Eoin Murphy speaks of scientific communication, the Mary Mulvihill Award and how we are interconnected if you think about it.
A recent study suggested that an T Rex ancestor arrived for the first time in North America through a land bridge from Asia. Using mathematical modeling, a team led by University College London has concluded that the tyrannosaurs probably crossed the Bering Strait between Modern Siberia and Alaska about 70 million years ago.
This Bering Strait Earth bridge has been subject to much scientific interest and controversy, with some suggestions that humans first arrived in North America, as well as the Tyannosaurids, crossing the narrow, when levels of levels.
More recent research suggests that humans have been much earlier through ships, but history is still uncle.
For Eoin Murphy, looking at a painting of humans that cross this land bridge while traveling and worked in Central America, he inspired him to return to education to investigate genetics.
“I found that Myelf was attracted to this idea of genetics in humans and how people migrate, how is some people more likely to have a certain disease or more resistance to certain things. And you loved or simply start of Silon’s, Murphy.
Murphy already had a title and a master’s degree in biochemistry and postgraduate diplomas in the teaching of high school.
Having taught abroad for a few years, he returned to the University of Galway to investigate Huntington’s disease, a genetic condition that affects cells in the brain. He observed the genetic edition to investigate possible treatments for the disease.
It was a duration this time that he developed an interest in scientific communication. He entered and won some competitions communicating his research to the general public, including the investigation of Silicon Republic’s research in 2018. Hello, they did many scientific dissemination events that year, including Comedy Stand-Up and obtained a forest. “
After the teacher knew that he would return to teaching, sciences and mathematics are his subjects, but he continually wanted this new interest (and aptitude). “I knew I would return to my school work and be communicating, but it would be specific types of content. I was interested in telling stories beyond that,” he says.
When the Covid-19 pandemic coup, he took the opportunity to study for a master’s degree in part-time and completely online health communication at the University of the city of Dublin, while he continued living and working in Ennis.
Mary Mulvihill Award
He was the teacher in which he entered and won the Mary Mulvihill award.
The theme of that year was as expected “virus”. Murphy created an audio documentary about the different experiences of COVID-19 between people in Ireland and Peru. He had read an article about casual workers in Peru being fired in the cities and returning to rural areas, and once it was a powerful image that inspired his work.
“Then, there was this image of all of them basically transferred outside the city, along the road, walking back to the villages. I thought, you know, it is such an surprising image that a virus can have this effect,” says Murphy.
“And I just wanted to tell the story about how Covid affected different people and different places differently. So, this was a story due to a scientific phenomenon, which was the virus and the spread of a humaner.
Murphy is now in the Mary Mulvihill Award Committee and is very excited about its value.
“The idea is to commemorate and honor the work of Mary Mulvihill as a scientific communicator, journalist and announcer,” says Murphy.
“She was very active in a wide range of media. And the idea behind this prize is not only [science communication]. “
There are no format or style restrictions, he explains, with past entities not only newspaper articles but also graphic novels, stories and audio documentaries such as yours. “People have done all kinds of things,” he says.
“That is, I think, in the heart of the prize [because] Mary himself, you know, he experienced in different forms of communication, “he says. His goal, like the award objective, was to encourage people to tell science stories in a new and creative way.” There are so many ways. “”
Puir science and storytelling
As he showed with his documentary Covid, Murphy is particularly interested in audio narration. It has a podcast series called Science Tales, which includes informing about various topics.
I ask him if he is inclined to focus on the areas of science on which he has experience, but says that the main criterion is only that the issue is interesting. This is particularly important because it has been done for a long time to do this job around your daily work and your family life.
“Porto I tried to pigeonhole,” he says. “I just follow the story.
“I really enjoy getting into something and investigating it.”
Hundreds of reading hours and interviews can enter a short piece, but that is part of the process, he says. For example, a couple of years ago, he visited the global seed vault found in Svalbard, a remote island in the Arctic circle, and this inspired him to make a deep immersion in the impact of biodiversity by decreasing in the diversity of saval seeds and how it is covered.
Does this extracurricular activity help you in your teaching?
Murphy believes he is likely to do so. He says he gives him a broader image perspective when it comes to what students are learning, and this helps tell stories about science that help capture their interest and connect ideas.
“I think that people had a better one and how all this is interconnected, could encourage people to interact with the world differently, to respect things a little more.
“We are or we are thinking about our thesis things. But, you know, everything is really interconnected.”
Next week, Siliconrepublic.com will publish a Murphy article on the history of life, inspired by the issue of this year’s Mary Mulvihill award. With the competition now closed, the awards ceremony will take place on Thors Day, on May 22, at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Dublin in Ballsbridge.
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