Reflecting on Indonesia's young academy movement.

In the past three decades, there has been a rise in young academy movements in the Global North and South. Such movements, in at least Germany and the Netherlands, have been shown to be quite effective in connecting scientific work with society. Likewise, these movements share a common goal of developing interdisciplinary collaboration among young scientists, which contributes to the growth of a nation's-but also global-scientific endeavors. This paper focuses on the young academy movement in the fourth-largest country hosting the biggest Muslim population in the world, which is also the third-most populous democracy: Indonesia. We observe that there has been rising awareness among the young generation of scientists in Indonesia of the need to advocate for the use of sciences in responding to upcoming and current multidimensional crises. Science advocacy can be seen in their peer-based identification of Indonesia's future challenges, encompassing the fundamental areas for scientific inquiry, discovery, and intervention. We focus on the Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences (ALMI) and its network of young scientists. We describe ALMI's science communication practice, specifically SAINS45 and Science for Indonesia's Biodiversity, and how they have been useful for policymakers, media, and school engagements. The article closes with a reflection on future directions for the young academy movement in Indonesia and beyond.

The effect of experts on attitude change in public-facing political science: Scientific communication on term limits in the United States.

How can scientists best inform the public and change attitudes? Does the message or the messenger matter more? We test the effect of scientific expert messengers and messages in a preregistered, nationally representative survey experiment in the United States. Consistent with our hypotheses, scientists can move public attitudes in areas where knowledge is based on a non-ideological misperception to a greater extent than the same science-based message from another source. Although we focus on political science as a field and Congressional term limits in the United States as a topic area, our findings have broader implications for science communication with policymaking relevance given the persistence of misperceptions among the public across all natural and social science research fields.

Public involvement and public engagement: An example of convergent evolution? Findings from a conceptual qualitative review of patient and public involvement, and public engagement, in health and scientific research.

Objective: Patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research is now well-established, whilst science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research has shifted from a focus on science communication alone to public engagement (PE) within its research processes. Despite frequently drawing on similar theoretical influences, and practical motivations, there is often a lack of dialogue between such settings meaning shared learning, practice and evidence from these two sectors are rarely pooled. Methods: In this article, we examine findings from a conceptual review of literature gathered between 1996 and 2019. Results: Analyzing 142 peer-reviewed articles, we ascertain shared definitions and concepts in patient and public involvement and public engagement, identifying key differences and similarities. Conclusion: The literature we review supports the notion that, in terms of origins, there are two distinct traditions, one based in science communication and one based in what we describe as public involvement in shared decision-making. Innovation: We find evidence that the two traditions are converging but our work also calls for the need for further conversations between these two settings, which are exploring intersecting issues but from parallel pathways.

Riddling Substitution of "hsa" to "has" in the Enigmatic MicroRNA Nomenclature.

This concise review and analysis offers an initial unpacking of a previously under-recognized issue within the microRNA research and communications field regarding the inadvertent use of "has" instead of "hsa" in article titles in the microRNA nomenclature. This subtle change, often the result of grammar auto correction tools, introduces considerable ambiguity and confusion among readers and researchers in reporting of microRNA-related discoveries. The impact of this issue cannot be underestimated, as precise and consistent nomenclature is vital for science communication and computational retrieval of relevant scientific literature and to advance science and innovation. We suggest that the recognition and correction of these often inadvertent "hsa" to "has" substitution errors are timely and important so as to ensure a higher level of accuracy throughout the writing and publication process in the microRNA field in particular. Doing so will also contribute to clarity and consistency in the field of microRNA research, ultimately improving scientific veracity, communication, and progress.

"Spine to the future"-A narrative review of anatomy engagement.

Anatomy has been integral to medical and health education for centuries, it has also had a significant role in wider public life, as an educational resource, a link to their health, and also as a darker deterrent. Historically, public engagement in anatomy is hallmarked by public dissections of convicted criminals across the globe. Artists, specifically non-medical men, such as Leonardo da Vinci, are reported to have participated in public dissection. Dissection would later rekindle public interest in anatomy as graverobbing led to the reform and regulation of anatomy in many countries. In recent years, there has been growing interest from the public in learning more about their bodies as health and well-being become of paramount importance, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Anatomy sits in a prime position to direct and instigate conversations around health, well-being, and body image. Every human on earth possesses a perfect resource to look at and learn about. Models, art-based anatomical activities, and crafts provide active learning opportunities for the wider public around anatomy. Most recently, apps, games, and extended reality provide novel and insightful learning opportunities for the public relating to the body. Finally, training and resources must also be made available from institutions and professional bodies to anatomists to enable them to deliver engagement in an already congested and educationally heavy schedule. This resurgence of interest in anatomical public engagement sees anatomy re-enter the public spotlight, with more appropriate resources and educational settings to offer engagement with the aim of benefiting the public.

U.S. public opinion about the safety of gene editing in the agriculture and medical fields and the amount of evidence needed to improve opinions.

Introduction: Implementation of gene editing in agriculture and medicine hinges on public acceptance. The objectives of this study were to explore U.S. public opinion about gene editing in agricultural and medical fields and to provide more insight into the relationship between opinions about the safety of gene editing and the potential impact of evidence to improve opinions about safety. Methods: Data were from two samples of U.S. respondents: 1,442 respondents in 2021 and 3,125 respondents in 2022. Survey respondents provided their opinions about the safety of gene editing in the agricultural and medical fields and answered questions about the number of studies or length of time without a negative outcome to improve opinions about the safety of gene editing in the agricultural and medical fields. Results: Results indicated that respondents in both samples were more familiar, more likely to have an opinion about safety, and more positive about the safety of gene editing in the agricultural field than in the medical field. Also, familiarity was more closely associated with opinions about safety than the strength of opinions. Discussion: These findings add to the literature examining perceptions of gene editing in the agricultural or medical fields separately. Opinions about the safety of gene editing were generally more favorable for respondents who were aware of the use of gene editing. These results support a proactive approach for effective communication strategies to inform the public about the use of gene editing in the agricultural and medical fields.

Let's talk posters: a novel role-playing activity to prepare undergraduate researchers for poster presentations.

Calls to increase undergraduate involvement in research have led to a significant increase in student participation via course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). These CUREs provide students an authentic research experience, which often involves dissemination of research by public speaking. For instance, the First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program at Binghamton University is a three-semester CURE sequence that prepares students for scientific research and effective communication of their findings. After one semester of research, students from the FRI program are tasked with presenting their research to hundreds of faculty members, staff, friends, and family at the annual FRI poster session. However, our students, and undergraduates in general, report high anxiety and fear around public speaking such as this. To better prepare our students for public speaking at a research poster session, we developed a workshop that includes a novel role-play activity to mimic a fast-paced poster session or conference in order to address students' fears and increase confidence levels. The role-play activity gives students iterative practice such that they are prepared for the realities of a poster session including variation of poster attendees. During the activity, students switch roles between presenter and audience member. In the role of an audience member, students are given Pokèmon-like role-playing cards that explain the traits and abilities of various types of poster-goers that students might come across (faculty in and out of discipline, staff, family, friends, etc.). Students improvise and enact their card-assigned role as they engage with their classmates who are practicing their poster presentations. To assess student outcomes, students were given three surveys: pre-activity, post-activity, and post-poster presentation. Immediately following the activity, 64% of students reported the highest level of confidence, and following the poster session, 93% of students reported extreme confidence in their poster presentation abilities. These data show that this role-play activity can help address student confidence and better prepare students to communicate their research.

Drawing attention to previous studies can reduce confidence in a new research finding, even when confidence should increase.

People often learn of new scientific findings from brief news reports, and may discount or ignore prior research, potentially contributing to misunderstanding of findings. In this preregistered study, we investigated how people interpret a brief news report on a new drug for weight loss. Participants read an article that either highlighted the importance of prior research when judging the drug's effectiveness, or made no mention of this issue. For articles describing no prior research, mean confidence in the drug was 62%. For articles that noted prior research was conducted, confidence increased as the proportion of studies with positive findings increased. When prior research was highlighted, confidence decreased by a small amount, even when it should have increased (i.e., even when most of the evidence supported the drug's effectiveness). Thus, people's judgements were more sceptical, but not necessarily more accurate. Judgements were not affected by education level, statistics experience, or personal relevance of the research topic.

Chinese scientists' mediated participation in public outreach: Multiple direct and personal norm-mediated predictors.

The rise of new media technologies has reshaped the landscape of science communication. There is little research on scientists' outreach participation and its possible predictors in different media contexts. Based on a national survey of 8,533 scientists in China, this study examined multiple direct and personal norm-mediated predictors of scientists' intentions to participate in public outreach via legacy media versus social media. Our findings revealed two consistent direct predictors (past outreach participation and personal norms) and two inconsistent direct predictors (descriptive norms and intrinsic rewards) that are significant only for participating via social media in the Chinese context. Moreover, our findings suggest a significant mediation effect of personal norms on the influence of various social norms (descriptive and subjective) and rewards (intrinsic and extrinsic) on Chinese scientists' intentions to participate in public outreach via media. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Use of immunology in news and YouTube videos in the context of COVID-19: politicisation and information bubbles.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic propelled immunology into global news and social media, resulting in the potential for misinterpreting and misusing complex scientific concepts. Objective: To study the extent to which immunology is discussed in news articles and YouTube videos in English and Italian, and if related scientific concepts are used to support specific political or ideological narratives in the context of COVID-19. Methods: In English and Italian we searched the period 11/09/2019 to 11/09/2022 on YouTube, using the software Mozdeh, for videos mentioning COVID-19 and one of nine immunological concepts: antibody-dependent enhancement, anergy, cytokine storm, herd immunity, hygiene hypothesis, immunity debt, original antigenic sin, oxidative stress and viral interference. We repeated this using MediaCloud for news articles.Four samples of 200 articles/videos were obtained from the randomised data gathered and analysed for mentions of concepts, stance on vaccines, masks, lockdown, social distancing, and political signifiers. Results: Vaccine-negative information was higher in videos than news (8-fold in English, 6-fold in Italian) and higher in Italian than English (4-fold in news, 3-fold in videos). We also observed the existence of information bubbles, where a negative stance towards one intervention was associated with a negative stance to other linked ideas. Some immunological concepts (immunity debt, viral interference, anergy and original antigenic sin) were associated with anti-vaccine or anti-NPI (non-pharmacological intervention) views. Videos in English mentioned politics more frequently than those in Italian and, in all media and languages, politics was more frequently mentioned in anti-guidelines and anti-vaccine media by a factor of 3 in video and of 3-5 in news. Conclusion: There is evidence that some immunological concepts are used to provide credibility to specific narratives and ideological views. The existence of information bubbles supports the concept of the "rabbit hole" effect, where interest in unconventional views/media leads to ever more extreme algorithmic recommendations.

It feels like lupus: accessible science for the low-vision community on immune system dysfunction in lupus.

Science communication is often confined to spoken, written or graphical form, neglecting the integration of other tools that would open inclusive scientific dialog to the low-vision community. To address this barrier, members from the Monash Rheumatology clinical and laboratory research groups formed a Lupus Sensory Science team to create a breakout room at the 2023 Monash Sensory Science Exhibit on Autoimmunity. Our goal was to develop multimodal displays and artworks to engage participants with blindness and low vision with the immunological underpinnings of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here I describe how we created several stations using a combination of tactile posters and models to communicate disease manifestations and immune system dysregulation in SLE. I reflect on how participants keenly engaged with our artworks, asking thoughtful questions that stimulated interesting discussions about treatment options in SLE. In addition, I analyze how our exhibit could be improved to further increase accessibility for the low-vision community. Overall, we learned a lot about how to be inclusive in scientific communication methods and we will strive to continue to engage all members of our community in scientific discussion.

How denialist amplification spread COVID misinformation and undermined the credibility of public health science.

Denialist scientists played an outsized role in shaping public opinion and determining public health policy during the recent COVID pandemic. From early on, amplification of researchers who denied the threat of COVID shaped public opinion and undermined public health policy. The forces that amplify denialists include (1) Motivated amplifiers seeking to protect their own interests by supporting denialist scientists, (2) Conventional media outlets giving disproportionate time to denialist opinions, (3) Promoters of controversy seeking to gain traction in an 'attention economy,' and (4) Social media creating information silos in which denialists can become the dominant voice. Denialist amplification poses an existential threat to science relevant to public policy. It is incumbent on the scientific community to create a forum to accurately capture the collective perspective of the scientific community related to public health policy that is open to dissenting voices but prevents artificial amplification of denialists.

The effects of self-disclosure and gender on a climate scientist's credibility and likability on social media.

To examine whether different types of disclosure made by climate scientists on social media influence perceived source credibility (i.e. competence, integrity, benevolence) and likability, we conducted a 2 (self-disclosure type: personal vs political) × 3 (proportion of posts including a self-disclosure: 20% vs 50% vs 80%) × 2 (gender identity of scientist: male vs female) between-subjects experiment (N = 734). We found that people liked the scientist more for a personal than political disclosure, rated them as being more competent for a political disclosure, and liked a female scientist more than a male scientist. However, scientist's gender did not moderate the effect of disclosure type or the effect of participants' gender. Our results suggest distinct benefits when scientists deliver different types of messages on social media, although disclosure is unlikely to have substantial effects on lay judgments of scientists' credibility.

Enhancing medical students' science communication skills: from the perspective of new media.

With the development of science over the years, people have increasingly realized the importance of science communication. Unfortunately, very little research has focused on helping medical students develop the capabilities of science communication. To improve medical students' science communication and evaluate the effectiveness of New Media through mobile clients in health science communication, a competition was held among medical undergraduates. Outstanding works were selected for publication on our official health science communication WeChat account. Furthermore, the participants volunteered to complete a questionnaire survey to help us assess students' awareness of science communication. Our analysis revealed that students had a strong willingness to serve society and to participate in science communication work. Students generally agreed that science communication work had excellent effects on professional knowledge and related skills. In addition, the correlation results showed that the greater students' willingness to participate in health science communication was, the greater their sense of gain. New Media effectively expand the influence of students' popular science works. Our findings suggest that competition in science communication has a positive impact on enhancing students' awareness and capabilities in science communication. In addition, New Media are an effective way to improve students' scientific communication efficiency. However, we also noted that students' participation rate and enthusiasm for scientific communication were not high. Further research is needed to determine the reasons for this situation and potential strategies to further improve students' science communication.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The science communication competition had a positive impact on helping medical students develop awareness and capabilities for science communication. In addition, New Media are an effective way to improve students' scientific communication efficiency.

Complexity appreciated: How the communication of complexity impacts topic-specific intellectual humility and epistemic trustworthiness.

In the context of science communication, complexity is often reduced. This study employs a 2 × 2 experimental design (N = 432) to investigate how two factors, namely the communication of complexity (reduced vs not reduced) and the provision of suggestions for concrete action (suggested vs not suggested), influence individuals' productive engagement with the socio-scientific topic of sustainable energy. Measured variables include topic-specific intellectual humility, judgements of source trustworthiness, willingness to act, anxiety, and hope. As expected, communication of complexity led to higher topic-specific intellectual humility, higher epistemic trustworthiness and higher anxiety. When a concrete action was communicated, participants reported lower topic-specific intellectual humility. Participants' willingness to act was not significantly affected by the experimental manipulation. The results of the study imply that the communication of complexity does not hinder people's productive engagement with science.

When evidence changes: Communicating uncertainty protects against a loss of trust.

Scientific findings can be overturned when new evidence arises. This study examines how communicating and explaining uncertainty around scientific findings affect trust in the communicator when findings change. In an online experiment (N = 800, convenience sample), participants read a fictitious statement from a public health authority announcing that there was no link between a new COVID-19 vaccine and heart muscle inflammation. The authority communicated (1) no uncertainty, (2) uncertainty without giving a reason, (3) uncertainty due to imprecision, or (4) uncertainty due to incomplete accounting of patients. Participants were then informed that the authority's statement was no longer correct as new data showed a link between the vaccine and heart muscle inflammation. Participants rated the authority's trustworthiness before and after the evidence update. Our findings indicate that communicating uncertainty buffers against a loss of trust when evidence changes. Moreover, explaining uncertainty does not appear to harm trust.

Intra-mediary expertise: Trans-science and expert understanding of the public.

What is the role of experts and their expertise in the context of trans-science, in which issues that are raised in scientific terms cannot be answered by science alone? This article examines the discourses and practices around safety of low-dose exposure to radiation in the ongoing aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan in 2011. Following the nuclear fallout, scientific experts and STS scholars in Japan debated what forms of science communication were adequate to address the situation. Ethnographic research and textual analysis of their debates show a shift in emphasis on the role of experts from cultivating 'public understanding of science' for the sake of science and policy to an 'expert understanding of the public' for the sake of the public and its diverse everyday concerns. Two forms of expertise are emerging: 'co-expertise' and 'intra-mediary expertise'. Both are parts of a transition from a paternalistic form of expertise to one that acknowledges the need to engage the public to address issues of scientific uncertainty. However, co-expertise ultimately upholds the existing political structures that shape risk governance, while intra-mediary expertise engages those often excluded from current structures of accountability. Discussion of the potentials and limitations of emerging forms of expertise in Japan show that epistemic justice is not enough. Civic justice that acknowledges diverse publics and their needs must be upheld in the uncertain sphere between science, politics, and everyday life.

Who are the "Heroes of CRISPR"? Public science communication on Wikipedia and the challenge of micro-notability.

Wikipedia's influence in shaping public perceptions of science underscores the significance of scientists being recognized on the platform, as it can impact their careers. Although Wikipedia offers guidelines for determining when a scientist qualifies for their own article, it currently lacks guidance regarding whether a scientist should be acknowledged in articles related to the innovation processes to which they have contributed. To explore how Wikipedia addresses this issue of scientific "micro-notability," we introduce a digital method called Name Edit Analysis, enabling us to quantitatively and qualitatively trace mentions of scientists within Wikipedia's articles. We study two CRISPR-related Wikipedia articles and find dynamic negotiations of micro-notability as well as a surprising tension between Wikipedia's principle of safeguarding against self-promotion and the scholarly norm of "due credit." To reconcile this tension, we propose that Wikipedians and scientists collaborate to establish specific micro-notability guidelines that acknowledge scientific contributions while preventing excessive self-promotion.

The four "R"s: Strategies for tailoring science for religious publics and their prices.

A recent wave of studies has diversified science communication by emphasizing gender, race, and disability. In this article, we focus on the understudied lens of religion. Based on an analysis of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) science journalism and its readership, we identify four main strategies for tailoring science, which we call the four "R"s-removing, reclaiming, remodeling, and rubricating science. By analyzing how science communication is produced by and for a particular religious group, we reveal the diverse ways a religious-sensitive science communication is shaped by community gatekeepers, while also exploring the ethical and epistemological tensions this tailoring entails.