3 ms·

LIGO collaboration member here. We're delighted to take questions from the public - just email question@ligo.org!

KGIII 9y ago
I figured you were absolutely willing to take questions from the general public. Now, the average person seems woefully unaware of this. To them, the science and scientists seem unapproachable. They've stacked scientists up on a pedestal and fashioned imaginary ivory towers for them. As a scientist, I have countless examples of such. So, how do we let people know that you'd be delighted to take questions? Maybe one of those live BBC science specials would be in order? Something like that? For all the marchers who believe in science, so few seem aware that they can practice it and be a part of it. They aren't even aware that they can be published without affiliation or a degree. Sure, it is harder, but they can and they can contribute.
- sleavey 9y ago
  I am particularly impressed by the efforts of the rest of my colleagues when it comes to public outreach. Our members attend loads of local events around the world, sharing LIGO outreach material across the collaboration; members are often invited to talk at science clubs and societies; we conduct Reddit AMAs after each detection announcement [1-3] and tweet to the public about the goings-on. There are even apps [4]! Two other things we've gotten a lot of positive feedback for are our open science center [5], which has tutorials where you can conduct essentially the same analysis we did in our discovery on the same data (using Python notebooks), and Gravity Spy [6], which lets the public hunt for glitches in our data (a new type of glitch was identified by the public, showing how important it can be!). So, while we can always do more to reach out to the public who fund our work, I feel like I'm surrounded by colleagues who are really passionate and dedicated to interacting with the public! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_we/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_lig... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4odza8/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4odza8/we_are_the_lig... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6fekz5/science_ama_series_we_are_the_ligo_scientific/ https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6fekz5/science_ama... [4] https://www.laserlabs.org/spacetimequest.php https://www.laserlabs.org/spacetimequest.php [5] http://losc.ligo.org/ http://losc.ligo.org/ [6] https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/gravity-spy https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/gravity-spy

I figured you were absolutely willing to take questions from the general public. Now, the average person seems woefully unaware of this. To them, the science and scientists seem unapproachable. They've stacked scientists up on a pedestal and fashioned imaginary ivory towers for them. As a scientist, I have countless examples of such. So, how do we let people know that you'd be delighted to take questions? Maybe one of those live BBC science specials would be in order? Something like that? For all the marchers who believe in science, so few seem aware that they can practice it and be a part of it. They aren't even aware that they can be published without affiliation or a degree. Sure, it is harder, but they can and they can contribute.

sleavey 9y ago
I am particularly impressed by the efforts of the rest of my colleagues when it comes to public outreach. Our members attend loads of local events around the world, sharing LIGO outreach material across the collaboration; members are often invited to talk at science clubs and societies; we conduct Reddit AMAs after each detection announcement [1-3] and tweet to the public about the goings-on. There are even apps [4]! Two other things we've gotten a lot of positive feedback for are our open science center [5], which has tutorials where you can conduct essentially the same analysis we did in our discovery on the same data (using Python notebooks), and Gravity Spy [6], which lets the public hunt for glitches in our data (a new type of glitch was identified by the public, showing how important it can be!). So, while we can always do more to reach out to the public who fund our work, I feel like I'm surrounded by colleagues who are really passionate and dedicated to interacting with the public! [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_we/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_lig... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4odza8/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4odza8/we_are_the_lig... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6fekz5/science_ama_series_we_are_the_ligo_scientific/ https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6fekz5/science_ama... [4] https://www.laserlabs.org/spacetimequest.php https://www.laserlabs.org/spacetimequest.php [5] http://losc.ligo.org/ http://losc.ligo.org/ [6] https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/gravity-spy https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/gravity-spy