When you hear someone talk science, you might find it to be an entirely different language. In many ways it is. However, since science is important for decisions regarding health and the environment, scientists need to translate their world to the public. On this week’s show, we’re going to explore how this is being done and why the work of translators can help you avoid going to classes to learn science as a second language.

Our first guest is Maureen Dobbins, a professor at McMaster University who has spent decades taking clinical information found in the scientific literature and turning it into useful information to make health policy. We explore how her own work has changed such that she is now helping the public with online portals that provide recommendations people can trust.

Our next guest is James Heilman. He’s been working for over a decade to ensure Wikipedia is scientifically accurate. Although this open source platform is the go-to site for many searches, science and medicine do not trust these pages. Heilman is trying to change that not just here but around the world so that everyone can be sure they can use Wiki to stay informed.  

In our SASS Class, we talk with Paige Jarreau, a science communication researcher. Scicomm as its known is a part of the translation process and Jarreau provides an inside look at how it is performed and how you can get involved in the fun.

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Twitter: @JATetro
Email: [email protected]

Guests:
Maureen Dobbins
https://nursing.mcmaster.ca/faculty/bio/maureen-dobbins

James Heilman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Heilman
Twitter: @WikiDocJames

Paige Jarreau
http://www.fromthelabbench.com/
Twitter: @fromthelabbench

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