Maintaining My Scientific Curiosity: A brief sojourn into the science behind crime scene investigation

March 31, 2025 girlymicro Education, General, Science Communication CSI, Education, event-planning, forensic science, forensics, gunpowder mills, public engagement, public-speaking, science, science outreach, true crime, USP, Writing

There’s been a bit of a delay posting this one, as it was supposed to come out a couple of weeks ago, but I ended up needing to take a bit of a well-being break. Healthcare Science week was a brilliant blur but full on and, for once, when I went on leave I decided that all work, yes even this blog, needed to be put on hold so I could have a complete break. I hope absence has made the heart grow all the fonder……

Now, onto the science

At the start of Healthcare Science week, my family and I, because they love me, went for a night out to experience a different type of science…..forensic science. I wanted to go to see ‘Walking into a Murder Scene: an evening with Simon Fowler‘ by First Forensic Events for 3 reasons:

The first is that I think it is really helpful to engage with science beyond your discipline for inspiration and ideas. In this case, I’m not a big true crime fan or anything like that, but I was interested in how they deal with technical challenges we both share, such as low volume detection of targets by PCR amplification from human blood, as this could help with sepsis detection in clinical settings.

The second is that I have a long-term plan to write some pathology murder mysteries, by long term, I mean it’s my retirement plan, and so I also thought making some science notes could be helpful as success is mostly in the preparation.

Finally, I try to engage with science outreach wherever I can, no matter what the topic. I wrote a blog here last year about aviation outreach at a massive airshow known as RIAT and what learning that triggered for me. I really believe in seeking out and engaging with these opportunities, firstly because they do a lot to inspire me as to what more I can do. Secondly, because why reinvent the wheel? Learn from others about what works well and how I could switch up what I do. Last and by no means least, if we don’t support these people and these events, they may cease to happen. Finances are tight everywhere, and outreach is increasingly seen as a ‘nice to have’. Numbers talk, and so taking some time out of my day to be there to support others talking science is the least I can do.

The event was the first ones from a group known as First Forensic Events and was, in many ways, a trial run. The house was packed, though, and there was an obvious interest from those attending to just find out more about a world that most do not have access to. It got me thinking and as a result I thought I would focus this blog on what I took away in terms of how we, as scientists and Infection Prevention and Control professionals, could do more in terms of reaching out to a different audience and shedding some light on what we do to lift the veil in a similar way. I often think we don’t talk enough about the fascinating aspects of what it is we do for a living and this event made me realise that we are in position to share that with others and there are people out there who may want to learn more.

Location location location

The first thing I want to talk about is location. This event took place at the Royal Gunpowder Mills, which was objectively brilliant. One, it is not a place that is open that much to access, and so to be able to attend for an event already felt special. Two, it’s a place that’s interesting and quirky, and so even if people aren’t leaving and talking about how great your content is, they are likely to still be talking about what an interesting night they have had. I get pushed all the time to have events in cheaper and less interesting spaces because the costs need to be justified. The truth is, as much as we may dismiss them, locations can make or break events. Therefore, investing in them makes complete sense to me.

One of the reasons that location choice is so important is that it gives you the opportunity to really demonstrate that you have thought about the comfort and experience of your audience. Are there drinks available? What about food? How will people find their way to seats etc? Attendees will focus better on the content if they are not distracted by feeling hungry or thirsty or trying to understand where they need to be. They are also more likely to linger and talk to each other, which is key to both creating a buzz about the event and to permit natural network creation which will encourage future support.

A clear sense of identity

All things tend to be easier or work better if you have a clear sense of identity or what you want to achieve. This works for everything from advertising events and getting people into the room, to how people respond to the event itself. It is therefore worth investing a lot of time in both thought and planning in order to get this right, before diving deep into the practicalities and details.

When we spoke after the session it was clear that Simon’s focus was linked to training. His unique selling point (USP) for the session was to demonstrate not only some of the interesting cases he’d been involved in but also why and how he got into the work he did. He was also very clear that, in the same way we always want to focus on the patient, he wanted to make his sessions about the victims. Simon started off his session by talking about his core values and where he came from, in his case it was that he wanted a military career but that life turned out somewhat differently. He was diagnosed with Perthe’s disease which meant he was no longer eligible for military service, and so he then had to re-focus and choose a different life path. He built the start of his session up around his personal journey into science.

If we were to do something similar for health I think the need to be clear about our USP holds true, and for me, the things that seemed to engage the audience most were a focus on clear story telling with outcomes to show your role and it impacts i.e. what did you do and how did it change things? The other thing that seemed to really fascinate those present was discussion about prioritisation, outcomes and decision making. How do you decide what to do, in what order? How do you make decisions and how did those choices impact the end result? I suppose I’m talking about making thought processes an object of active discussion and raising awareness, rather than maintaining mystery or focusing purely on events. The stuff someone can’t find out by reading up about something on the internet and can only be got from a more intimate discussion based setting.

Back to the fundamentals

Keeping to the basics and planning, lets talk set up. Location is important but so is the staging. Everything from what you are planning to wear, to props and the tech that you will use. Is your outfit comfortable and accessible? Are you going super smart/business, that could be seen as hierarchical? Will you go branded or display your geek like tendencies with, for instance, a CSI T-shirt? All options are fine but they need to fit with your USP. Who are you selling up on that stage? Choose an outfit that fits with deliberation rather than as an accident.

Making the staging visually interesting is useful, especially if people are sitting for a while before everything kicks off. Offering an intriguing set up means that people will engage before you even start, as well as allowing people to speculate what might happen later. Having props that you will use draws your audience in.

It is important at the planning stage to also be considering accessibility. Too many people believe they have a loud enough voice that they don’t need mics etc. That works for some people but there will be people in the audience who you don’t reach and who will find it a barrier to engagement. Mics also allow nuance in terms of being able to go both loud and quiet as needed, rather than focusing constantly on projection. The same with slides if you are using them. Will they be accessible to people who are colour blind? What level of text is appropriate? What fonts may permit engagement? Should you be image heavy? In the case of something linked to criminal cases or health, how much do you show? Gore, surgery, infection etc can be triggering, so consider what level may be needed/appropriate. If you are recording (pictures, video etc) think how this might impact your staging and movement and if it will change your lighting requirements.

During the show itself, when we attended, there were some technical issues as the laptop running the slides stopped working. I think this is everyones worst nightmare, but has also happened to us all at some point. It reinforced for me that if you are relying on tech as part of your staging, you always need to have a plan B about how you will handle things if something happens to that tech. How you will you pivot? Having a plan means that you will be less flustered and therefore impact the experience less for those attending.

Selling credibility

Credibility is everything, whether we realise it or not. Setting up and selling your credentials is an important thing to do both before the event and early on during the establishment phase. Why should we listen? What do you know? What’s your experience….really? There are multiple ways that you can both do this and embed it. Thinking about how you are going to both establish and sell your credibility is something we don’t often consider and may take for granted, but if you are trying to speak to new people, especially outside of your field, it is something to really think about.

One of the great ways that it was done at the First Forensic Event was that someone else whom people may be familiar with, in this case Donal Macintyre, introduced Simon linked to both the event and by covering his skills and expertise. We all use testimonials in every day life and this setting was no different. I’d heard of Macintyre Investigates but as someone who doesn’t engage with a lot of true crime work the name didn’t mean much. It did however mean something to most others there, and he also talked about the TV work and others things Simon had been involved with in order to try to establish wider credentials. This is no different really to someone reading out your bio at a conference, but re-pitched to make it useful to a different crowd, and still well worth doing.

The other thing that Simon did was to acknowledge the other members of his crew. This was important for two reasons. One, because we should acknowledge that we are not single person armies and the work and support provided by others. It makes you not only more approachable but also acknowledges the work undertaken by other people to get us to where we are. In this particular case however there was another important purpose in acknowledging the other people who were involved, and that was to enhance the credibility of the event itself. The other people involved in First Forensic Events are other forensic scientists and police detectives, which aid to further establish credibility by inclusion in networks and experience. If others are willing to add their names to your events then it also demonstrates their backing and investment in your undertaking.

A story in three acts

We’ve reached the nitty gritty. How will you actually structure your event to achieve your outcomes? What are you trying to achieve? Simon was clear that it wasn’t just about factual presentation, but about him and his journey as a scientist. I think that was a really good decision and something that many of us as scientists should consider when working up our presentations. We are not science in isolation from ourselves, and so bringing your full self to these events is bound to be more impactful, and also helps to engage your audience more. For this purpose the session was structured around stories, stories about self, stories about action, and stories about impact. This kind of story based structure enabled the audience to really engage as the human ability to engage with oral tradition goes back to us sitting around campfires and learning through listening to tales.

The first third was based around learning who Simon was, what drove him and how he got into his work as a scientist. Fundamentally this section is about building of rapport as well credential building. It also enables the audience to settle in and for an expectation setting phase to be undertaken. The second third was a practical session. This is where Simon demonstrated some practical aspects of what a bludgeoning event could cause in terms of blood splatter, and scene investigation. This enabled a change in pace and energy, which breaks things up for people as they will have been sitting for some time at this point and changes it from being a didactic slide presentation. It also means people go into the break with a level of introduction of what may be discussed in more detail post break and therefore your audience can choose how much information they are comfortable with, and gives an exit opportunity if needed. This gives detail without inclusion of people or actual harm, and therefore allows engagement without emotional risk. The final section, post interval, was based on actual cases, still rooted in technical discussion, which supports focus on facts rather than emotion. This type of structure supports engagement and gradual submersion rather than attempting to shock.

Speaking to the room

This brings us onto the audience. How do we speak in a way that allows the audience to truly engage. I’ve talked about structure but there are other things that can help. The first thing we can do is do some scene setting. Making sure at the start of the session that everyone know how the event is going to work and what the rules are. This includes some basic things like telling people that there will be an interval, what time it will be and how long it will run for, so everyone can make sure they know how long they’ll need to engage. In the case of this particular event it also included scene setting around what might be shown and discussed, making clear the level of imagery etc in order to reassure and expectation manage. It also included being very clear that it was completely OK for people to leave and return at any point, as people may be triggered by different things, different memories, in order to reduce distraction by discomfort or concern about whether removing yourself would be acceptable. It also included the fact that there would be a Q and A, and that Simon and his team would be available for questions both within the event and during the breaks.

As with any science event it is worth doing what you can to avoid exclusion of your audience by thinking about how you will use technical terms and being weary of abbreviations. Many of us use abbreviations without even thinking about it as part of our engagement (I used the term PCR earlier) as it is part of our language. Those in the audience are less likely to have the same shared language however, especially if you are reaching out to a new audience. Making sure you allow time to explain any technical terms you are going to utilise is a key thing to practice. When you think you have explained enough you are likely to need to explain even further. As someone who doesn’t work in law enforcement some of the terms and abbreviations used in this event didn’t mean anything to me. That didn’t really impact my understanding or get in the way of the outcomes however, but made me remember how healthcare is filled with exactly the same barriers to full understanding, and that I need to be more careful about how I talk about my job also.

One way to make sure that you get feedback on how to improve and make tweaks on things like language is by making sure that the first time you do anything you add plenty of cheer leaders/critical friends into your audience. These people can flag and help you improve for future events, as well as providing some reassurance and friendly faces in the room to help alleviate your anxiety.

Maintaining accessibility

I’ve talked about accessibility already in terms of supporting your audience to logistically engage, but now I’m talking about connection. How do we make sure that we allow participants to connect with us, feel engaged with us, and fully share in the event. There are some key ways that I think this can be done, although sometimes it can be scary. I think the key one for me is allowing yourself to show vulnerability. Sharing enough of yourself that others can start to see you as a person. This includes sharing things such as values and drivers, but also sharing failure and things that did not go so well. Allowing people to see you as a person and not just a role.

The other part of this is being open and able to laugh at yourself, and allowing others to join you in that moment. All of this can be really shown in less structured moments. Moments where you make yourself available to engage 1:1 in breaks etc. Also, in a more open way by including moments where audience members can fully participate in things like Q and A’s. I always find it helpful to set parameters for these. Being open about the fact that there is nothing off limits, especially with kids. So they can ask what my favourite colour, is or how much I earn, or what I find the hardest, without restricting them to the science. Setting boundaries and expectations in general means that everyone knows what the rules are. Can you use your phone? Can people take pictures? Can people leave? All of which enables people to focus on engagement rather than attempting to predict what’s in or out of scope.

Pitching your future

How does it end? You’ve made it through, you’ve shown your full self. Hopefully you’ve felt that the audience engaged. You’ve made it through the Q and A. What do you do now? You need to make sure that you provide another opportunity to engage in the future whilst everyone is still paying attention. This is the moment to link to other opportunities, but this means you need to have those other opportunities set up and ready to share. What I’m saying is, as much as it’s crucial to focus on the right now, to make a real success out of events like these you need to be able to provide the next thing. So making sure you’ve planned ahead and have something else to sign post to is a key stepping stone to success.

Even if you don’t have another event planned you need to make sure you are thinking about marketing. What is your social media? Do you have a web page? Where can people go to find out more, either about you or about your future planning? Making sure that you have these things set up so that people can continue the engagement that they’ve started means that this is less likely to be a one off and more something that will be a stepping stone to future engagement. Having shown who you are and having brought people into your world, the logical thing is to make sure you have a plan for showing people what’s next.

So much that links us

So after all that, what did I think of forensic science. When I go to any of these things, what always strikes me is that we have so much that links us. Whether we are acting as detectives in finding an infection or a criminal linked to a crime scene, we are actually following very similar thinking and processes. We even use some similar techniques. I walked away thinking that I had been involved in a super cool event, but also struck by how brilliant it would be to do something similar for healthcare, and whether there would be anyone out there interested in setting something up. I left, as I almost always do, with my mind on fire with ideas and inspiration, and I wish to do so much more than I currently do. It reminded me how much we need to put ourselves out there and be brave. More than that even, it reminded me of how much the work we do is fascinating, and how interesting it would probably be to those that have never traveled in our footsteps. Perhaps even more so after the pandemic. So step up and step out, your audience awaits you!

All opinions in this blog are my own

Infection Representation in Popular Culture: Why infection and infection risks, as discussed in movies and TV, may matter more than you think

November 11, 2024 girlymicro General, Microbiology (Clinical), Science Communication Contagion, covid, covid-19, epidemic, film, fungi, health, IMDB, infection, infection movies, Last of Us, movies, Outbreak, pandemic, parasites, public engagement, Rise of Planet of the Apes, The Strain, TV, virus

It has not been a great week for science, with many of us being concerned about how the presence of a vaccine denier on the successful ticket to the white house will impact public health initiatives and the quality of science communication in general. I’ve been thinking a lot about how we got here and how, even more than previously, embedding good science into mediums that are routinely accessed by the majority, will be crucial in ensuring the reach of accurate science communication when some of the more standard public health routes are bound to suffer in the coming years.

I think it will be a surprise to none of you that I am a bit of a lover of TV and movies, we’ve also covered a number of book reviews linked to this blog, and I like nothing better than snuggling down with a good book and a cup of Darjeeling. What does any of this have to do with anything? Infection, infection control, and science in general is a huge chunk of my every day, but this isn’t the case for everyone, or even most people. Many people are passive absorbers, meaning that they may not search out information but take on board when they encounter it when going about their lives. This means that the quality of what they encounter may be hugely variable, depending on how and where this happens. I’ve previously talked about the quality of the science in some of the books I enjoy, including the News Flesh series, as well as posting last week about how infection control is represented the Alien movies for Halloween. These are fun posts to do, but it made me think of the most popular movies that are linked to infection out there. How good is the science they represent? and by doing this better, could we support science literacy in general?

IMDB list of Top 25 Virus/Pandemic/Epidemic/Infection Movies

In order to think about this more detail I hit the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) which contains all kinds of lists, including a top 25 of Virus/Pandemic/Epidemic/Infection Movies (https://www.imdb.com/list/ls094715071/)

Outbreak (1995)
Contagion (2011)
Carriers (2009)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
The Crazies (2010)
28 Days Later (2002)
28 Weeks Later (2007)
I Am Legend (2007)
[Rec] (2007)
Doomsday (2008)
World War Z (2013)
Snowpiercer (2013) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as it’s linked to climate change)
Train to Busan (2016)
Resident Evil (2002)
Mimic (1997) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as its linked to biocontrol…)
Blindness (2008) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as its more Day of the Triffids than infection)
The Invasion (2007)
It Comes at Night (2017)
A Quiet Place (2018) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as it’s an alien invasion film)
Bird Box (2018) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as it’s an unknown enemy film that does not appear to be linked to infection)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
The Happening (2008) (Girlymicro comment – I don’t know that this should count as it’s pheromones/intoxication rather than infection)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
The Last of Us (2023)

Now, I have only seen 16/25 of these, Mr Girlymicro has seen 22/25, so between us we have most of these, so hopefully I’ll be to comment from a position of knowledge on a fair few of these. Before we even start however, as you can see from my commentary on this list, the poor science starts early during the classification of some of these as infection movies, even before we start to talk about the science content of the movie/show itself. Firstly, let’s look at the name of the list = Top 25 Virus/Pandemic/Epidemic/Infection Movies and how it related to the actual definition.

The CDC defines an epidemic as:

An increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in a specific population and area.

An outbreak, which carries the same definition as an epidemic, but is often used for a more limited geographic area.

The CDC suggests epidemics occur when an agent and susceptible hosts are present in adequate numbers, and the agent can be effectively conveyed from a source to the susceptible hosts. Whereas a pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people. The starting epidemic is usually due to a combination of factors including:

A recent increase in amount or virulence of the agent,

The recent introduction of the agent into a setting where it has not been before,

An enhanced mode of transmission so that more susceptible persons are exposed,

A change in the susceptibility of the host response to the agent, and/or

Factors that increase host exposure or involve introduction through new portals of entry

So you can see from the above that a number of movies on this list don’t actually count under the terms linked with to the title. Some of them are alien invasion, some of them are climate change related, and one is even on the topic of bioremediation. Yet there they are on the list.

For some of the others, I’ve already covered their concept during my Zombie post, so I’m not going to go through these in this blog, but focus instead on the ones that fulfill the epidemic based criteria. That said, give me a shout if you’d like a more in-depth zombie comparison post as Train to Busan is an awesome movie, and I’ll accept any excuse to re-watch it.

Let’s start at the very beginning

The first film on the list is Outbreak, a film that came out in 1995, with a description of ‘A team of Army doctors struggle to find a cure for the deadly Motaba virus that was transported from Africa to North America by a white-headed Capuchin monkey and is now spreading quickly throughout a small California town.’

This movie has an amazing cast, but I have to say I don’t want any of them in my team if it came to trying to lock down a high risk infection from an unknown source (vector). In terms of the escape monkey component. You’d think that it is far fetched, and if you’d asked me yesterday I would have said just that, but just today on BBC News there was a story on 43 escaped monkeys from a research lab in the US. So far fetched it may be, but not unheard of, in the case of vector escape.

Even if the vector component may not be quite as unlikely as I’d previously thought, I’d like to say that the rest of the practice in this is highly suspect at times. That said, I do have to admit, that I once went to a talk by a scientist who was looking for viral transmission sources of haemorrhagic fevers in Africa. They showed pictures of the table where they performed autopsies on found deceased animals in the jungle, under the same canopy as the table where they then sat down for dinner. So, as much as the way that high consequence infectious diseases (Ebola etc) are not portrayed as accurately as I’d like, maybe this is a movie of its time, as was that lecture. I really want to enjoy this movie, as it so defined how many of us had our first introduction to outbreaks and what they could mean, but almost 30 years on I don’t think I could recommend the scientific accuracy it portrays. The fact that this is still the top rated movie does not bode well for our scientific literacy hopes.

What a difference a decade makes

Almost 15 years after Outbreak, Contagion was released in 2011. This was the first of the infection movies on this list that I saw after I’d started working within Infection Prevention and Control. Contagion is described as ‘Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure.’ I remember going to see this with a scientist friend and whooping out loud at the explanation of an R0, it gave me so much joy I was shushed by someone else in the cinema, to my ongoing shame.

The CDC defines an R0 as ‘The basic reproduction number (R 0), also called the basic reproduction ratio or rate or the basic reproductive rate, is an epidemiological metric used to describe the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious agents.’ So, see if you share my joy at how the movie explains what this is, in a way that is so much more approachable than the CDC definition:

This film is not perfect, I clearly remember losing my mind about the glove use at one point, and SPOILER ALERT, it was that poor glove use that meant I was OK with one of the characters dying, but the underlying science is well explained and some of the approaches to containment and vaccination are definitely well routed in evidence. The differences in the quality of embedded science between Outbreak and Contagion are highly noticeable. Part of me wonders if some of the drivers for this heightened quality is linked to awareness of the topic due to the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, or whether this was part of a wider shift towards improved factual grounding in these kinds of movies.

When talking to Mr Girlymicro about this movie, whilst writing this post, he has pointed out that despite my enjoyment he found it an act of ultimate depression which he will not be watching again, and that was when he watched it before the pandemic. It may therefore be, something that triggered my science joy may, in fact, be too depressing or triggering for other reasons to equate to true enjoyment for the general public. This may be an example of something that could risk being dis-engaging by being too close to the truth, despite being second on the IMDB list. Especially in a post pandemic world, this is a line that may prove difficult to walk and prove to be a barrier to movies and TV on this topic being commissioned in the short to medium term.

A completely different movie about primates

Still on viruses and re-visiting our primate theme from Outbreak comes Rise of the Planet of the Apes , which was also a 2011 release. It came out the same year as Contagion, and in the same discussion as Mr Girlymicro stated he would not re-watch that movie, for all the accuracy of it’s science, he would watch Rise repeatedly, and I can testify that in fact he has. Rise has the following description ‘A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.’ This is a really interesting addition to the category, as the pandemic aspects of it are mainly actually addressed in the closing credits which demonstrate how a pandemic can spread across the globe, with the film very much focused on the human (and primate) story behind the build up.

This film utilises a viral vector to try to address and revert brain abnormalities linked to Alzheimer’s, with a scientist desperately trying to find a cure for his father, whilst undertaking clinical trials on primates. Now, the clinical trial aspects of this film could not be further from the reality, and any scientist caught undertaking clinical trials and then sneaking the medication to treat their father would at best be fired and at worst been imprisoned. Somehow, because of the focus on the relationships rather than the science, the bad science in this movie bothers me significantly less than that represented in Outbreak, possibly because it feels deliberately portrayed as more like science fiction than science fact. There are some aspects of science to this one that I find interesting and like. The idea of a vaccine or medication behaving differently across species barriers is something that is interesting and could be deeply seated in evidence based plot-lines. I am aware, in this age of post truth and vaccine denial, having a film that focuses on how a vaccine or treatment could end life as we know it may not play into the goals I’m wishing to achieve using popular culture.

Let’s not forget about fungi

In recent years there’s been a rise in the quality of TV and the amount of choice has exploded, especially on streaming and other services. The switch to being able to film big budget TV over shorter film equivalents has provided storytellers with the capacity to really explore bigger and more complex tales that may not have been possible in under 3 hours.

This is last and most recent entry onto the IMDB list and is also the only TV entrant. It is our first step away from the world of viruses, into the world of mycology and all things fungal. The Last of Us came out in 2023, although it’s based on a computer game that was released in 2013. The series is set ‘after a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity’s last hope.’ This is therefore a great combination of the way different mediums impact popular culture. The plot asks big questions about how far you would go to get a cure for the world, how much is one persons life versus the possible saving of mankind. It’s a real homage to the power that vaccination could hold to impact the world, and how when one isn’t available how desperately people might act in the search for a cure. This is the only entry on the list that came about post pandemic, and I think it is because of that (despite being a parallel to the game) that really resonates on where that desperation comes from, and despite the current vaccine back lash, shows how different outcomes could be.

The very first scenes of the series are a flashback interview from before the pandemic where a scientist talks about what they think the next bit pandemic will be, and I have to say the whole scene brings me unacceptable levels of science joy.

Anyway, this one played so much into my particular ball park that I worked with Liv Gaskill at ID Transmission on a series of articles that talked about the science behind both the Last of Us computer game and the resulting TV series, which pretty closely followed the same plot. This four part series was a real joy to be involved with and so I’m hoping that you might enjoy them too:

https://www.idtransmission.com/understanding/tlou-tales–episode-1-the-culprit-of-humanitys-downfall

https://www.idtransmission.com/understanding/tlou-tales–episode-2-the-devil-is-in-the-details

https://www.idtransmission.com/understanding/tlou-tales–episode-3-the-realities-of-the-last-of-us

https://www.idtransmission.com/understanding/tlou-tales–episode-4-living-with-the-living-dead

I wonder if fungi will be increasingly represented in this genre a) due to the success of The Last of Us and b) as viruses feel a little too close to home these days and so the fungal world might feel like a safer sand box to play around in. This could provide a safe way to have accurate science portrayal, alongside entertainment, as the real prospect of a fungal pandemic is thankfully pretty small.

A shocking oversight

We’ve reached the end of the list, but not the end of the blog post as I want to address an appalling over sight on the IMDB list, and that is the omission of The Strain on the list. This is also a TV series, where season 1 was released in 2014, covered a series of 3 books, and ran for 4 seasons. The series is described as ‘A mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism ravages the city of New York.’

The strain – episode one, season one

There are many reasons why I love this series (and at some point I should do a vampirism and infection blog to include things like Ultraviolet) is that some of the main characters are epidemiologists linked to the CDC and so some of the science exposition as part of the job based discussions is very pleasing. The other reason I like this series is there is a definite bait and switch, in terms of the causative agent, with all the initial dialogue being linked to your standard viral outbreak, with a gradual reveal that the culprit is actually a parasite. This adds a layer of interest as the approaches to dealing with transmission really start to reflect this, and provide an interesting change as the characters are also forced to pivot and discuss the differences. So, the use of a non-viral infection is not as unique as some of the coverage of The Last of Us may imply. That said, the general science outside of the epidemiology in this definitely becomes more to serve the horror plot than feasibility as time progresses.

Where are the bacteria?

You’ve survived ~3000 words of outbreak talk, covering viruses, fungi and even parasites. You may however be struck by the lack of bacterial cause in any of these listings. I’ve been thinking about this whilst I’ve been writing this blog and I’ve come up with a few thoughts as to why this might be the case:

Too close to home – many people have experienced bacterial infections themselves in their loved ones, sometimes with tragic consequences. It may be hard to therefore suspend belief enough to enjoy the offering. I wonder if this will be true to an extent for viruses now, or whether popular culture will be a safe way to explore collective trauma linked to the pandemic
Too slow – one of the features of many of the scenarios in these movies and shows is that the impact to fast and significant. This an important aspect of making events have real risk and in raising tensions. If accurately portrayed bacterial infections may be too slow in their impact OR the deterioration is so quick there is insufficient time for viewer engagement
Not dramatic enough – bacterial transmission (as described by R0) are not going to be as dramatic as their viral counterparts, so if you subscribe to ‘go big or go home’ this transmission route is probably not the one to drive a sprawling plot-line forward
Too commonly encountered – there are 101 medical shows which have bacterial infections and their consequences featured and so they may be too close to a different genre
The science is pretty hard to get right – as people are more familiar with the topic the less story flexibility there is and the greater the need to not be too jarring for those you are trying to engage. At least in the UK, many people will have been taught about Typhoid Mary and the John Snow Cholera outbreak, and so may have some familiarity. It may also be that these also make people think of the past, and this is not the feel many of these properties are trying to evoke.

So maybe bacteria are a harder sell, although I’d be intrigued to throw a little antibiotic resistance into the mix, or some bacterial toxin related drama and then see what cool things could be done as a result. Maybe that might be my future project 🙂 Let me know if you think that there is a bacterial based film/series that I’ve missed.

All opinions in this blog are my own

Would You Let Them In? Celebrating Halloween by discussing what not to do in infection control as modelled in the Alien movies

November 3, 2024 girlymicro General, Healthcare Science, Microbiology (Clinical), Science Communication alien, alien movies, alien-romulus, Aliens, halloween, horror movies, infection, infection control, movie science, movies, parasites, public engagement, science-fiction

It’s Halloween weekend, and in previous years I’ve talked about all things Zombie and infection transmission. This year, though, I thought we talked about something a little different, infection control precautions through the lens of the Alien movie series. Most importantly, I’m going to talk about those initial interactions with the unknown that we frequently see in both these movies and in infection prevention and control (IPC), and whether we too would open the door when someone presents at the air lock?

Spoiler warning! This post is going to mention things that happen in various Alien movies. If you haven’t seen them it may, therefore, contain spoilers – the best way to deal with this oversight in your viewing (if you are concerned) is to just get out there and watch them as Alien is the same age as me 😁

This post was inspired by watching Alien Romulus again this weekend, which, if you haven’t seen it is the best Alien movie in forever.

In preparation for the cinema release I also did a re-watch of a number of the movies in the franchise. Just in case you are less familiar, and inspired to do the same, the list includes a variety of films in different sub-genres as listed below:

Original series:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Alien vs. Predator movies:
Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Prometheus movies:
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Romulus (2024)

So the big question is…..does life imitate art?

Whilst watching these I was struck by a number of moments that made me think about behaviours during the pandemic, but also tales of heard of some activities that occurred during the response to the Ebola pandemic and other high risk clinical settings. Not all of these moments would have been massively out of place, in terms of parallels with these films, and demonstrate that both risk assessment and clarity of thinking can be impacted and lead to responses outside of what would be normally expected.

The thing to remember is that there are usually protocols for just about everything, so most of the decision-making should occur and have been thought out long before the situation ever arises. The problems are almost always linked to human factors in the way we respond to stress and unexpected situations, and when the protocols appear to go out the window. So, just like every character and every space ship in the Alien franchise has a protocol for how to behave when they encounter new life, strange situations or sick crew members, every healthcare facility also has protocols to help deal with illnesses we see less often or that get issued when new diseases are encountered. Healthcare facilities may not have air locks, but they do have labs and isolation facilities, so the parallels may be more present than you’d imagine.

Infection is not always obvious

One of the first themes that recurs throughout all the movies is that infection is not always obvious, either to those on the other side of the air lock, or to the individuals outside waiting to come in. Infection with the parasite sometimes occurs when the stars of our show are unconscious, be that due to trauma or medical interventions, and so they are unaware of the Facehugger on character action that has occurred.

In terms of IPC the same if frequently true, both for viruses and bacteria. Some viruses have what is known as a pre-symptomatic phase, where you are infectious to others before you even know you are sick. This was a big problem in the early stages of the SARS CoV2 pandemic. Even for bacteria, when we talk about antibiotic resistant bacteria, most people are colonised and have the potential to act as silent sources without even knowing it, with only small numbers going on to develop infections.

The truth is not always apparent

Even when an individual knows that something has happened, and are aware of their close encounter with Alien kind, the truth of their scenario may still not be apparent to either them or to others. If you look at the Facehugger situation, surely once the terrifying creature has dropped off without apparent poor consequences, then everyone breaths a sign of relief and is grateful for the near miss, not knowing that this is only the beginning. When you combine this with the fact that some people will determine this to be a low risk event and therefore not want to disclose, as they are aware of the inconvenience that will result, you end up in situations where not all the information is available.

This can also be true in real life clinical situations. Patients may not know they have been exposed. Patients may also present with symptoms that they haven’t recognised as significant, or that they have risk assessed themselves and decided they aren’t concerned about and so don’t disclose. This can happen more easily they you think, especially at the start of something, where patients don’t feel particularly unwell, or they just have a couple of vesicles/small rash. In the latter stages, when patients are presenting because they feel unwell, they may be confused or not always able to accurately disclose what’s happened. Occasionally, this may be a deliberate attempt to withhold personal details, but most often it’s because they are rightly focussed on how they are feeling in the moment. Plus, if you asked me to accurately recall everyone I met and everything I ate a week ago, I’m not sure I could, even when well.

By the time you realise the condition is a threat it may already be a risk/out of control

One of the consistent themes across all of the movies is that situations get out of control before anyone truly understands the situation and the risks. It’s only when the person that you breached protocol for suddenly starts to writhe and the horror stands before you in all its glory do you truly understand the implications of the decisions you’ve made. At that point you are trapped in your glass med bay with a growing Alien and your self recriminations are not going to save your life.

This one is a rather more dramatic version of some of the conversations that happen amongst healthcare workers when you phone to give results and have conversations about whether patients had been in the right precautions and the staff member was wearing the right personal protective equipment (PPE). There have definitely been times when staff have made a risk assessment and not followed the protocols about what PPE to wear and have then responded to these phone calls with ‘what can you do?’ in relation to the exposure. Sadly, in some cases there is nothing that can be done once the guidance has been bypassed but to wait and see, which is the reason for the guidance in the first place. Fortunately, for most scenario’s in the real world, the consequence isn’t bloody horror, death and an alien threat to mankind.

Risk assessment is linked to risk management

One of the reasons that protocols are in place in the Alien movies is that someone, somewhere, has obviously recognised the risk of infection in a small contained community where everyone interacts and lives on top of each other. Even in Aliens, when you’re talking about somewhere the size of a colony, this principle stands. This is because you are unlikely to be able to access a clinical trial on a mining ship, or develop a novel antiviral on terraforming mission, even if what you’re importing is a more traditional style of infection, versus an Alien parasite. The extent of the risk mitigations needed will always align to the risk itself. If you are concerned about an introducing something that is untreatable, then your measures are going to be much more extreme than if your infection is likely to just mean someone goes to bed and takes paracetamol for a weekend. If you can’t treat, then prevention is your only option. After 9 movies there doesn’t appear to be a Xenomorph (Alien) cure and so measures taken to prevent allowing one into your space need to match the risk they present.

This approach is definitely seen in response to infection in IPC. If you have a condition that spreads easily, rapidly and can be incapacitating for a period (i.e. norovirus) then you will use a different set of precautions to those that you use to manage something which may not be as transmittable but is untreatable or has life threatening consequences such as a haemorrhagic fever. Having conversations and being open with people about the risks of getting things wrong and ensuring that individuals understand why responses are different in different circumstances are a key requirement for people working in IPC, and something I think we should all endeavour to do better at. I think the days of asking people to blindly follow protocols should probably be behind us, as I think the Alien movies demonstrate that if people don’t get the why, they often ignore some of the core components based on external drivers

So, what lessons can we learn?

Beware of acting on incomplete information

Decisions are consistently made in these movies based on incomplete information, which leads them to underestimate both risk and consequences. A great example of this is the way people use information related to the black goo, especially in Alien Romulus, maybe don’t inject yourself with a substance that doesn’t have a proper name let alone a full data set for you to understand what it does. The other thing is that information is often treated as static, and so there is very little rapid inclusion of new info, rather than being mindful of an iterative response to new data, so help constantly inform and improve your risk assessment. It’s always worth being conscious of when is enough is enough when it comes to information and decision making.

Emotions get in the way of logic

During the movie Covenant, the entire crew is made up of couples. I get this in terms of colonisation, but in terms of good decision making, and in relation to risk this is just a one way route to bad outcomes. There’s a reason that in a certain Zombie series husbands have kept their zombie wives locked in basements rather than removing the risk to them and others. There’s a reason medical professionals should not manage their loved ones. Emotions interfere with logic, and there is no way under this setting you are managing to make decisions without your emotions getting in the way. It’s a reminder that if we become aware that we are in an emotive place, it may be the time to step away and take a deep breath, before making that judgement call or even tap out entirely and allow someone more removed to take our place.

The contrast between human emotional decision making and evidence based decision making, usually undertaken by the android cast, is beautifully explored during Romulus via Andys story arch and is one of the highlights for me in terms of enjoyment.

Science doesn’t change based on how much you wish the outcome to be different

One of the reasons that emotional involvement in decision making can be so challenging is that it can interfere with perspective and accurate interpretation of risk, thus impacting risk perception. Sadly the truth that wishing does not impact outcomes is hard to argue with, but it is human to try to persuade ourselves we have more control and ability to influence the outcome than we do. Under stress, our natural tendencies towards pessimism or optimism are definitely amplified. All of this means that when there is someone at the door banging and begging to be admitted, it is easy to persuade ourselves there is a) enough time to manage to open the door safely and b) the consequences of opening said door will not be as bad as we fear. Emotions don’t change outcomes but we are almost programmed to hope that they can.

An individual will always want to be the 1 in a million

The reason someone opens the door is the same reason that when one character looks at another and utters the fateful and true words ‘it’s too late’, and it almost definitely is, neither one acts before everything gets out of control. Humans are not good at dealing with numbers and risk when they are actively involved in the situation. One of the reasons we aren’t in that we throw sentences around saying it is a 1/million chance. We, as humans, have a tendency to focus the fact that, although it is a long shot, there is a chance that things can go your way. Sadly, as someone who has experienced the opposite, where my sister died in a 1/10,000 pregnancy, someone always need to be the one. The stats work both ways, whereas most of us survive in the world by only focussing on one side of the equation. This therefore impacts our capacity to evaluate any risk in situations we are involved with. Somebody always bears the cost and few of us can bear the vulnerability of acknowledging that that somebody could be us.

The people with the most experience are not always the ones making the decisions

One of the other main themes in these movies is that decisions, when not being made by friend and loved ones, are often being made by people in positions of power, not necessarily based on knowledge or even accepting of prior experience. This works well or not so well based on how well they listen to those who do have the information to help improve their decision making. Chains of command, especially in high stakes scenarios, are not necessarily bad, as we’ve already talked about the risks linked to emotional decision making, but so much depends on how well they work and how they place value on evidence based choices rather than hierarchy.

The other theme here is the trusting of unknown sources, especially ones with no evidence of expertise, over those who have either lived experience or expertise. I think this one resonates a lot right now, when there are so many sources of misinformation out there, and so many conspiracy theories that rely on speculation and rumour. Fact checking is key, be that on a space ship or deciding on your vaccination options.

Not everyone has the same thought processes

One of the other reasons decision making goes astray in these movies is because those involved in that decision making often have undisclosed values, beliefs or drivers that are impacting their choices, and this process is not always obvious to those others involved. This is true from androids that may or may not be obviously androids and who will have programmed ‘primary directive’, as well those working for the corporation. This is interesting as they often have more complete information than the others involved, as well as seeing the situation through a different lens because of how they view the world. This means that they can see others as disposable or views risks different, as they have a set of criteria that they wish to achieve which is more than just survival. Although in clinical life the juxtaposition is rarely so extreme, the challenge of reaching alignment when people come with different world views can definitely impact shared decision making.

Smart people can do stupid things

Having said all of that, smart people can in general do stupid things, even without all of these complications. Even when the experts are the ones making the decisions they can still make the wrong ones, especially when tired, stressed, or lacking all the information. This is the reason why protocols are key, drawn up and decided upon when all of the confounders to good decision making are not present.

You need to follow the standard operation procedures

In the end this entire post has been a very very long way of saying ‘JUST FOLLOW THE SOP!’

Many of these movies but have been much shorter with a much reduced body count, if those involved had just followed the pre-established procedures laid down for their safety. Obviously, we don’t have so many Xenomorphs as a daily risk factor in healthcare, but the same is true for us. SOPs are rarely there for the sake of it, they are there to support decision making so that in times of stress or information overload, you are not having to seek extra information to support good decision making, you have it freely pre-digested and available to you. So the next time you think twice about donning that PPE or the closing that isolation room door, ask yourself ‘would you open the airlock door?’, think twice and do the right thing.

And now for something completely different

Finally, because this is something that has amused me whilst watching these films and is probably not something that I can talk about in general down the pub. The computer in the Alien movies is usually referred to as Muthur, pronounced Mother. I just want to share my joy that the analysis software that is used to help analyse 16S rDNA runs, to give you microbiome analysis i.e. tell you what bacteria are present in your sample, is called Mothur, and also pronounced Mother. I’m sure the two things have nothing to do with each other, but allow me my scientific joy that something which was so ‘other world’ when it came out to me as a scientist has the same name as something imagined from ‘another world’.

Also, if anyone needs a science advisor on their next project, give me a shout as this post has brought me much joy and I think I may have missed my calling 🙂

All opinions in this blog are my own

Tea, Pimms, Science and Planes: Why we should use new opportunities to talk science outside of classrooms

July 29, 2024July 28, 2024 girlymicro Education, General, Science Communication aviation, engineering, outreach, planes, public engagement, RAF, RIAT, STEM

Many of us are coming up against a lot of challenge when we are talking to patients and the public about science right now. Post pandemic, so many people just respond that they are ‘done’ and that everything is over now. The thing is, nothing is ‘done’, we are in another SARS CoV2 wave, measles is everywhere, and Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough) has already killed a number of previously healthy children this year. Sadly, infectious diseases don’t go away when we have had enough of them impacting our lives. So what can we do? How can we have these conversations differently?

I was at RIAT (Royal International Air Tattoo) last weekend for Mr Girlymicros’ birthday, and like the scientist I am, I couldn’t help but make some time to see what their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) offering was, and I was pleased to find it was so so much larger than I had expected.

The first thing they had was an entire interactive STEM tent, called the Tech Zone, which also included an area called the Inspire Stage. This stage had full days of talks and interactive sessions covering a large range of ways to talk and engage audiences about STEM using an aviation focus.

https://www.airtattoo.com/the-airshow/plan-your-visit/show-info-hub/inspire-stage-saturday/

In addition to the talks and activities, they had something I’ve never had access to before, an entire area dedicated to science planes!!!!

Spending time attending activities, talks and walking around the planes has got me thinking, what things do you need to think about if you are running an event like this? Why do they offer advantages over standard school based teaching? What could we learn in order to think about how we talk about some of our big science challenges differently, and how could this be relevant to infection prevention and control (IPC) and microbiology?

Designing your day

During an event like this, you need to know that attendance will ebb and flow. It’s before 9 and I’m the only person here at this point, but it will get really busy as the day goes on. It is important therefore to be able to flex your expectations and approaches based on who ends up in the room in front of you. You may also need to bear in mind, when designing your session, that people may turn up late or leave early to see something else, and therefore your session needs to make sense to someone who hasn’t seen it from start to finish.

Because of this drop in and out set up, you are unlikely to get to keep people’s attention for long, so you need to plan short activities or sessions. What they may look like will depend if you have a stall with people who are walking by, where you may get them for 5 minutes, or a talk with seating where you might get 20 minutes. Making any session consist of small blocks of no more than 5 minutes, will probably stand you in good stead to be able to engage whomever is there in the moment. Either way what you are planning needs to be fun, well pitched and ideally interactive, so that the audience feel like they are part of what is going on. They have a lot of options about other places they could be after all.

You need to bring people in

It’s important to acknowledge that different people are likely to want different things and ensure that you have a spread of different sessions that will appeal across different types of audiences. The Inspire stage had everything from the Red Arrows to knitting in space, and so serviced a wide audience. They also had a range of very interactive sessions, to ones that were more like interviews, and the interaction was therefore limited to asking questions. When choosing how to put together an agenda like this one, it’s worth thinking about what is going on elsewhere. The sessions with an England international rugby player and a pop star were scheduled when a lot of display teams were flying. Display teams are a big draw and so you may need an equally big draw to keep people in your tent when they could be elsewhere. You may also be less likely to schedule your interactive kids activities over a lunch time slot, as children are more likely to need to eat at a regular time and so are less likely to be available and may be less settled even if they are.

You need to know who you are trying to speak to

The other thing you need to decide when you are putting together your agenda is who you are actually trying to speak to? The age range, interests, and backgrounds at events like this are broad, and so you need to decide are you trying to appeal to everyone? In which case you will need different sessions that speak to different groups. You could decide instead to only target families, children, or students. All of these decisions are completely valid, but they need to be consciously made, as they impact on the content and level of embedded interaction which will be required.

I was speaking to Fran from Great Scott! Productions afterwards about the challenges of this, and she talked about how important it is to also allow the audience to always feel like they are slightly ahead of you. This enables them to feel comfortable and can give them the confidence to engage with interactions and ask questions. No one wants to sit through a session where they don’t feel like they know what is going on or be made to feel stupid for not following. Pitching your content correctly is super important.

Invisible or hard to understand concepts

Keeping your audience on board and following your train of thought is key. One of the great ways they did this over the weekend was by having segments that enabled the audience to visualise usually invisible concepts, such as energy use. One example of how they did this, was by using thermal detection from a plug socket using a camera to show energy in the form of heat. This is a great way to bring theory to life and an approach we can think about in terms of how it is applicable to infection. So many of our challenges are invisible and, therefore, hard to cognitively tackle. Making the invisible visible is a great starting point when talking about topics such as antimicrobial resistance or vaccination.

Demonstrate diversity and break down stereotypes

Many children are put off engaging in STEM topics because they don’t see reflections of themselves in the people they see talking about these subjects on TV or in the movies. Historically, there have been a lot of white men occupying this space. Events like this are a great chance to break down some of these stereotypes in order to show that anyone can undertake any of these careers. To allow people to feel seen.

My two minor niggles with the agenda for this event were that the main pull was occupied by interviews between white men. I get why. I get that you need your big ticket numbers to compete with the outside draw. I do think they could have sandwiched a session demonstrating diversity and inclusion between them. This would have meant this session may have had a bigger audience than might have been achieved otherwise, and therefore supported impact. My other comment was that, although gender diversity felt well represented, I’m not sure other diversity aspects were. That being said, I know how hard it is to get this balancing act right, and some of your speakers are always based on your networks, so it is not easy to achieve.

Engage parents as well as kids

Running events, like Reach Out for Healthcare Science, has made me aware that even when targeting events at children, it is so important to include parents in the conversation. Parental influence on career choices are really strong, and you can inspire someone, but if their parent doesn’t know what that career looks like, it can lead to nothing. Having interactive areas that include careers information to also get parents onboard can mean that you impact in a longer term way.

To a certain extent, at an air show, you probably have a lot of low hanging fruit to talk about careers in aviation, but they can also lead to wider conversations about engineering in general, or other sciences. It is a great place to have the ‘have you thought about’ conversation in order to expand horizons. It is a good idea that you have hand out material that can also be engaged with by the adults, as well as those aimed at students or different age groups attending.

Provide an idea of a day in the life

One of the great ways that RIAT helped with discussion linked to careers was in the science planes area. They not only had the planes to look at, but they had signage and stands where you could talk to scientists and pilots about what a career in this area actually entailed. They used a super cool draw to get people in and then offered them the level of detail they were happy to engage with.

I think this is so important as there are a lot of misconceptions about what a career in STEM actually looks like, and there are limited opportunities for many people to actually sit down and talk to someone who does it for a living. This informal setting means that people can ask any questions they want without having to put their hand up in front of a lot of other people or deal with a scrum to get to the front of an activities queue.

So, RIAT had a lot of cool ideas that we can use to think about designing our activities and agendas in order to talk to people about STEM, but what does it engagement on this scale offer that we can learn about in terms of thinking about the benefits with partnering our STEM offerings with large scale events?

Provides access to non-standard audiences

RIAT has a massive attendance with 80,000+ people on the day I was there, and over 200,000 over the weekend. There are very few face to face events with the possible level of reach that RIAT offers, although there are others like Glastonbury, where STEM can be and sometimes is embedded. The advantage of these events is not just numbers, it’s the fact that some of this audiences may not engage with other types of STEM engagement, such as visits to science museums or festivals. This means there is a massive opportunity to raise awareness and engage with audiences that may not normally feel like these events would be ‘for them’ or something they would seek out. It gives opportunities to drop by taster experiences without requiring any huge amount of commitment or pre-existing level of interest. Yet these small encounters can really alter individual trajectories and change lives.

Routes to talk about the big issues

One of the other things these kinds of events can enable is access to conversations about pretty big issues. Climate change was a big topic of discussion at RIAT because of the fact that it was linked to aviation. This led to lots of interesting talk about how bio fuels are a scientific and engineering solution to a number of aviation associated climate change issues. One thing that I found really interesting was the use of virtual flight and simulation training as an alternative to standard ‘in air’ flight training for the RAF. It was quoted that 50% of the flights taken by the RAF are training flights, and so the ability to use non-airborne alternatives provides great opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and impact climate change risk.

I think there is so much that could be taken away from the way these interactions were undertaken to think about how we could discuss big issues in IPC and microbiology, issues such as antimicrobial resistance. My main takeaways from those activities I attended included:

embedding discussion of the big issues within wider activities
make references present but not preachy
ensure that message is about empowerment and change, rather than catastrophe and fear
discuss how individual actions can be taken
focus on how STEM can change things for the better
spring board from subjects that you know the audience are already interested in

I would love us all to be inspired by these offerings and really start to think of other spaces we occupy in our non professional lives where we might be able to talk about bringing STEM in, either as part of collaborations or driven as individuals. So, if you have any ideas, or places where I could help, please please reach out and talk about how we can bring our whole selves to these spaces with the aim to inspire and help others to feel seen. To help the next generation access careers that we know are exciting, creative and impactful. To create an inclusive legacy and safe space where stereotypes don’t define who gets to access STEM professions. To leave the profession that much better than we found it.

In the mean time, whilst I cogitate on how to do all of this better, one the other great things about attending these events is that you also get to partake in the wider wonderful offering, and even when it rains, there’s are plenty of planes and tea to bring you joy. Here’s to more STEM activities on the big stages and sharing the joy of embracing science as part of your life!

All opinions in this blog are my own

Celebrating my 200th Post: Learning to love science blogging and the do’s and don’ts I’ve picked up along the way

May 30, 2024May 30, 2024 girlymicro General, Writing blog writing, blogging, engagement, Healthcare Science, public engagement, Science Communication, Writing

Today, girlymicrobiologist.com hits a pretty big mile stone. Todays post is my 200th Girlymicro blog post! So far this year, Girlymicro has had ~8000 reads from more than 6000 users in 178 different countries. Those numbers kind of blow my mind. I know that in the scheme of things, it probably isn’t that many, but to me, it’s huge. Even so, looking at the stats page isn’t the thing that makes me want to continue. The thing that keeps me doing this week on week, despite being pretty exhausted and up to my neck in it clinically, is you.

You guys are everything, and I feel so lucky to feel like I have a real connection with those of you who give your time to read my, oft rambling, words. Every now and again, someone talks about how much they enjoy reading a post or how they have found the blog useful. Those are the comments that fuel me. They give the energy to write this on my super early commute instead of watching Bridgerton (I’m living for Penelope right now) or on my sofa after a long day. So, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for liking and subscribing. Thank you for your kind comments. Thank you for taking the time when you have so much going on in your lives. You fill my heart and keep me going in the dark times.

Now, Girlymicro is all about sharing, and so many of you are being asked to write blogs yourselves, for your Trusts, universities, professional bodies, or even deciding to start writing ones yourselves. Having now written a few, I thought it might be useful to share some of the things I think I’ve learnt in case any of it is helpful to you as you engage in your own communication journey.

Titles matter

When I first started writing this blog the main flow to the site I got was by Twitter, and mostly through followers where they was a relationship as they’d already chosen to connect. Sadly, as most of us know, Twitter is no longer what it once was, although I still post there. Now, the majority of my readership comes through google searches, rather than where I share. This means that using titles that represent the content of the blog posts is increasingly important, as are associated key words. It’s always been the case that you need to use a title that means that someone wants to read more, but that it is not just click bait and represents what is actually discussed. Now, in the world of increasing challenges for social media circulation, titles are even more important than they once were, as they need to come up when someone is searching the entire internet, not just your name.

Try to be consistent

This one is slightly ironic at the moment, as I’m struggling to post at the same time every week because of work load. The truth is though, that being consistent matters. Try to post at a similar time, so that readers know when to look out for your content, especially when there are 1000s of posts on each platform everyday and it’s easy to get missed. It is also worth trying to be consistent with how you write and what you write about. Building a readership is mostly about consistency, setting expectations and then making sure you deliver on them. It is far easier to lose readers than to find them, and so you have to respect the social contract you’ve made.

Don’t get too hung up on the details

One of the reasons I posted once and then didn’t post again for years was that I was so worried about whether I could do something that was ‘good enough’. I though that writing as a scientist meant that I needed to write blogs in the same way I would write journal articles, that I would need write heavily referenced blogs from a completely scientific perspective. What I realised is that I didn’t need to write like someone else, or to meet others expectations. I needed to write like me, and the best blog that I could write. It was never going to be perfect, because I’m not perfect. My blogs are snap shots in time, and if each one is not the ‘best thing ever’ or ‘super impactful’ that’s OK because they represent only a single moment and are no more or less than that.

You’ll develop your own style

I was putting together a new blog page yesterday where my posts are all listed by theme. This meant I had to go back through my posts, and there is definitely a change over time. I think this is OK, in fact it’s probably important. I’ve now written over 200,000 words on this blog, and I’d hope that I would have also grown and changed as a person in the 4 years I’ve been regularly posting. One of the big changes is that over this time I have become comfortable with doing this right here, i.e. blog writing. I have my own way of writing these blogs, of sharing my thoughts and experiences, which I would guess are probably fairly distinctly me. When I started I didn’t really know what that style was or what kind of content I would cover. There is a certain amount of discovering as you go along, no matter how much thought you have put into it ahead of time. I have learnt there is no point in trying to write like you are someone else, or to pretend to be anything other than who I am, and my writing style now supports that. It’s important therefore to give yourself space and permission to just try things out and see how they go in order to develop who you are as a writer.

Seek advice not limits

One of the reasons that the style of these blogs has changed somewhat, is that I used to obey the rules. When I started writing blogs, when you read around, the general rule was that blogs should be 500 – 900 words with three images or sub-headers. You’re reading this, and you may feel I should have stuck with those rules and be about to stop 🙂 The reality is that I no longer limit myself to what I ‘should’ be writing. There are a few reasons for this. The first one is that newer research shows that actually readers want to engage with longer content, to feel like they are reaping a reward for engaging. The other reason is, frankly, I tend to have quite a lot to say, and I’d rather follow a complete chain of thought than split individual posts into multiple blogs, in order to comply with someone else’s thoughts of how it should be done. My advice on this one therefore is – you do you!

Find a platform that works for you

Shock news, I am not super technical. Don’t get me wrong, I can use most windows programmes in a way that isn’t horrible, but I am never going to a) have time, or b) inclination, to learn to code in HTML to set up a blog page. Time is one of my biggest limiting factors, and so any time I have, I want to spend it writing not formatting/coding. One of the reasons I’ve been able to set up this blog is because I found a platform (WordPress) that works for me. It works for my skill level. It works for the way I think, so I find it intuitive. There are lots of different platforms out there, and the same one that works for me may not work for you. It’s hard to move once you’ve started posting, and so it’s worth spending some time doing your research before you get things set up, so that you are ready to go with something that works from the start.

Decide how much of yourself you want to share

I share quite a lot of myself through these blogs. I like to think I’m pretty honest about the good, the bad and the ugly. I also share about things that impact my loved ones, Mr Girlymicro and mummy Girlymicro, but always with their permission and consent. You don’t have to do this to write a blog though. There are plenty of amazing blogs out there that focus on science and science content, without having a focus on the author. How much you share when you write is really up to you. This is also likely to change over time. My early posts have less of me in them, but as we built trust (me and all you lovely readers) I felt like it was acceptable and helpful to share more. It is always worth just double checking with yourself that you are comfortable with the response you might get to that sharing, because not all of it will be positive. Be intentional about your decisions, as once it is out there in the wild on the internet it is no longer under your control.

Know what’s your unique selling point (USP)

One of the reasons I share so much of myself in these blogs is that I wanted to create a space and content that would be honest about what it is like to work as a scientist and to be a scientific leader. For me, that means that you have to share the lows with the highs. I’ve always been pretty isolated at work. No one has been in quite the same job as me. Often I am the only person from my professional background in the room. Mix that up with working as a clinical academic in a very male orientated space, it means that I haven’t always had a lot of people in similar circumstances to reach out to. That said, a lot of the experiences I’ve had have not been unique, and a lot of the lessons I’ve learnt are applicable to others. I very much wanted to create a safe space to explore all of these things in the hope that anyone interacting with this blog will know a little more about what a scientific life is like, and potentially feel less isolated in any challenges they are facing. These are my reasons and this is what I try to ground any content created in, to make sure it always aligns with these values and the associated rationale. No matter why you decide to start creating content, you need to understand your why and how your content will deliver on it, and attempt not to get drawn too far away from your core rationale.

Writing is not enough, you need to share

When I first started out, I thought that writing the content was going to me the main part of the work. The thing is, content without readers is an aspiration unfulfilled. You have to put in, probably, an equal amount of effort in order to share what it is that you’ve produced. You need to build networks that you can then use to share what you write. This takes time, especially because the social media platforms keep changing. It’s a chunk of work. I’ve been fortunate enough a few times to be asked to come and talk about this blog, and that is the ultimately reward. To be able to move from just putting content out there, to being able to directly interact with people about it, there is no better experience and I’m always so grateful for the opportunity. At the start however, it’s all about putting in the work so people at least see what you’ve made.

You will never have enough time

You will never have enough time. This is a basic fact. I’m on annual leave and this is the way I have carved out enough time to sort out some of the things that have been on my blog to do list for forever. I think there are 2 main things that I have learnt to accept as a result of this basic fact. One, I have to be realistic in my expectation setting, which I find challenging. There is no point in saying you will post every day if you are not going to be able to deliver that. Frequency doesn’t matter, numbers of pages or edits don’t matter, as long as they are achievable. Two, I have to find ways to maximise my use of time. I usually try and write blogs on my commute, which could otherwise be dead time. I’m not good at doing one thing at a time, and I have a husband who is usually pretty patient with me, and so I will often write on the sofa whilst watching movies or video games. You have to choose what matters to you, and choose how much you are prepared to allocate to it, and then make it work. It’s as simple as that. This blog matters to me, you matter to me, and therefore I make it work somehow.

Ideas are not the problem

When I started writing this blog I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough ideas, that I would struggle to find things to write about. This is my 200th post and as of today I have 261 posts in some stage of draft. Not all of them will make it to become full blogs, but trust me, ideas are not the problem. I find things inspire me all the time. I will see things that trigger thought processes on social media. I find experiences at work or with my students that make me think they deserve further exploration. All that even before you consider events, such as scientific conferences, where you are surrounded by inspiring science and people, that provide more ideas than you can reliably capture. I discovered early on that I would start new posts even if they just contained a title, in order to jog my memory. I also store memes and pictures, I current have 8GBs, so that I can add them into posts when I have ideas. Some of these will sit around for years, some will be so strong in my mind that they will get written immediately over whatever else I had planned to write that week. Some of the best posts are the ones you didn’t expect to write. So don’t worry about whether there is enough, just make sure you have a method to capture those fleeting thoughts, so that they can become more than that when the time is right.

Reach out to your community

I very much started writing this blog in order to build community and to raise awareness of, and support, the wonderful professional, clinical and scientific communities I am a part of. One of the things I’ve been really lucky with is the number of guest blogs that have been written for me. Everyone gets sick, or needs down time now and again. Guest blogs enable me to still be publishing content when I’m not in a position to produce it myself. It also enables this blog to better represent the community as a whole, so it isn’t just my voice. On occasion, I’ve also been lucky enough to share guest blogs that have been able to raise awareness of great pieces of work or particular issues, which is a special honour. No one works or functions in true isolation and being able to give back is so important. It is also really valuable to hear what readers and the community are interested in. Sometimes, writing blogs can feel like you are just sending things out into the void. Hearing back from the audience you are writing for can really make all the time and effort feel worth it, as well as giving you feedback in order to make it better. So take the time to reach out and ask the questions

Decide what success looks like

Success really does mean different things to different people at different times. When I started writing this blog I really was thrilled if 20 people read something I wrote. Time moves on and success criteria change as things develop. I still try to be kind to myself and mainly aim for growth year on year. In 2023 for instance I had ~14000 reads, this year after 5 months I already have over 8000. That level of growth feels pretty good. I’m also still hoping to turn this blog into a book in the next 12 months, but some of that will depend on clinical work load. The numbers are great, but if I’m honest, it’s the feedback that actually ticks my success boxes. It’s the people who come up to me, or message and comment, to say that they have found what I’ve done helpful. One comment is worth 1000 facts, despite the fact that, as a scientist, I should be numbers driven. You need to know enough about who you are to decide what success looks like for you, and use that as your benchmark to motivate you to carry on.

Know that things change

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that change is a fixture of life. Undertaking any project over a period of months, let alone years, means that things will change whilst it’s ongoing. I am not the same person I was in 2020, the things I want to and am comfortable to write about have also changed. The way I share my blogs has changed and so have my networks. All of these things are OK, in fact they are positively beneficial. It does mean that it important to not cling too tightly to anything, be that numbers, content, or structure. You can only do your best. You will write something one week that will land and have huge readership. You will write something else the next week and you’ll get less than 10 takers. A really good example is a blog I wrote in 2022 on the fact that you can’t please everyone. When it was published in 2022 it had 121 reads. In 2023 it had 27. In 2024, for a reason I don’t understand, it has 534 reads so far. I’m sure there is logic and structure behind some of these things, but I have yet to figure it out. The important thing is learn and improve where you can, but not to become too obsessed where you don’t have the information available to you.

Practice makes perfect

There is no such thing as perfection, all there is in learning. I think it’s probably clear that writing this blog is an exercise in continuous striving to do better, to be better, to serve my community better. I don’t think I will ever be ‘the best’ at anything, but I strive to do my best, and that is all I can do. You will never become a better writer if you don’t write. So my final advice is this, just try it. Do your research. Read blogs and the writing of people and sites that inspire you, but don’t try to become them. Always aim to be you, you are always going to be the best at that. By writing and seeing how people respond you will do it better the next time. By writing and finding what makes you feel good, or was easiest for you, you will develop your own style. By writing down ideas and things you see that spark concepts, then you will build a library that enables you to develop you USP. Just start, one word, one sentence at a time, and before you know it you too will be writing blog number 200!

All opinions in this blog are my own

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Why I love the BMJ Christmas articles and links to my favourites!

December 28, 2023 girlymicro General, Research/Academia, Science Communication blog, health, PhD, public engagement, Research, science, Science Communication, sleep, wellness

I adore Christmas, it’s one of my favourite times of the year. I meant to get this one out before Christmas, but to be honest, I was too busy having family time. For those of us working or looking for some fun reading between Christmas and New Year I thought this one might still be of interest.

Every year the British Medical Journal have a wonderful tradition. They post some free to access journal article. Now, these aren’t just any journal articles. They apply serious scientific processes to brilliant topics, such as the disappearance rates hard vs soft centred chocolates in ward environments presented as an observational study.

These articles always bring a smile to my face, and if you’re looking at an entertaining way to learn more about scientific processes or scientific writing these are a great place to start. I hope you’ll feel the same when you have a read of some of the ones linked to below, and know that there are more out there if you want to journey down this particular rabbit hole.

Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for spending another year in the company of the Girlymicro blog!

From 2005

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute BMJ 2005;331:1498

Abstract

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom.
Design Longitudinal cohort study.
Setting Research institute employing about 140 people.
Subjects 70 discreetly numbered teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute and observed weekly over five months.
Main outcome measures Incidence of teaspoon loss per 100 teaspoon years and teaspoon half life.

Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons’ value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.

Conclusions The loss of workplace teaspoons was rapid, showing that their availability, and hence office culture in general, is constantly threatened.

the-case-of-the-disappearing-teaspoons-longitudinal-cohort-study-of-the-displacement-of-teaspoons-in-an-australian-research-institute Download

From 2010

Beauty sleep: experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people BMJ 2010;341:c6614

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether sleep deprived people are perceived as less healthy, less attractive, and more tired than after a normal night’s sleep.
Design Experimental study.
Setting Sleep laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden.
Participants 23 healthy, sleep deprived adults (age 18-31) who were photographed and 65 untrained observers (age 18-61) who rated the photographs.
Intervention Participants were photographed after a normal night’s sleep (eight hours) and after sleep deprivation (31 hours of wakefulness after a night of reduced sleep). The photographs were presented in a randomised order and rated by untrained observers.
Main outcome measure Difference in observer ratings of perceived health, attractiveness, and tiredness between sleep deprived and well rested participants using a visual analogue scale (100 mm).

Results Sleep deprived people were rated as less healthy (visual analogue scale scores, mean 63 (SE 2) v 68 (SE 2), P<0.001), more tired (53 (SE 3) v 44 (SE 3), P<0.001), and less attractive (38 (SE 2) v 40 (SE 2), P<0.001) than after a normal night’s sleep. The decrease in rated health was associated with ratings of increased tiredness and decreased attractiveness.

Conclusion Our findings show that sleep deprived people appear less healthy, less attractive, and more tired compared with when they are well rested. This suggests that humans are sensitive to sleep related facial cues, with potential implications for social and clinical judgments and behaviour. Studies are warranted for understanding how these effects may affect clinical decision making and can add knowledge with direct implications in a medical context.

beauty-sleep-experimental-study-on-the-perceived-health-and-attractiveness-of-sleep-deprived-people Download

From 2013

The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study BMJ 2013;347:f7198

Abstract

Objective To quantify the consumption of chocolates in a hospital ward environment.
Design Multicentre, prospective, covert observational study.
Setting Four wards at three hospitals (where the authors worked) within the United Kingdom.
Participants Boxes of Quality Street (Nestlé) and Roses (Cadbury) on the ward and anyone eating these chocolates.
Intervention Observers covertly placed two 350 g boxes of Quality Street and Roses chocolates on each ward (eight boxes were used in the study containing a total of 258 individual chocolates). These boxes were kept under continuous covert surveillance, with the time recorded when each chocolate was eaten.
Main outcome measure Median survival time of a chocolate.

Results 191 out of 258 (74%) chocolates were observed being eaten. The mean total observation period was 254 minutes (95% confidence interval 179 to 329). The median survival time of a chocolate was 51 minutes (39 to 63). The model of chocolate consumption was non-linear, with an initial rapid rate of consumption that slowed with time. An exponential decay model best fitted these findings (model R²=0.844, P<0.001), with a survival half life (time taken for 50% of the chocolates to be eaten) of 99 minutes. The mean time taken to open a box of chocolates from first appearance on the ward was 12 minutes (95% confidence interval 0 to 24). Quality Street chocolates survived longer than Roses chocolates (hazard ratio for survival of Roses v Quality Street 0.70, 95% confidence interval 0.53 to 0.93, P=0.014). The highest percentages of chocolates were consumed by healthcare assistants (28%) and nurses (28%), followed by doctors (15%).

Conclusions From our observational study, chocolate survival in a hospital ward was relatively short, and was modelled well by an exponential decay model. Roses chocolates were preferentially consumed to Quality Street chocolates in a ward setting. Chocolates were consumed primarily by healthcare assistants and nurses, followed by doctors. Further practical studies are needed.

the-survival-time-of-chocolates-on-hospital-wards-covert-observational-study Download

From 2015

Evidence of a Christmas spirit network in the brain: functional MRI study BMJ 2015;351:h6266

Abstract

Objective To detect and localise the Christmas spirit in the human brain.
Design Single blinded, cross cultural group study with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Setting Functional imaging unit and department of clinical physiology, nuclear medicine and PET in Denmark.
Participants 10 healthy people from the Copenhagen area who routinely celebrate Christmas and 10 healthy people living in the same area who have no Christmas traditions.
Main outcome measures Brain activation unique to the group with Christmas traditions during visual stimulation with images with a Christmas theme.

Methods Functional brain scans optimised for detection of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response were performed while participants viewed a series of images with Christmas themes interleaved with neutral images having similar characteristics but containing nothing that symbolises Christmas. After scanning, participants answered a questionnaire about their Christmas traditions and the associations they have with Christmas. Brain activation maps from scanning were analysed for Christmas related activation in the “Christmas” and “non-Christmas” groups individually. Subsequently, differences between the two groups were calculated to determine Christmas specific brain activation.

Results Significant clusters of increased BOLD activation in the sensory motor cortex, the premotor and primary motor cortex, and the parietal lobule (inferior and superior) were found in scans of people who celebrate Christmas with positive associations compared with scans in a group having no Christmas traditions and neutral associations. These cerebral areas have been associated with spirituality, somatic senses, and recognition of facial emotion among many other functions.

Conclusions There is a “Christmas spirit network” in the human brain comprising several cortical areas. This network had a significantly higher activation in a people who celebrate Christmas with positive associations as opposed to a people who have no Christmas traditions and neutral associations. Further research is necessary to understand this and other potential holiday circuits in the brain. Although merry and intriguing, these findings should be interpreted with caution.

evidence-of-a-christmas-spirit-network-in-the-brain-functional-mri-study Download

From 2021

Ghost in the machine or monkey with a typewriter—generating titles for Christmas research articles in The BMJ using artificial intelligence: observational study BMJ 2021;375:e067732

Abstract

Objective To determine whether artificial intelligence (AI) can generate plausible and engaging titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ.
Design Observational study.
Setting Europe, Australia, and Africa.
Participants 1 AI technology (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, GPT-3) and 25 humans.
Main outcome measures Plausibility, attractiveness, enjoyability, and educational value of titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ generated by GPT-3 compared with historical controls.

Results AI generated titles were rated at least as enjoyable (159/250 responses (64%) v 346/500 responses (69%); odds ratio 0.9, 95% confidence interval 0.7 to 1.2) and attractive (176/250 (70%) v 342/500 (68%); 1.1, 0.8 to 1.4) as real control titles, although the real titles were rated as more plausible (182/250 (73%) v 238/500 (48%); 3.1, 2.3 to 4.1). The AI generated titles overall were rated as having less scientific or educational merit than the real controls (146/250 (58%) v 193/500 (39%); 2.0, 1.5 to 2.6); this difference, however, became non-significant when humans curated the AI output (146/250 (58%) v 123/250 (49%); 1.3, 1.0 to 1.8). Of the AI generated titles, the most plausible was “The association between belief in conspiracy theories and the willingness to receive vaccinations,” and the highest rated was “The effects of free gourmet coffee on emergency department waiting times: an observational study.”

Conclusions AI can generate plausible, entertaining, and scientifically interesting titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ; as in other areas of medicine, performance was enhanced by human intervention.

ghost-in-the-machine-or-monkey-with-a-typewritere28094generating-titles-for-christmas-research-articles-in-the-bmj-using-artificial-intelligence-observational-study Download

From 2023

As a special Christmas gift there were 2 from 2023 that made me exceptionally happy!

Effect of a doctor working during the festive period on population health: natural experiment using 60 years of Doctor Who episodes (the TARDIS study) BMJ 2023;383:e077143

Abstract

Objective To examine the effect of a (fictional) doctor working during the festive period on population health.
Design Natural experiment.
Setting England, Wales, and the UK.

Main outcome measures Age standardised annual mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK from 1963, when the BBC first broadcast Doctor Who, a fictional programme with a character called the Doctor who fights villains and intervenes to save others while travelling through space and time. Mortality rates were modelled in a time series analysis accounting for non-linear trends over time, and associations were estimated in relation to a new Doctor Who episode broadcast during the previous festive period, 24 December to 1 January. An interrupted time series analysis modelled the shift in mortality rates from 2005, when festive episodes of Doctor Who could be classed as a yearly Christmas intervention.

Results 31 festive periods from 1963 have featured a new Doctor Who episode, including 14 broadcast on Christmas Day. In time series analyses, an association was found between broadcasts during the festive period and subsequent lower annual mortality rates. In particular, episodes shown on Christmas Day were associated with 0.60 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 0.21 to 0.99; P=0.003) in England and Wales and 0.40 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.08 to 0.73; P=0.02) in the UK. The interrupted time series analysis showed a strong shift (reduction) in mortality rates from 2005 onwards in association with the Doctor Who Christmas intervention, with a mean 0.73 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.21 to 1.26; P=0.01) in England and Wales and a mean 0.62 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.16 to 1.09; P=0.01) in the UK.

Conclusions A new Doctor Who episode shown every festive period, especially on Christmas Day, was associated with reduced mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK, suggesting that a doctor working over the festive period could lower mortality rates. This finding reinforces why healthcare provision should not be taken for granted and may prompt the BBC and Disney+ to televise new episodes of Doctor Who every festive period, ideally on Christmas Day.

bmj-2023-077143.full_Download

Analysis of Barbie medical and science career dolls: descriptive quantitative study BMJ 2023;383:e077276

Abstract

Objectives To identify Barbie brand dolls that had medicine and science themed professions in comparison with other career dolls and to determine their accuracy in meeting clinical and laboratory safety standards.
Design Descriptive quantitative study.
Setting Visual and data analysis of web searches.

Main outcome measures To identify the kinds of medical and scientific subspecialties that the Barbie dolls (and a comparison doll group) worked in; and to determine whether these medical professional and scientist dolls met laboratory and clinical safety standards. Additional data about doll demographics (ie, age, ethnic group, and sex) were also collected.

Participants 92 Barbie brand dolls were analyzed: doctor (n=53), scientist (n=10), science educator (n=2), nurse (n=15), dentist (n=11), and paramedic (n=1). 65 non-Barbie brand dolls were also analyzed for comparison purposes: doctor (n=26), scientist (n=27), nurse (n=7), dentist (n=2), engineer (n=2), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technician (n=1) dolls.

Results Barbie brand medical professional dolls (n=80) largely treated children (66%, n=53/80), with only three (4%) medical professional dolls being directly depicted working with adults. Of the 12 scientist Barbie brand dolls, none met all proper personal protective equipment requirements related to hair and clothing. Barbie brand dolls often came with items, such as laboratory coats, microscopes, stethoscopes, and glasses, that children stereotypically associate with doctors and scientists. While comparison dolls offered a wider range of age and ethnic groups than the Barbie doll group did, the dolls similarly struggled to portray a wide range of medical and scientific subfields and most comparison dolls did not wear proper personal protective equipment.

Conclusions Medicine and science themed dolls help to inspire tomorrow’s medical professionals and scientists. All toy companies should ensure that future medical professional and scientist dolls meet clinical and laboratory safety standards and diversify the types of medical and scientific professions represented (especially among male dominated fields). For young girls’ sakes as much as her own, Barbie must keep shattering glass ceilings.

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All opinions on this blog are my own

Turning a Day Dream into a Reality: Trying out a technique to make concrete steps towards a secret ambition

January 3, 2022January 3, 2022 girlymicro Education, General, Science Communication Co-production, Healthcare Science, Infection Prevention and Control, public engagement, Science Communication, scientific writing

I’ve been thinking a lot about next steps in recent weeks. Thinking about what it is that I want, what do I want to achieve. I’ve been really fortunate to have achieved a lot of professional success. I’ve attained my Consultant post, which has been the aim for 16+ years. The question that I keep getting asked therefore is, what next?

Now I’ve been saying, and I think this is true, that I need to be in a holding pattern for a while. Like most people during the pandemic I’ve become tired and burn out and even when we get to the point where life becomes the ‘new normal’, whatever that is, it will take time to recover. The problem being that although those words come out of my mouth, my brain has other plans and ideas.

I’m beginning to think that this next goal will be more personal and less professional. It feels like a long time since I had a goal that was for the whole of me, rather than for Dr Cloutman-Green. So I’m going to write it here. Not because I think I will manage to achieve it any time soon, but because I want to make a commitment to myself. I want to write a book. I know, I know, it would make me spit out my tea too, but there I’ve said it. I’ve put it out into the world.

There are two schools of thought on whether sharing this is a wise move or not. One suggests that by sending it out into the world is the first stage in crystallising a thought or dream into reality. The other is that you are setting yourself up to fail as if you don’t then take the steps needed you appear as someone who can’t deliver, thus actually making your dream harder to achieve. I’m a glass is half full kind of girl and so I’m going with the making my dream more likely option. I am also being very clear and boundaried about what I am saying. I am saying I wish to write a book, that is under my control. I am not stating that such an item would ever get published, let alone earn money, as those things are less under my remit. My dream is to have the time and energy to create and produce, anything more would be a bonus.

Now, I acknowledge that my grammar is appalling and I don’t claim to be the best writer in the world. Writing the blog for the last year however has reminded me of how much I have always just loved to write. I find it cathartic and a much needed creative outlet. During the pandemic, where opportunities to network have been limited, I’ve also found it a great way to feel connected. I know I come across as very extroverted but in reality there’s little I love more than having my own space and so this blog has allowed me to connect without feeling the pressure of in person.

Now I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a plan. Afterall, a dream needs action in order to become a reality. This is something that is completely outside of my knowledge base so the first steps are about thinking and research in order to inform action:

Further formulate the concept i.e. what kind of book? I actually have 2 ideas. One is turning this blog into a book format. The second is that I also have an outline structure for a Pathology murder mystery. I’m excited by both, but right now I think option 1 is more achievable with my current resources (Norman I also haven’t forgotten about our project – sorry for being rubbish)
Review what I already have. If I go for a non fiction book I need to undertake a gap analysis of what I have, what can be modified and what new content is needed. For the fiction version I need to start getting my concepts down so that I know how viable they are
What good resources are available to me? This is an ambition of plenty of people and there is a wealth of information out there. I need to explore, quality assess and curate what there is so I dont waste time and energy making unforced errors. There is no point in reinventing the wheel, modify it so it works for me, but let’s not start from square one.
Undertake some appreciative enquiry. Success is often about asking the right questions and making the right connections in order to increase your odds. I have some friends in this field but not in the area I’m thinking of working in. I need to be brave and put myself out there to gain insight into the ‘Known Unknowns’
Use the knowledge and information gained to put together a project plan. Establish some small steps that can make the project as a whole less overwhelming
Establish my success criteria. What does success look like? For right now it’s the process of creating that will feel like a success with a stretch goal of sharing what is produced, but that might change based on what I discover
Research your audience. If I decided to include sharing what is produced as part of my success criteria who would like to see such a book? If I were to share the content what would that look like and what would be needed?

For me any dream is achievable, the main thing is to be realistic about what the dream actually is and what resource and commitment it will take. Dreams don’t just happen, they require work and so to understand what is needed takes some time. That is not a reason to not aim high. So here I am, at the start of the process knowing it might take years but excited to see where it might take me. Dream big people and take it one day at a time.

All opinions in this blog are my own

Girlymicro 2021: A Year in Review

January 1, 2022January 1, 2022 girlymicro Academic Life, General, Microbiology (Clinical), Microbiology (Research), Science Communication Healthcare Science, Infection Prevention and Control, public engagement, Work Life Balance

Firstly, before I begin I want to start by saying thank you all so much for being here. This blog and all of you have really helped with many of the challenges described below. It’s given me a focus and output that has enabled me to both reflect and feel like I have a voice. Despite not having been able to post much in November and December ~10,000 of you have visited the blog this year, with over 13,500 views. Numbers I would never have dreamt of. This community, your responses and sharing have really kept me going. My sincerest hope for 2022 is that we will be able to continue to find a way through together, supporting each other and sharing the learning.

It seems to be the thing to do a New Years post. I’m not really big on New Year, I’m much more of a Christmas kind of girl but this year has been A LOT and so I thought I should take a few minutes at the start of 2022 to at least acknowledge it happened; and to give some reflection on all it contained: the good, the bad and the oh so very ugly.

I want to end in a positive way so we are going to take a deep breath, drink a cup of tea and do this is reverse order.

The Ugly

I discovered this year that I am oh so very human. I used to think I could push through anything with enough willpower. It worked for my PhD, it worked for FRCPath. I have discovered that that doesn’t work for pandemics.

I think part of it is something to do with a lack of a defined end point. With an end point you can plan, you know when you can take breaks, you can plan downtime. There has been nothing planned about this. My first break away was the one and only time I’ve been pinged (I’m basically a hermit) and so my time away involved self isolating in a very small cottage, albeit with an amazing view. Christmas, which is my joy, involved working and being broken by the time it arrived. The constant responsive mode means you feel like you achieve nothing and that the ‘Control’ in Infection Prevention and Control has been lost and you don’t know when it will come back.

The other part of it, for me, is that there has been hardly any of the diversity that is the thing I love about Infection Prevention and Control. When the non SARS CoV2 work does escalate up the priority list it is on top of everything else and is therefore a burden rather than problem to be solved. It is the diversity of the role in normal times that energises me. This year therefore, has just felt like one constant drain on my batteries rather than the normal peaks and troughs that give recovery time.

So what am I going to do about it? Long and short I need to carve out some professional me time. I can’t manage a third year of just pushing through. I’ve hit a wall and something needs to change. I need to find time to write a paper, use a pipette, write a talk in more than 5 minutes. I need to feel like I’m making a difference again, making an impact. I need to end 2022 feeling like I’ve moved forward, even if the pandemic is still with us. I think collaboration for this is key, working together is one of the things I’ve missed, so if you’re up for a project give me a shout.

The Bad

The worst and most shocking thing of 2021 was that we lost Lee, the guru who made the grammar on this blog bearable, but who also helped run the Environment Network and some of my other events. He went from fine to deceased in a matter of weeks and to be really honest it’s been quite the wake up call. He was ~10 years older than me and still had so very much to give to the world. I don’t want my tombstone to say ‘She pulled a lot of hours’ I need to make time for the people and activities I love. I hadn’t seen him anywhere near enough since the pandemic started as I have prioritised work so much. Going into year 3 that has to change.

In 2020/1 I learnt to fail, spectacularly. I learnt to fail at managing my workload, my inbox and my deadlines. I’ve failed to manage to keep on top of, let alone ahead of anything. I’ve learnt that this leads to 3am panic and exhaustion and after a year I’m trying to also learn to just let it go. Being a perfectionist in a pandemic is not a survival strategy. Assuming that everyone is judging you as harshly as you are judging yourself is not a wellness technique. Just working harder no longer cuts it, as to be honest there are simply just not enough hours in the day.

Over the last 2 years I’ve let myself be defined by work. I’ve stopped running and I basically am working, rushing to catch a meal or trying to sleep in order to prepare to do it all again. Between getting shingles and the number of angio oedema flares my body has basically let me know that this is not sustainable. To be honest I don’t think I could continue this way even if I wanted to, my body feels like it has given up on me. I need to cut it a break and heed the warning signs.

Having discovered I am not professionally or physically superwoman I have decided that I need to make some decisions about putting me first. No one benefits if I break, not me and not my team. I need to do my hours and come home in time to do something other than eat and sleep. I need to have some time for me, be that to read a book or go for a run. I cannot work every weekend. I need to trust that others will not judge me for stepping away and that the only person who is holding me to this standard is me. I’m going to walk in the sun, take bubble baths, drink tea and learn to be kinder to myself. I’m also making a commitment to give explicit permission to others to do the same, so that our head weasels have less power over us.

The Good

Well enough with the hard stuff, its really easy to forgot with so much challenge, the amount of good that has actually occurred. All the more reason to take the time to reflect. Times of challenge are when we learn most, not just in terms of academic knowledge but also about ourselves, and I have learnt a lot that I intend to build on in 2022.

I started 2021 announcing that I’d been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queens New Years Honour list. Something that was always going to be difficult to top.

In this respect 2021 out did itself and was the year that I firmly set down roots to continue at GOSH, after a period of not really knowing what my future would hold and where my career would go. I got my dream job, as a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Infection Prevention and Control. I have a solid foundation for my future, I no longer need to have a plan A B and C about where I might end up. I work in an organisation aligned to my values with 2 amazing teams and in a job I love. I will always be grateful for that.

There have been some great moments from an education perspective. I’ve done podcasts, made it onto power lists and had mentees grow and develop in ways that have made me beyond proud. There are some wonderful projects in the pipeline that will give opportunities to my team and I believe will support change across the infection workforce. One of them is on whole genome sequencing and if you’re interested in learning more check it out and input on what you’d like included here. Being able to plan for the future is key to my mental wellbeing and so I’m so excited to have something that forces me to look forward, not just be in the moment.

Project Nosocomial has continued to grow and despite, or possibly because of, the unique demands on artistic and scientific collaboration in 2021 delivered some truly exciting new content. We ran 2 festivals to raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance. We ran comedy shows, quizzes, panels and featured poetry, drag, opera and gamification. If the pandemic has shown me anything its that we need to work harder to engage with and have dialogue with the public and wider communities. Science communication should no longer be seen as an indulgence but a central part of our roles. In 2022 I’m determined to continue to fight for this work to be valued and to increase the impact of our conversations.

So there you have it, despite feeling I’ve been standing still there has been a surprising amount of moving forward. I have learnt a lot and to summarise what from that I want to bring into 2022, it is simply this:

All opinions on this blog are my own.

The Awards Season is Almost Over – It’s not Quite the Oscars, but Still…

November 27, 2020January 23, 2021 girlymicro Education, General, Microbiology (Clinical), Science Communication antimicrobial resistance, Healthcare Science, public engagement

As I write this, it’s the morning after the Antimicrobial Guardian Awards 2020. We were lucky enough to be considered for the Public Engagement category for the Nosocomial Project. Much to my jaw-dropping shock, we were lucky enough to win. This post isn’t really about that, though. This post is about why I think it’s important that such awards exist, which is not a universally held opinion.

Every year there are a number of local and national awards for NHS and Public Health related activity. I’ve been lucky enough to have been nominated for, and won, some of these awards. I have experienced many lovely responses but I’ve also received negative ones. These have indicated that the same people always win everything and that my success makes others uncomfortable. So would I put my awards somewhere where they can’t be seen? There is obviously a whole blog topic on how we do a better job at celebrating others’ success and taking it as an opportunity to lift up the whole; but there are also some very practical reasons why these kinds of awards are important.

Why Do I Think Awards Matter?

The NHS has traditionally been a very siloed environment, with professions working very separately. Many awards have categories that are targeted at, or recognise, collaboration across silo’s. This is one way of getting people to actively think about their working environment and start to take steps to break down barriers that have long existed.

If you work in a professional group that is often pretty invisible at organisational or national level, these awards present a wonderful opportunity to highlight the work that these groups do, which might go unnoticed in the general day-to-day workings of healthcare. This can have a direct impact on how valued these groups feel, but also in inspiring how practices could be integrated for the benefit of the system.

Many of these rewards are for projects that are done on top of the day job. Although there are prizes for individuals, a lot of the time these projects can only be delivered by teams. Within the day-to-day NHS, we don’t really have a way to recognise these teams when compared to private industry. It’s important for me, as a leader, to acknowledge the hard work of my teams by nominating them and ensuring they feel seen and their work appreciated.

Projects such as Nosocomial require external funding to be able to develop and progress. Winning awards for the work is pretty much the same as a paper going through external peer review and being accepted. When applying for further money to continue the work, or for other project applying to Trust Board for support, having an external stamp of approval can be the thing that moves decisions in your favour. They can also provide valuable free promotion to support building new collaborations or expanding the work to increase impact.

Nominating work for awards can provide a great moment for reflection and self-evaluation of the project. Projects often develop organically and, because they are often done in addition to other work, we don’t always take the time to reflect on the strengths and failures of what we’re doing. The process of nominating can highlight gaps, especially when it comes to evaluating work. These can then be addressed and you may decide to hold off on the nomination until you have the extra data. Most importantly it will make the work itself better, irrespective of whether you win.

Something I feel really strongly about is the removal of hierarchies and empowerment in terms of the future of healthcare. Many awards now have specific categories for inclusion of the public in work, or a focus on diversity and inclusion. These specific categories demonstrate the values of the NHS and encourage work that lives up to those values. If we really want to create an NHS that works for the modern world, the more that can be done to embed these values in everyday working, the more successful the change will be.

Lastly, and most significantly, these awards offer the chance to share learning. To discover what works. To be inspired by the work of others. Although awards are often considered to primarily benefit the individual or team, the truth of the matter is that that the people that really benefit are those that are part of the system that the awards represent. This is fundamentally why we should work to support these events, not for the ‘me’ but for the ‘we!’

So celebrate the success of yourself and others! Know that by doing so you benefit everyone

Top tips for nominations:

Read the category criteria so you are applying for the right one.
Understand the scoring scheme (which is usually listed somewhere) so you know what the judges will be interested in.
If there are questions, make sure you answer the question asked, not what you think they are asking.
Think whether now is the time. Ensure that it is the right time to nominate, or consider whether you would be better to wait to the subsequent year to have appropriate evaluation data etc. to improve your chances.
Know that it’s not about the winning and that this (like submitting a grant or paper) is worth celebrating in itself.

All views in this blog are my own