scholarly journals Magnetic to the Core – communicating paleomagnetism with hands-on activities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annique van der Boon ◽  
Andrew J. Biggin ◽  
Greig A. Paterson ◽  
Janine L. Kavenagh

Abstract. Paleomagnetism is a relatively unknown part of Earth sciences that is not well integrated into the school curriculum in the United Kingdom. Throughout recent years, there has been a decline in the number of Earth science students in the UK. In 2018 and 2019, we developed outreach activities and resources to introduce the scientifically-engaged general public to paleomagnetism and raise awareness of how geomagnetism affects society today, thus putting paleomagnetism, and Earth sciences, in the spotlight. We tested our ideas at local events that were visited mostly by families with small children, with tens to hundreds of participants. Our project culminated in the ‘Magnetic to the Core’ stand at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in 2019, which is visited by members of the general public as well as students and teachers, scientists, policymakers and the media. At this event, we communicated the fundamentals of paleomagnetism through hands-on experiments and presented our recent research advances in a fun and family friendly way. To test the impact of our exhibit on knowledge of paleomagnetism and Earth’s magnetic field on visitors, we designed an interactive quiz and collected results from 382 participants over 8 days. The results show an increase in score of 19.1 % between those who had not yet visited the stand to those who had visited for more than 10 minutes. The results from school-age respondents alone show a larger increase in score of 28.1 % between those who had not yet visited and those who had spent more than 10 minutes at the stand. These findings demonstrate that this outreach event was successful in impacting visitors’ learning. We hope our Magnetic to the Core project can serve as an inspiration for other Earth science laboratories looking to engage a wide audience and measure the success and impact of their outreach activities.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annique van der Boon ◽  
Greig Paterson ◽  
Janine Kavanagh ◽  
Andy Biggin

<p>With geoscience student numbers dwindling, there is a strong need for Earth scientists to enthuse a new generation of prospective students. We created several hands-on activities to introduce members of the general public of all ages to the fundamentals of, and current research in paleomagnetism. We developed these activities at different outreach events in the UK, such as a family science fair (at the Ness Gardens) and a holiday workshop (at the Victoria Gallery & Museum). In the first week of July, 2019, we contributed to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, a science exhibition in London with almost 14,000 visitors of the general public, including many school groups. Visitors came from all educational backgrounds. We had a stand that consisted of 4 hands-on experiments, and an informative backdrop. The four activities allowed visitors to explore the range of tasks that a paleomagnetist does, from the collection and measurement of samples to understanding the behaviour of the Earth’s magnetic field. Visitors could measure real lavas from Iceland on a custom-built magnetometer that was designed specifically for outreach, and determine the magnetic polarity of the samples. We also created an information booklet with ’10 things you might not know about Earth’s magnetic field’, which is openly available under a CC-license. To measure the impact of our stand on visitors’ knowledge of paleomagnetism, we designed a quiz. Our results show that especially for school kids, our stand had a significant impact on their knowledge of the Earth’s magnetic field. In this contribution we share lessons learned through designing the ‘Magnetic to the Core’ stand, hands-on activities and evaluations.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1033-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Sobande

The current COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic has resulted in a wave of advertising and marketing approaches that are based on commodified concepts of human connection, care and community in a time of crisis. At the core of many brands’ marketing messages – whether these be supermarket advertising campaigns or celebrity self-branding – is the notion that ‘we’re all in this together’. While it is true that the impact of COVID-19 has affected the lives of many people around the world, not everyone is experiencing this crisis the same way, due to structural inequalities and intersecting oppressions. What is the relationship between COVID-19, capitalism and consumer culture? Who is the ‘we’ in the messages of ‘we’re all in this together’, and how might such messages mask distinct socio-economic disparities and enable institutions to evade accountability? This article examines sub-textual meanings connected to brand responses to COVID-19 in the UK context which rely on an amorphous imagined ‘we’ – and which ultimately may aid brands’ pursuit of productivity and profit, rather than symbolising support of and concern for people.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 324-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë James ◽  
Rebekah Southern

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why Gypsies and Travellers are socially excluded in England and how their experience may be reflected in other European contexts. Specifically, the paper explores the impact of planning policies on accommodation provision for Gypsies and Travellers in England and subsequently how their exclusion manifests due to the sedentarist binary definition of nomadism embedded within that policy. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on evidence from empirical research carried out by the authors in the South West of England in 2015 as part of an accommodation needs assessment of Gypsies and Travellers. The research was commissioned by a local authority but the analysis presented here was carried out in addition to the core report. The decision to comment further on the research findings in relation to policy and theory was agreed with the project funders. Findings The research findings show that there continues to be a lack of accommodation provided to Gypsies and Travellers in England, despite policy and legislative initiatives to the contrary. The paper identifies that current government policy in England is likely to diminish access to appropriate accommodation in the future for Gypsies and Travellers, particularly for the most vulnerable. Finally, the paper concludes that a sedentarist binary definition of nomadism has failed to recognise Gypsy and Traveller communities’ culture or mobility. Originality/value This paper sets out how an underpinning “sedentarist binary” definition of nomadism is used in England to determine policies of provision for Gypsies and Travellers. That definition is based on the sedentary notions of nomadism that are binary, distinguishing only between people who are mobile and people who are not, rather than acknowledging the cultural nomadism of Gypsies and Travellers. The findings are useful beyond the UK context as they help to explain why Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in wider Europe remain excluded within states despite extensive European initiatives for inclusion.


Author(s):  
Hugo D. Lodge
Keyword(s):  
Eu Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Uk ◽  

Anti-money Laundering Powers in the UK Post-Brexit 13.01 Overview of the Amendments Made by the 2018 Act 13.01 Pre-Brexit AML Regime under EU Law 13.05 The Impact of the 2018 Act on AML in the UK 13.12 The Core AML Power:...


2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (5) ◽  
pp. 156-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
PJ Wraighte ◽  
DP Forward ◽  
P Manning

Trauma and orthopaedic surgery (T&O) has the largest number of trainees of any individual surgical specialty in the UK. It is a craft-based specialty, with 'hands-on' training, based on an apprenticeship model involving operative and procedural skills. In 1992 Kenneth Calman, then Chief Medical Officer, set up a working group to reform the specialist curriculum, placing more emphasis on structured teaching, supervised learning and surgical experience.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lamiece Hassan ◽  
Goran Nenadic ◽  
Mary Patricia Tully

BACKGROUND Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives, which was established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often and by whom; thus, the study aimed to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield. METHODS We analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 on the microblogging platform Twitter that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (n=13,895). Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (‘retweet’) networks among hashtag users. RESULTS Overall, we found 4,175 original tweets and 9,720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3,649 unique Twitter users. In total, 2,756 (66.0%) of original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest the campaign supported community-building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data. CLINICALTRIAL


POLITEA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Hendrini Renolafitri

<p>This paper highlights one concrete example of how the power of <em>Hoaxes</em> can provide an extra-ordinary significant impact to the country.  The term<em> </em>of <em>the Trojan Horse Affairs</em> make this issue more interesting for the author to discuss. The term of <em>Trojan Horse </em>generally used in technological science to describe the existence of the <em>malware </em>or <em>viruses</em> activity, whos hiding in suspicious forms and then damage the core systems on a computer or steal its data. The damage caused by the <em>Trojan Horse</em> is usually very severe (<em>Trojan Horses</em>, 2019).</p><p>In the study of international relations, the term of <em>Trojan Horse </em>was also recently introduced to defined the “terrorist operations”. This is because, terrorist operations are also use hidden movements on their actions to attack or stealing data which resulted in fatal damage. For that kind of reason, in the study of international relations, the term of <em>Trojan Horse</em> is also synonymous with serious crime, which are usually carried out by the opponents, enemies, or international criminal syndicate (<em>Trojan Horses</em>, 2019).</p>Tracing the origin history the use of the term of <em>The Trojan Horse</em> will remind back with the Ancient Greek War, between the <em>Achaena</em> (Greek) and Trojan people. This history become phenomenal after the <em>Achaena </em>win the war with their clever trick of smuggling its soldier into an unsuspecting wooden horse statue, soon called <em>“The Trojan Horse”</em>statue. The Trojan people immediately got killed in the night, when their soldiers were unaware and sleeping. The Achenian soldiers came out from their hiding place and then ended this storys (Mogra, n.d.).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Schamuells ◽  
Olaya Dorado ◽  
Joaquin Hopfenblatt ◽  
Meritxell Aulinas ◽  
Adelina Geyer

&lt;p&gt;Earth Sciences are booming in social media, an unexampled scenario a few years ago. In the last year, these numbers have increased because of the COVID-19, citizens are consuming even more digital information, at the same time they are looking for more simplified and easy-understanding scientific concepts. It is very important to remark the value of entertainment, humor, and visual contents, which have a light universal language to approach Earth Sciences to citizens and experts beyond the pure academic frontiers. In this work, we share some successful examples through the use of illustration, comic, and infographic content between two Instagram accounts (&lt;strong&gt;@ohmagmamia&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;@salirconunageologa&lt;/strong&gt;) which addend more than 13,000 followers and have a potential reach up to 37.1k (based on their account insights). The audience for this content is international although it has gained great popularity among the Spanish-speaking public (the initial target audience), little by little creating an interesting and growing movement. Countries such as Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Spain have the greatest impact according to statistics. Age range is between 18-34 years for 87% of the audience, with a clearly female predominance (55% in @Ohmagmamia and 60% in @Salirconunageologa).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the principal goals of these accounts is to develop visual, artistic and easy-understanding content that fits the audience. On one hand @Ohmagmamia uses photographic material (e.g. landscapes, outcrops, hand specimen samples or micro-photographies), simple geological sketches and infographic content along with small descriptions in the post captions. This approach has been well received by both Earth Science students and non-professional enthusiasts, as well as biology-geology teachers and public examination trainers. On the other hand, @Salirconunageologa (Dating a geologist) uses cartoons, humour and comics to approach Earth Sciences to professionals and the general public. Its visual material focuses on storytelling to explain what it means to be a geologist using all its universe of friendly characters. In the first season of &amp;#8220;Dating a Geologist Universe&amp;#8221; (with 17 episodes), the main character, Nia Stone, is involved in different hilarious situations related to Earth Sciences, like volcanoes, trilobites, or Dr. Gems (the main Villain). This &amp;#8220;&lt;strong&gt;geocomics&amp;#8221;&lt;/strong&gt; have been very well received, being the first chapter the one which records the best audience data, with 10k accounts reached on Instagram.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Social media statistics data provide interesting information about the success of these scientific dissemination&amp;#8217;s new methods. In the last 6 months of the 2020 both accounts reached an average of 11,000 Instagram accounts with an average more than 1,000 &amp;#8220;likes&amp;#8221; per post and with an engagement rate that varies from 9 to 12%. In addition, the use of other social media such as Twitter or YouTube able us to reach more people and/or accounts by using Twitter &amp;#8220;threads&amp;#8221; or sharing videos of invite talks or &amp;#8220;webinars&amp;#8221;, whose popularity grew during the quarantine period. All these results show the importance of a perfect relation between visuals, art and Earth Science and its capability to reach people from all around the globe.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasapta Erwin Irawan ◽  
Juneman Abraham ◽  
Jonathan Peter Tennant ◽  
Olivier Pourret

Background: Earth sciences is one of those sensitive field sciences that are closely needed to solve local problems within local physical and social settings. Earth researchers find state-of-the-art of topics in earth sciences by using scientific databases, conduct research on the topics, and write about them. However, the accessibility, readability, and usability of those articles for local communities are major problems in measuring the impact of research, although it may be covered by well-known international scientific databases. Objectives: To ascertain empirically whether there are differences in document distribution, in the proportions of openly accessible documents, and in the geographical coverage of earth sciences topics as revealed through analyses of documents retrieved from scientific databases and to propose new measures for assessing the impact of research in earth sciences based on those differences. Methods: Relevant documents were retrieved using &lsquo;earth sciences&rsquo; as a search term in English and other languages from ten databases of scientific publications. The results of these searches were analysed using frequency analysis and a quantitative- descriptive design. Results: (1) The number of articles in English from international databases exceeded the number of articles in native languages from national-level databases. (2) The number of open-access (OA) articles in the national databases was higher than that in other databases. (3) The geographical coverage of earth science papers was uneven between countries when the number of documents retrieved from closed-access commercial databases was compared to that from the other databases. (4) The regulations in Indonesia related to promotion of lecturers assign greater weighting to publications indexed in Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) and publications in journals with impact factors are assigned a higher weighting. Conclusions: The dominance of scientific articles in English as well as the paucity of OA publications indexed in international databases (compared to those in national or regional databases) may have been due to the greater weighting assigned to such publications. Consequently, the relevance of research reported in those publications to local communities has been questioned. This article suggests some open-science practices to transform the current regulations related to promotion into a more responsible measurement of research performance and impact.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Justice ◽  
Chiara LoDestro ◽  
Marco Giardino ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Bosson

&lt;p&gt;The dissemination of Geoheritage research can be reinforced by building solid partnerships between researchers and national and regional stakeholders as practical experience has shown in the Chablais UNESCO Global Geopark. Increasingly, territorial management bodies, particularly those hosting UNESCO designations such as UNESCO Global Geoparks, public agencies with environmental preservation or resource management responsibilities and managers of national or regional geoheritage inventories actively seek to build partnerships with geoheritage researchers.&amp;#160; These entities document and manage geoheritage as part of their overall responsibilities and have wider roles than conservation bodies. The non-academic professional teams responsible for geoheritage documentation, management and awareness raising include experienced geoscientists and highly trained science communicators. Professional geoheritage stakeholders have well-developed dissemination channels with public and private sector decision makers as well as the general public and schools that complete and complement academic geoheritage communication networks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recent examples from the Chablais UNESCO Global Geopark demonstrate how geoheritage professionals from the local development agency have worked in partnership with geoheritage researchers to maximise the impact of new scientific research in the territory. &amp;#160;These examples highlight how collaboration between researchers and professionals embedded in the study region can leverage research results to a wide audience: decision makers, stakeholders, local population and school children.&amp;#160; Three case studies highlight the different partnerships and how collaborations led to improved project robustness and scope.&amp;#160; In addition, the examples underline how early collaboration leads not only to project improvements but also transmission through highly effective embedded communication channels that complement those of geoheritage researchers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Each case study addresses a different geosite within the Chablais UGGp with different issues and stakeholders: a retrogressive landslide at Reyvroz, dolines at Nifflon and a series of lakes of varied origin at Saint Paul en Chablais.&amp;#160; The examples demonstrate the scope for the application and recognition of research but also the need of researchers and territorial managers to make connections early on for these projects to achieve their full potential. This permits thorough, structured dialogue between researchers and stakeholders that result in geoheritage issues being recognised, understood and incorporated into territorial management decisions and sustainable policy.&amp;#160; This is a crucial step given that the value of the natural environment from a general public and political standpoint continues to be equated with biodiversity and ecosystemic services to the detriment of geoheritage and geosystem services.&lt;/p&gt;


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