Making the invisible visible: exploring host–microbiome interactions across different taxa using data-driven 3D visualization

The importance of microbiome research is rapidly gaining momentum for understanding its role in development, evolution, ecology, health and disease. Recent progress in community and single-cell genomic approaches has provided an unprecedented amount of information on the abundance and ecology of microbes in different host organisms and turned them into metaorganisms. A metaorganism is a host and its complete microbial community which is commonly referred to as the microbiome. Over half the cells in a human body are not human but belong to the multitude of species that compose our microbiome. However, linkages between metaorganisms from different taxa and their in situ level of intraspecific dependence (be it growth, division or metabolic activity) are much more scarce. Visualization therefore is crucial for understanding host–microbe interactions as well as overarching concepts in different host organisms. Here we introduce an innovative user-friendly method for interactive visualization of microbiome multi-omics data. The new communication format combines science and visual communication design. Interactive media are used to transform scientific findings on host–microbe interactions in an intuitive way. The method provides access to additional layers of information that cannot be visualized using a traditional platform. We demonstrate the usefulness of this visualization approach using the interactive scientific poster ‘Digital Meta’, which is designed to support not only interdisciplinary co-working but also communication with the general public.

Understanding microplastics, and visual art as a method of communication: scientific poster versus painting

<p>This multidisciplinary dissertation investigates in detail, visual art as a method of communication, in particular about a scientific topic: microplastics and human health. Primary and secondary research conducted suggest that microplastics have potential to cause health problems in humans due to the leaching of toxic chemicals and that over 8% of an educated western sample had never heard of microplastics before. Over 30% of participants reported that a painting was a more effective form of communication about microplastics and human health than a scientific poster on the same topic, opening areas for further study into the value and process of communication through visual art.</p>

Poster presentations.

This chapter is about poster presentations. It begins with a consideration of titles and provides guidance on how to write a good title and how to use that title to focus the content of one's poster. This chapter also presents and discusses good poster designs, including Mike Morrison's designs for a Better Scientific Poster.

Report from the Scientific Poster Session at the 15th Annual Cardiometabolic Health Congress Live Online, USA, 21–24 October 2020

The 15th Annual CMHC Live Online concluded on Saturday, October 24th [...]

Building a pathway for diversity in plant sciences in Argentina: highlighting the work of women scientists through virtual activities

Encouraging the participation of a diverse workforce in academia increases plurality as it broadens the range of skills, ways of thinking and experiences. Institutions and professional societies have been putting efforts on building plans that help make workplaces, conferences, education and extension programs more relatable to a highly diverse population. Argentina has an overall gender-balanced workforce in the sciences (~53% women/total), with an even higher representation in disciplines related to plant sciences. However, media outlets and national conferences related to genetics, botany, plant physiology, ecology and molecular biology, fail to reflect those numbers as the proportion of women invited for interviews, plenary lectures, and symposia falls below ~30%. As a way to increase the visibility of the wealth of plant science topics and experimental approaches in which Argentinian women work, and to facilitate connections among them across the country and abroad, we created the Argentinian Women in Plant Science network (https://argplantwomen.weebly.com/). This group has grown to over 200 members, representing a wide range of career stages and research topics. Since April, and taking advantage of the confinement situation, our weekly webinar series highlighting women plant scientists has reached an average audience of 60-70 participants, with a record of 100. Recently, we have begun a series of open professional development webinars to reach a wider public. Our first webinar, focused on Scientific poster design, had ~250 participants, most of them undergrad and graduate students from all over the country covering a diverse range of disciplines, including the social sciences. Even though we have immersed ourselves in the plant science community with our weekly seminars, we have expanded our goals with activities aimed to reach out to a much wider audience with webinars and teacher training workshops, hopefully making plant science more attainable to all.

Current practices in scientific poster preparation – survey results

Poster sessions allow conference participants to discuss recent research and are a first public discussion for many early career scientists. Preparing a poster that is both accessible and insightful to the audience is key. Yet often both poster presenter and audiences complain about overloaded and incomprehensible posters, despite many guides and how-to papers being available. Here, I probed the current practices of poster preparation and present the results of an online survey and in-person interviews with poster presenters. This revealed, that the on average scientists spend two days on the preparation of a poster and receive neither training nor feedback on this task. Early feedback, provided during the drafting stage of the poster preparation process, could safe many hours of work, free valuable time for research, and help making research reach a larger audience.