UPDATE: Received two negative swab results from tests conducted on March 24 and March 26. Released from governmental quarantine on March 30. Here I am, in bed with CoronavirusOn March 22, I received news that I tested positive for COVID-19. I am going to share my experience in as much detail as I can, in [...]
Author: Jessica
COVID-19 and Climate Change: The Urgent Crisis and the Important Crisis
Covid-19 is an extremely urgent crisis. Climate change is an extremely important one. What is the difference? And how do we approach and learn from them?
La vida bajo el cambio climático: los caficultores colombianos informan que sienten caos
El cambio climático es una amenaza real para la cadena de suministro de café colombiano. Hay más de 300,000 caficultores en Colombia cuyos medios de vida se ven amenazados por un clima cada vez más caótico, y adicional a eso, el sector cafetero en Colombia proporciona empleo a más de 2 millones de personas. Llevamos a cabo una investigación con una comunidad en particular, los caficultores de Colombia, para comprender cómo conceptualizan el cambio climático y cómo comunican sus experiencias con él desde su perspectiva y en sus propias palabras.
Life Under Climate Change: Colombian Coffee Farmers Report Feeling Chaos
Climate change is a real threat to the Colombian coffee supply chain. There are more than 300,000 coffee farmers in Colombia whose livelihoods are being threatened by an increasingly chaotic climate, and the coffee sector in Colombia provides jobs for over 2 million people. We conducted research with coffee farmers in Colombia to understand how they conceptualize climate change and how they communicate their experiences with it from their perspective and in their own words.
How an aid gusher helped and hurt Liberia
Two violent civil wars in Liberia killed a quarter million people between 1989 and 2003 and destroyed the West African country’s economy. A massive influx of foreign aid followed that turmoil, ushering in a period of relative peace and stability. According to the World Bank’s database, total aid fell from an all-time high in 2010 of US$359 per capita to about $130 in 2013. Having lost so much foreign support, Liberia’s economy is struggling.
Essay: What if AI waged war?
Purdue University held a symposium on the national security challenges posed by rapid advances in technology and smart systems. In conjunction, the Purdue Policy Research Institute held an essay competition in the spirit of the symposium: What if AI waged war?
Tips on pursuing a career in science communication
Many people email me who want a career in science communication. This is awesome. But I can't write a super long response to each because I don't have the time. I feel guilty. This career choice should be resoundingly supported. So I am compiling all my science communication career advice here.
10 tips for creating an edited volume
Edited volumes, or anthologies, are very popular in research and academia. Several experts each contribute a chapter on their topic to form one book on a particular subject. An editor, or editors, oversees and manages the process. From January 2016 to May 2018, I went through the process of co-editing (with my colleague Ken Foster) How to Feed the World, which united 17 researchers’ contributions in one book. This was the first book I edited, and I learnt a lot from this process
How to share complex research
If all the knowledge in the world were represented by a giant cake, then we might say a researcher specializes in one teeny tiny crumb of that cake. It's hard to communicate why a tiny crumb matters. Generally speaking, researchers make two mistakes. First, they immediately go into the technical details of their crumb and it confuses everyone and makes them bored. Or second, they claim that without their crumb, the whole goldarned cake wouldn't exist and their crumb is single-handedly responsible for the magnificence of this baked good. Neither of these approaches is a good strategy.
Be Media Savvy: How to Check Your News Sources
We all want to be smart about our news. The catch is that no one is teaching you how to do that. Avoiding fake news (news that IS NOT true and exists solely to trick you into believing something that is wrong), clickbait (media that is outrageous just so you'll click on it and they'll get add revenues) and understanding biased sources is incredibly important. I made this video to show you how to become media savvy and check your news sources when scrolling through social media or looking something up online.
