Formal Scientific Training Research Articles

Feasibility of An Introductory Chemistry for Cultural Heritage E-course for Museum Professionals in the Philippines

Chemistry knowledge is fundamental in preserving and comprehending the tangible nature of museum collections. Despite chemistry’s importance in cultural heritage, a gap exists between the chemist’s knowledge and the accepted competencies of museum workers. This paper describes an initial study on introducing museum professionals with no formal scientific training in basic chemical thinking and research. A two-hour online session was conceived, comprising two separate lectures emphasizing the concepts, instrumental techniques, and example of a case study of an application of chemical analysis on a local heritage material. An open discussion and exchange of ideas followed the lectures. Feedback from the participants was very positive, and they described the online course as informative and valuable for their museum work. The qualitative evaluations obtained from this paper can serve as baseline information for developing a more extensive e-course in the future.

The Future of INCOG (Is Now).

The Future of INCOG (Is Now).

A multi-disciplinary approach for building a common understanding of genetic engineering for malaria control in Burkina Faso

Genetic engineering is a complex topic, even for scientists working in other areas, and even more so for those who lack a formal scientific training. To help gene specialists and affected communities talk with one another, international guidance documents have been published that promote dialogue and exchanges. The current paper explores collaboration among scientists of different disciplines as well as between scientists, the local communities, mediated by theatre actors to develop a conversation about Target Malaria’s work on genetic technologies to modify mosquitoes for malaria elimination in Burkina Faso. It focuses on the co-construction of meaning of key scientific concepts with a view to fostering productive collaboration between scientists and the local community. The community provided feedback on what was shared with them regarding the science being developed in the lab and in the field, which in turn informed aspects of the research itself, and the nature of the collaboration between the scientists and the local community.

Drug dose and animal welfare: important considerations in the treatment of wildlife

A recent article published in Parasitology Research describes the use of high-dose moxidectin (Cydectin®) by wildlife carers for the treatment of sarcoptic mange in bare-nose wombats (Vombatus ursinus). We provide additional perspectives on this topic, including consideration of the pharmacokinetics, mode of action and efficacy of moxidectin. The volumes of moxidectin applied by some carers exceeded the manufacturer recommended dose by up to 100-fold, although there appeared to be no association between dose and clinical efficacy. The safety of these extremely high doses has not been scientifically evaluated and we raise concerns regarding the potential for severe adverse events that may be undetected in free-living animals. The inadvertent spillage of large volumes of pour-on acaricides may also have ecotoxic impacts. Reports of treatment failure prompting the perceived need for higher doses are also concerning. The causal factors behind treatment failures should be investigated as a matter of priority, as it is possible that moxidectin resistance is emerging in Sarcoptes scabiei mites infesting wombats. We welcome the insights of individuals actively engaged in the treatment of this debilitating disease of wombats and encourage further discourse, reflecting both the lived experience and evidence-based practice.

Citizen Science for Conservation: Towards a Cleaner, Greener China

Citizen science (CS) is the practice where amateurs without formal scientific training collect data to contribute to the scientific observations available to scientists and decision makers (Bonney, et al., 2009). Citizen science is increasingly utilized for environmental protection and conservation as well as related purposes such as education, access to nature, access to justice, inclusion, civics and equality or other ‘social goods’ (Mor Barak, 2020; Makuch & Aczel, 2020).  Several eco-citizen science projects are developing in China (Chen, et al., 2020; Hsu, Yeo & Weinfurter, 2020), though little research has evaluated their effectiveness in facilitating environmental protection or advancing social goods. This paper aims to identify the role and potential benefits of environmental citizen science in China to promote environmental and social objectives within the context of what has been called “authoritarian environmentalism” (Beeson, 2018).Through semi-structured interviews and a review of the (limited) available literature, we identify three key areas in which citizen science could potentially benefit environmental protection and promote social good in China: (1) fostering education to inform society and encourage environmental advocacy; (2) facilitating effective environmental governance through monitoring and litigation; and (3) improving data collection for biodiversity and conservation research.

Facilitating Success of the Early Stage Surgeon Scientist Trainee: Growing the Surgeon Scientist Pipeline.

Surgeon scientists bring to bear highly specialized talent and innovative and impactful solutions for complicated clinical problems. Our objective is to inform and provide framework for early stage surgeon scientist training and support. Undergraduate, medical student, and residency experiences impact the career trajectory of surgeon scientists. To combat the attrition of the surgeon scientist pipeline, interventions are needed to engage trainees and to increase the likelihood of success of future surgeon scientists. A surgery resident writing group at an academic medical center, with guidance from faculty, prepared this guidance document for early stage surgeon scientist trainees with integration of the published literature to provide context. The publicly available National Institutes of Health RePORTER tool was queried to provide data salient to early stage surgeon scientist training. The educational path of surgeons and the potential research career entry points are outlined. Challenges and critical supportive elements needed to inspire and sustain progress along the surgeon scientist training path are detailed. Funding mechanisms available to support formal scientific training of early stage surgeon scientists are identified and obstacles specific to surgical careers are discussed. This guidance enhances awareness of essential education, communication, infrastructure, resources, and advocacy by surgery leaders and other stakeholders to promote quality research training in residency and to re-invigorate the surgeon scientist pipeline.

From Animaculum to single molecules: 300 years of the light microscope.

Although not laying claim to being the inventor of the light microscope, Antonj van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) was arguably the first person to bring this new technological wonder of the age properly to the attention of natural scientists interested in the study of living things (people we might now term ‘biologists’). He was a Dutch draper with no formal scientific training. From using magnifying glasses to observe threads in cloth, he went on to develop over 500 simple single lens microscopes (Baker & Leeuwenhoek 1739 Phil. Trans. 41, 503–519. (doi:10.1098/rstl.1739.0085)) which he used to observe many different biological samples. He communicated his finding to the Royal Society in a series of letters (Leeuwenhoek 1800 The select works of Antony Van Leeuwenhoek, containing his microscopical discoveries in many of the works of nature, vol. 1) including the one republished in this edition of Open Biology. Our review here begins with the work of van Leeuwenhoek before summarizing the key developments over the last ca 300 years, which has seen the light microscope evolve from a simple single lens device of van Leeuwenhoek's day into an instrument capable of observing the dynamics of single biological molecules inside living cells, and to tracking every cell nucleus in the development of whole embryos and plants.

Howard Marchitello The Machine in the Text: Science and Literature in the Age of Shakespeare and GalileoThe Machine in the Text: Science and Literature in the Age of Shakespeare and Galileo. Howard Marchitello. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. xii+236.

<i>Howard Marchitello</i> The Machine in the Text: Science and Literature in the Age of Shakespeare and Galileo<i>The Machine in the Text: Science and Literature in the Age of Shakespeare and Galileo</i>. Howard Marchitello. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. xii+236.

Food advertisements containing ‘scientific’ and ‘lay person’ keywords: Responses from a sample of female Australian consumers

AbstractAim: To describe female consumer responses to food advertisements containing nutrition messages differentiated by use of ‘scientific’ and ‘lay person’ keywords.Method: ‘Lay person’ and ‘scientific’ keywords were identified in advertisements from an audit of Australia's 30 top circulation magazines by people with or without formal scientific training in nutrition. Eight sample print advertisements were selected for consideration in focus group interviews. Four semistructured qualitative focus group interviews were conducted (women 25–63 years, n = 25 participants in total). Each group discussed four advertisements (two with ‘lay person’ and two with ‘scientific’ nutrition keywords). Thematic content analysis, including constant comparison and consensus, was driven by identifying types of responses and attributed meanings of keywords.Results: Participants' responses to the sample advertisements ranged from giving an immediate judgement, attributing meaning to keywords, responding to the keyword's novelty, describing the process of information analysis and addressing tangential issues such as photographic cues. The diversity in response occurred whether the advertisement contained ‘scientific’ or ‘lay person’ keywords and reflected the influence of multiple discourses on perceptions of the credibility and persuasiveness of nutrition messagesConclusions: Consumers' responses to keywords in advertisements are complex. Communications research that tests the message in its total context is needed to ensure the meaning of nutrition messages are being conveyed as is intended.

Attending to the spiritual through the teaching of science: a study of pre‐service primary teachers’ attitudes

Analysis of the attitudes of 140 pre‐service primary teachers, and of extended interviews with 15 of these prospective teachers, indicates differences in the ways pre‐service teachers use science in their heuristic reasoning and their ability and/or willingness to include a spiritual dimension in their science teaching. These differences were a reflection of neither the prospective teachers’ formal scientific training nor their personal religious faiths – both factors have been found to make little difference. Rather, they are indicative of how their personal conceptual frameworks emanate and influence their teaching approaches. Most are clearly able to engage with science’s spiritual component: an appreciation of the need for individual humility and recognition that scientific understanding is the result of a shared, collective endeavour. Despite most prospective teachers being neither hostile to the thought of addressing spiritual issues during their teaching of science nor totally convinced of its importance, they are also largely ignorant of the possibility, never mind the potential benefits, of its inclusion.

Salmon Samaritans

Salmon Samaritans

Gathering no moss.

I never imagined that I would be asked to write an autobiography in a microbiology tome. For that matter, little did I think that I would consider microbiology the most intriguing subject in the life sciences and the only field I wanted to study. My formal scientific training was in chemistry. This is a recounting of my conversion and the opportunities I have had to work in the microbial sciences with some of the major figures (and characters) during a period of marvelous intensity and productivity. I want to recognize and thank my many distinguished colleagues for the ways in which they have helped me to experience a fruitful and stimulating life as a microbiologist.

Curare: the flying death.

Curare: the flying death.

'Extraneous government business': the Astronomer Royal as government scientist: George Airy and his work on the commissions of state and other bodies, 1838-1880

In the absence of a scientific civil service the governments of Victoria's reign had few public servants to consult when it came to the requirement for specialist scientific and technological advice - and this was at the height of the industrial revolution when the enormous changes wrought were affecting the whole population of Britain. So governments turned to one man of cast-iron probity and unparalleled credentials: George Airy. Though his formal scientific training was in mathematics and astronomy, not the engineering and thermodynamics that the industrial age might have called for, Airy gave of his time and energy to the full. But what were the purposes of the commissions? When did they sit? Who ran the Royal Observatory in Airy's absence? Only recently have the original papers in the RGO Archives been plumbed in any depth and the answers to these questions make an intriguing story.

Roth: diabetes and receptors

the traditional treatments of diabetes, laboratory studies were uncovering the reason. A radioimmunoassay for insulin—the first such assay ever developed—was used by Solomon A. Berson, MD, Rosalyn S. Yalow, PhD, in the early 1960s to measure circulating levels of insulin in diabetics. Their data showed that only 20% to 30% of diabetics are insulin-deficient, Roth recalls, and that in the majority of cases, diabetes is not an insulin-deficiency disease. These findings came at the time that Roth was finishing his internship residency at Washington University. Subsequently, he was awarded a fellowship by the American Diabetes Association to study in Berson Yalow's laboratory, where he worked on a radioimmunoassay for growth hormone. (Roth has decided views on the role of a physician going into basic research. You start out with a severe disadvantage in formal scientific training. But you have the advantage that

The Development of Ovonic Switches: a Case Study of a Scientific Controversy

The discussion in this paper centres around the development by S. R. Ovshinsky, an American entrepreneur who has undergone no formal scientific training, of a new kind of semiconductor switch which, in contrast to the transistor, is based on randomly ordered amorphous (glassy) materials. It deals with three interrelated sets of propositions. Firstly, that there developed over the announcement by Ovshinsky of his work, a controversy of considerable bitterness and duration among certain solid state physicists and, to some extent, throughout the wider scientific community. Secondly, that there was some doubt expressed by the solid state physicists about the nature and significance of the results claimed by Ovshinsky. Thirdly, that in promoting and publicising his work Ovshinsky contravened some of the norms and values of the scientific community and that it was this, primarily, that precipitated the controversy. In the final section of this paper, we attempt to discuss the controversy in terms of the exchange-recognition model put forward by Hagstrom and others.' We consider that the controversy over Ovonic devices might be of interest to those concerned with the social dimensions of science and technology because it can be regarded as a striking example of an attempt at scientific innovation by an 'outsider' (i.e. someone with no formal scientific training) in an area of scientific activity which is highly structured in both the types of problems it undertakes and in its methods of tackling them, and boasts many scientists of international standing. As such, a case study of Ovshinsky and the devices which bear his name, will, we hope, make a useful contribution to our understanding of the social behaviour of the scientific community when its norms and values have been contravened. For as Merton has pointed out, social behaviour under such circumstances is particularly revealing:

Mr. R. C. Mossman

THE death of Robert Cockburn Mossman at Buenos Aires on July 19 removes a natural genius whose scientific instincts found their full expression without the help of a formal scientific training.