I had the pleasure of teaching a class this fall to a group of mostly chemistry and chemical engineering graduate students, helping them improve their skills communicating about their science with the public. For her assignment, graduate student Julie Fogarty recorded this Science Friday-style segment on work taking place in the lab of chemical biologist and bioengineer James Swartz, PhD. Swartz and colleagues are trying to develop a universal flu vaccine that would eliminate the need to get a new vaccine each year - something all of us would probably appreciate. (Here I'm thinking about my colleague Michelle Brandt, who recently suffered the woes of not finding time to get her kids vaccinated.)
Julie's brother Skyped in for his role as Science Friday host extraordinaire Ira Flatow in this segment, while Julie played the enthusiastic and articulate guest. It's often difficult to explain complex science in audio format, but Julie does a fantastic job explaining the work in way that is very visual. I love her description of the flu virus as a little mushroom.
(A previous blog entry featured another student, Rhiannon Thomas-Tran, who produced a great video about her work.)
Previously: Working to create a universal flu vaccine, Graduate student explains pain research in two-minute video and How one mom learned the importance of the flu shot – the hard way
