Meeting Abstract
We are in an era in which public understanding of science is crucial to the nearly all aspects of society. Nevertheless, large segments of the American public are growing increasingly distrustful of the scientific enterprise. In particular, a general lack of knowledge of the fundamental function of the scientific process creates fertile soil for beliefs among the public such as a massive conspiracy among scientists on issues such as climate change. To help address the widespread misunderstanding of the process of science, I began a video blog (vlog) on YouTube named “Octopodium”. During the following three years I have posted thrice weekly videos following the progress of research in my lab during my summer field season. The goal of Octopodium is to communicate to an audience of non-scientists how scientific research works on a day-to-day basis. Over the course of these three years viewership has modestly but steadily increased. To date, over 100 videos have been published to Octopodium and videos on the channel have been viewed over 20,000 times. While I have found this mode of scientific communication to offer a rich and in-depth view of the work of a research scientist, it can also be incredibly time intensive. I hope sharing my experiences in this type of science communication can inspire and guide scientists interested in using this medium in the future.
