page. I post things in my personal account but I also participate on pages that I created with other students to talk about science. For instance, there is a Facebook page created by researchers from Rio de Janeiro, they invited my to participate on. In this page, every other week a grad student or post-doc is invited to post about their thesis/dissertation but it needs to be in a format easy to read by the general public, like a story or a novel. I find the idea marvelous, as people seem to be very curious to read things we post and that also forces us to be more aware of how we communicate with people. We need to put ourselves in their shoes. 

3) A Instagram profile. This seems to be the more effective way so far. Instagram has been growing more and more and with it people are very frequently using it for business not solely to "share pictures". Again, I use my personal account and also have profiles w/ other students. We have lab profiles, where we post things that we are working on in the lab, department profiles, etc, just give a few examples. Also, profiles created by students, we invite people to write to our page and also to talk. As people seem  to be interested in Instagram lives, specially during pandemic situation, we try to use this tool as much as possible. I engage to participate in friends lives about science and they do the same, so we support  each other and help to spread the news so more people can access the content we are posting. 

Thanks Maira for your answer! Ok, I thought that they could be specific platforms developed for that purpose in addition to the use of social networks. If you want you can share the link to your blog to read your posts and take them as examples

[Stephanie Vose]

Hi everyone! This live chat officially ends at 11am ET.  @Maira Bicca you're welcome to stay on and answer questions if you're available! 

[Manuel Suarez Carvajal]

Hi Maira,

When communicating science to general public, I feel that, sometimes, what science people (including myself) think is attractive for general public ended up being just attractive for science people. Do you have any advice to avoid that?  

[Stephanie Vose]

@Maira Bicca - when you have a moment could you address the questions from @Veronica Pastor, @Raquel Maria Campos, @Lester Rosario-Rodriguez, @Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza, @Ricardo De Sousa, and @Ramiro Tintorelli  

they are highlighted in orange at the top of the page 

[Stephanie Vose]

@Maira Bicca you're welcome to come back at a later date/time and continue this conversation if you have to go!

[Maira Bicca]

9 minutes ago, Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza said:

I was trying to find a interview by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (and failed haha), where he broadly speaks about the resistance from the own scientific community with scientists that work on scientific awareness. As if we are not giving the correct amount of time to lab work when we do that, effectively going against the terms and conditions of fellowships and work contracts. However, I don't think this is something we must dedicate ourselves to exclusively in our free time! It is, like Rodrigo said, a role we must take as scientists, it is, indeed, our job. Have you found any resistance from PIs or institutions when dedicating to scientific awareness projects?

That's right. Yes, there are very different kinds of scientific environment, unfortunately.  Ultimately our job is to work as scientists, but to do so the majority of us needs funding and these comes from political decisions. In order to keep the gears working well we have to communicate better what we do. Not always we a re supported by PIs and departments, that is a shame, but I guess we have to practice awareness with them as well, that is a good start. I have experienced both very supportive environments and not very supportive, in one you do things easily, in the other things are more difficult but not impossible. We have to find balance, we all like our free time to do not science related things. With a bit of planning it is possible to work, have fun, and spread the word

[Maira Bicca]

7 minutes ago, Stephanie Vose said:

Hi everyone! This live chat officially ends at 11am ET.  @Maira Bicca you're welcome to stay on and answer questions if you're available! 

Thank you Stephanie! Thank you all. I have 10 more min. I'll gladly answer questions.

[Stephanie Vose]

1 minute ago, Maira Bicca said:

Thank you Stephanie! Thank you all. I have 10 more min. I'll gladly answer questions.

Thanks! Questions are highlighted in orange at the top of the page

[Maira Bicca]

16 minutes ago, Juan Zegers said:

In the time that you have been posting in social media, have you argued with someone that dont believe in cientific facts ? I m tried to explain certain topics to some guys in Facebook but they belive in farmaceutical conspirancy  and things like that

Almost every week. It is time consuming and frustrating sometimes but we can not give up, unless it is a hopeless case, then save your ATP, your mitochondria works hard to produce it, do not waste it with things are not worth it...lol

There are lots of people that believe in pharmaceutical conspiracy, the vaccines do not work, that earth is plane, etc...We can not force them to see our way, but we can offer evidence. I find hard to convince someone if I talk angry or putting myself as a superior mind. So, I guess what I try to do when I face something like that is to stay humble, talk to people not at people, and share as much reliable evidences I can. Then, ultimately it will be the person decision to read, check, think, digest. It is a work in progress. I just feel most people rely on the internet to search for things, that is why we need to stay active on this front, so more and more people find content from actual scientists, not from general bloggers and influencers that might have been talking without fully understand what they are talking about and without evidence. 

[Maira Bicca]

1 hour ago, Veronica Pastor said:

Hi Maira and everyone! Would you give us any advice on how to start if we have no experience? Thanks!

Hi Veronica,

I believe you will find these tips in my answer to Rodrigo and Ricardo. Thank you for your question.

[Maira Bicca]

1 hour ago, Raquel Maria Campos said:

For theses past events where did you get the financial support? Did your departament help somehow?

Yes Raquel.

We got money from the department and from the institution. However, as I said we would also reach out to local business for financial support, as they would help us with money and could advertise during our event. Also, I would recommend to check private grant opportunities, in which you would submit your project to companies interested in funding educational projects to amortize taxes. In summary, we would fight to get money from where we could to make it happen. 

[Juan Zegers]

3 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

Almost every week. It is time consuming and frustrating sometimes but we can not give up, unless it is a hopeless case, then save your ATP, your mitochondria works hard to produce it, do not waste it with things are not worth it...lol

There are lots of people that believe in pharmaceutical conspiracy, the vaccines do not work, that earth is plane, etc...We can not force them to see our way, but we can offer evidence. I find hard to convince someone if I talk angry or putting myself as a superior mind. So, I guess what I try to do when I face something like that is to stay humble, talk to people not at people, and share as much reliable evidences I can. Then, ultimately it will be the person decision to read, check, think, digest. It is a work in progress. I just feel most people rely on the internet to search for things, that is why we need to stay active on this front, so more and more people find content from actual scientists, not from general bloggers and influencers that might have been talking without fully understand what they are talking about and without evidence. 

Thanks !!!! I think the same, maybe we need to transform in science influencers and youtubers. It could be a new funding support with patreon and stuff like that.... lol

[Maira Bicca]

1 hour ago, Lester Rosario-Rodriguez said:

Hi Maira! What are your strategies to reach your community?

Hi Lester,

Nowadays, I have been mostly using Instagram and Facebook. Those are most effective ways of reaching people in my community as well as people from far away communities. In my case, I try to post things in Portuguese and English at the same time, so I make sure people from both countries I act most on will be reached. 

[Maira Bicca]

1 minute ago, Juan Zegers said:

Thanks !!!! I think the same, maybe we need to transform in science influencers and youtubers. It could be a new funding support with patreon and stuff like that.... lol

Yes! I am working on that. I guess I have to try to use my gift of communicate for something good. Hopefully I'll make it. 

[Juan Zegers]

3 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

Yes! I am working on that. I guess I have to try to use my gift of communicate for something good. Hopefully I'll make it. 

i really hope you success in this !!! i'll be following you !!

[Maira Bicca]

34 minutes ago, Ricardo De Sousa said:

Another question that I would like to make to you is about the fact that not only you, but the scientific community firmly believe we have to use social media in our favor. Although we face a lot of issues about this. You see, not all scientists think on the same way and there are those that will use social media to spread what they believe, their opinion, wheter this is or not true. In general, they are not sending fake news , they are sending to the public their points of view based on  their researches . Now, during the covid-19 pandemic, for example, there was that french researcher that published a study saying that chloroquine would be effective to fight covid-19.  When doctors and scientists express their points of view based in researches like this and spread the information that they believe is true, even if it is based in one or a few studies that have poor methodology or that you can not trust the results at all, how should we act? We, as scientists, when see a study like this ...we know that there is some kind of failure and the study must be done once more in order to eliminate those failures. But the general public does not see on this way. What they usually see is the fact the scientist A says ¨it is good¨ and scientist B says ¨it is bad¨. Finally, as you  are brazilian, you probably have heard about  a ¨Doctor of Philosophy¨ named Olavo de Carvalho that spreads things like the Earth is flat, covid-19 does not exist , etc... so...  how can we fight this type of propaganda in the social media??? Because a lot of people believe in people like Olavo de Carvalho , for example... what do you do when you see a scientist spreading fake news?

Really good point. 

First, I believe the time we are living right now is very particular and accentuate the need for science, and at the same time the discredit on it, as evidence and conclusions are shared too fast and subjected to feared eyes and ears of society. In fact, something that has been proven to be right at the moment, will remain a proven fact until contra-proofed or rejected. We know that this is how science works. In general way more slowly than what is happening now during COVID-19. I always try to start my conversations and discussions about science explaining this to whom I am directing myself. This way I find easier to explain that science is a work in progress and there are many variables and limiting. When sharing something on social media for example, it will most often have a subject view, it is almost impossible to be free of bias, as we tend to interpret things we read and do. What I try to do is, to express "my opinion" in my personal page and keep impartial data and evidence sharing on pages we created exclusively dedicated to share science news. We always use dates and links in our posts, so people can check it and double check it, hopefully understanding that things can change with time. 

About Olavo de Carvalho, tough life...Well, unfortunately he has gained lots of attention for political reasons and in Brazil political affairs have been dictating almost everything to a polarized view. It is very hard to fight against it. In fact, I believe we should not fight against it, we should follow our own paths and not mention this other strand. Let's not raise their publicity by for example, contradicting their facts. Let's simply show the other facts. We can only hope that by doing this we can reach out to people, specially the young generation. The problem in our country is way deeper of course, it is structural. Unfortunately, the lack of proper education and the disparity in between economical classes give space and niche to figures like Olavo to rise. It is a shame and very sad the situation we find ourselves in. 

Thank you for your questions Ricardo. 

[Maira Bicca]

16 minutes ago, Juan Zegers said:

i really hope you success in this !!! i'll be following you !!

THANK YOU!

[Maira Bicca]

38 minutes ago, Stephanie Vose said:

Thanks! Questions are highlighted in orange at the top of the page

It was so good that I stayed and believe I have answered everyone. It was a great pleasure. 

Best,

Bicca

[Maira Bicca]

52 minutes ago, Manuel Suarez Carvajal said:

Hi Maira,

When communicating science to general public, I feel that, sometimes, what science people (including myself) think is attractive for general public ended up being just attractive for science people. Do you have any advice to avoid that?  

Hi Manuel,

Thank you for your question. You should check my answer to Ricardo Paz. I believe I covered this topic. 

Best, 

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

10 minutes ago, Maira Bicca said:

Really good point. 

First, I believe the time we are living right now is very particular and accentuate the need for science, and at the same time the discredit on it, as evidence and conclusions are shared too fast and subjected to feared eyes and ears of society. In fact, something that has been proven to be right at the moment, will remain a proven fact until contra-proofed or rejected. We know that this is how science works. In general way more slowly than what is happening now during COVID-19. I always try to start my conversations and discussions about science explaining this to whom I am directing myself. This way I find easier to explain that science is a work in progress and there are many variables and limiting. When sharing something on social media for example, it will most often have a subject view, it is almost impossible to be free of bias, as we tend to interpret things we read and do. What I try to do is, to express "my opinion" in my personal page and keep impartial data and evidence sharing on pages we created exclusively dedicated to share science news. We always use dates and links in our posts, so people can check it and double check it, hopefully understanding that things can change with time. 

About Olavo de Carvalho, tough life...Well, unfortunately he has gained lots of attention for political reasons and in Brazil political affairs have been dictating almost everything to a polarized view. It is very hard to fight against it. In fact, I believe we should not fight against it, we should follow our own paths and not mention this other strand. Let's not raise their publicity by for example, contradicting their facts. Let's simply show the other facts. We can only hope that by doing this we can reach out to people, specially the young generation. The problem in our country is way deeper of course, it is structural. Unfortunately, the lack of proper education and the disparity in between economical classes give space and niche to figures like Olavo to rise. It is a shame and very sad the situation we find ourselves in. 

Thank you for your questions Ricardo. 

Thanks for your opinion and I totally agree with you , mainly here : ¨I believe we should not fight against it, we should follow our own paths and not mention this other strand. Let's not raise their publicity by for example¨. I see many scientists getting angry and sharing things like Olavo de Carvalho... and we should just show the facts and not to mention they at all...thanks once more