Charity Insights

With less than 2.5 hours to go, the finale to my 20 days of intense interning at Sense About Science is rapidly approaching. It’s been a delight working with such a smart and passionate group of change-makers, and it’ll be a sad moment when the clock hits 16:00 and it’s time for me to leave.

Here’s a review of what I’ve spent my time at Sense About Science doing, and a bunch of cryptic images to go with them:

Making sense of screening resource challenging me to explain the concept of screening, and its pro’s and con’s, with less than 200 words and a handful of whimsical diagrams.

Read Twentieth Day in full

Time flies, and this week has honestly been the most busy week at Sense About Science to-date. Lots of things wrapping up and being reviewed, and lots of things to start.

Due to a lack of time I haven’t had the time to draw up a full blog post, or get some items reviewed for posting. In the meantime, though, do check out my first Ask For Evidence effort where I enquired for evidence behind Calamari Gold squid oil capsules: http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/a4e_examples_of_evidence_hunting.html#

Read Fifteenth Day in full

For someone who hardly spends time in East London, it’s weird to look back and realize I’ve been spending 10 days doing just that. It’s quite a quaint little part of Camden that I’m tucked away by too! I don’t think I’ve seen so few ATMs and so many artisan bakeries during my time in London.

A recap of what’s happened since the first day:

• Dissemination plan – First draft completed! A nice little list of allergy-related charities, clinics and research centers both large and small. Once again let it be known that there’s probably a charity for every type of disorder there is out there (what might this mean in terms of sustainability of nonprofits?

Read Tenth Day in full

A series of weekly blog entries inspired by my work at Sense About Science. This week: Infographics.

As a graphics designer I have worked on a range of tasks, from simple ones like making buttons for websites to designing print media for distribution and display. But rarely have I had the chance to bridge my scientific interest with my design hobby. On the one hand, this may be because visual design tends to take a back-seat for scientific media – the focus for design in likes of reports and posters are that of functionality and practicality. But there’s a more raw side to it; as engaging as it is to be perfectionist and pixel-perfect, it’s a rather alien concept to pair the abstraction of design with the concrete nature that are data and facts from scientific discovery.

Read Dissecting Infographics in full

It seems like an eternity since I was first awarded the Charity Insights bursary. I have this vague memory that the good news was almost immediately overshadowed by some of the biggest and most important exams I have had to take to-date, then by my July internship with Imperial’s Comms office. But, hey, given all the exciting news from my fellow interns elsewhere, it’s better that I wasn’t too late to the party!

In a way, doing an internship at Imperial right before Sense About Science has left me feeling very prepared. While the former gave insight into how science news is generated, and how Imperial engages the public on its research, working with Sense About Science will hopefully show me the other side of the story: What happens to science news after it’s been published?

Read First Day in full