That’s right! A virtual one, for now, but let’s hope things will start looking up soon! 🙂

In case you miss/missed science in a “traditional” form (whatever that is) and can’t/couldn’t afford to bring a microscope, centrifuge, PCR cycler, hybe oven and all other lab-loving gear right into your living room (which after checking your electricity bill you’d be sorry you did anyway) it is/was a great time to turn into the old fashion Communication with new digital makeup. There is/was a really long list of online seminars you can/could attend. And suddenly we are/were all zooming, skyping, lifesizing ….

Even your favourite Cellas had a few online meetings with all the PIs and friends of the network, discussing data integration and cross-species comparison of our datasets. (And we also met for an unofficial virtual pint!)


What is cool, the pint was also brought to Norway!! Yaay!! The official one, that is. The Pint of Science – the worldwide annual science communication event. The goal is to bring scientists from different fields closer to the public and let people know about amazing research going on around them. So chances are it takes place somewhere close to you too! The catch is no scientific words are allowed, only plain language as they say 🙂 . Otherwise, you and your research pitch get GONGED by the audience!

Since this year’s kick-off in Norway is/was affected by the pandemic it took place in a virtual space and yours truly was also representing. Check out my 3-minute pitch trying to explain my research without jargon.

Sorry for the present/past tense dualism but time has become somewhat more relative and confusing than it used to be in these pandemic times.. How history repeats itself and we not always learn from it is/was reflected yet again by a wave of #BlackLivesMatter protests.. In this spirit, Pint of Science organized a nice event focused on the topic with Dr. Esther Odekunle, antibody engineer and science communicator, and science journalist Angela Saini – the author of the book Superior – the return of race science. Unfortunately, there’s no recording of the streamed discussion, but here’s the list of books to read if you want to learn more about systemic racism and how to help to burry it in science and everywhere else. And let’s make sure things will start looking up for all..

 

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