Science 140 to page
Word spread like wildfire. Tweets started to arrive! In conjunction with the website –
www.Scienceı40. org – we cast the net far and wide to gather science-related tweets. Humphrey brought Maria Delaney on board, another science blogger (
ScienceCalling.com) who helped to curate this ever-growing project. By encouraging scientists and science enthusiasts to tweet a concept/defini- tion/biography in ı40 characters and adding the hashtag #Scienceı40 to the end, the tweets started to pile up. With Aoibhinn, Humphrey, Maria and myself, our Team #Scienceı40 was now complete and we four met in Dublin to map out the next step. We decided to run this
crowd-sourced information gath- ering for three months. By setting a daily challenge it encouraged people to contribute from different disciplines within the science community. One challenge was periodic table scrabble(!) and another was biographies of scientists in ı40 characters. We peppered this with several ‘Free for All Fridays’ – where any science topic could be tackled in ı40 characters. Additionally, we ran a regular science joke chal- lenge – the results of which were very, very funny. As each of us has a science and
education background, we were anxious to see the Tweets collected and published. While Twitter is a popular medium, not everyone engages with it and we felt that the printed word would reach an even wider audience. We approached publishers and within a week, Hachette (Ireland) were on board. From the first meeting, our aim
was to raise funds for a charity. And in choosing a charity, we didn’t have to look very far. Our team member Maria Delaney was able to devote a
lot of time to this project due to an ongoing illness, Cystic Fibrosis. In fact, in our health science tweets, we all became aware of various medical facts and breakthroughs. One fact struck a chord with us: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an inherited condition that primarily affects the lungs and digestive systems and Ireland has the highest incidence of CF in the world. Approximately one in ı9 Irish people are said to ‘carry’ one copy of the altered gene that causes the condition. Our charity partner for this
endeavour is Cystic Fibrosis Ireland. All the monies collected from the sale of the book will go straight to scientific research into CF. As the weeks whizzed by, our
deadline came closer. Hachette, the publishers, needed the mate- rial by the end of June/early July. We all met in Dublin and began the arduous task of reading/referencing and researching the Tweets. Hours later, the material was ready. We then subdivided the information, grouping it into common themes. A discussion about artwork, illus- tration, binding and the front cover followed! As none of us had any experience in publishing, this was a steep learning curve! As I write, the initial proof of
the book is being created. We have a launch date in October and the book will be then on the shelves. Aoibhinn, Humphrey, Maria and I hope that the Christmas 20ı2 market will be kind to it – and that it will be stocking filler! When it came to choosing a title,
we referenced one of the popular science jokes: “A Neutron walks into the bar and asks: How much for a drink? For you… No charge!” So the title of the book is:
A Neutron Walks into a Bar... This has been a science project about science and for science! It’s been a labour of love. It’s published by Hachette and will be available in all good book stores – and in ebook form from Amazon.
Maria Delaney A native of the Laois/ Carlow
border, Maria has lived in Dublin for a
number of years. She graduated with a first class degree special- ising in genetics from Trinity College Dublin. In June 2011, Maria set up a science blog, Science-
Calling.com and it was shortlisted for the Eircom Spiders Big Mouth Award 2011. Twitter: @mhdelaney
Humphrey Jones
A science teacher in St. Columba’s College, Dublin,
Humphrey is
a regular contributor to BANG, the Irish Times science supplement. He runs
FrogBlog.ie, a blog aimed at enthusing people about the world of science and technology. Twitter: @TheFrogBlog
Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin Hailing from Co Mayo, Aoibhinn graduated with first
class honours
in Theoretical Physics from University College Dublin and is currently a recipient of the Ussher Award as a PhD candidate in Mathematics Education in Trinity College Dublin. Twitter: @aoibhinn_ni_s
Paul
O’Dwyer A native of Cahir in Co Tipperary, Paul studied dentistry in University
College Cork (UCC). As a Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, oral health promotion, dental science and communication are never far from his thoughts. Twitter: @ShirtNTie
Ireland’s Dental magazine 17
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