Colliding Particles - Episode 10:Blogs - March 2012

Notes

This film looks at one way in which scientific ideas are communicated, through blogging. Philip Gibbs has a blog in which he comments on progress in the hunt for the Higgs boson. Jon Butterworth blogs more generally on Physics in The Guardian.

Activity 1

Spreading the news

Questions for students to think about while watching the film, and to discuss afterwards. (It is helpful if students read through the questions before watching and check any words or phrases that they don’t understand. You could also ask them if there are any blogs, scientific or non-scientific, that they follow regularly.)

Question / Comment
What is a blog? / An individual or group writes comments, usually on a theme, and posts these for all to see.
What does Philip Gibbs write about in his blog? / He comments on progress in the hunt for the Higgs boson.
Where does Philip Gibbs get information from? / He surfs the net. He knows who else is blogging in the same field; he looks at conference proceedings and the websites of the labs involved.
How can people respond to Philip Gibbs’s blog postings? / They can add comments to his blog.
What is new about blogging? / Philip Gibbs explains that blogging about on-going scientific projects is a novelty – it wasn’t possible a few years ago. So more people can comment on what is going on, and even manipulate data to test their own ideas.
Are bloggers reliable? / Jon explains that bloggers have varying expertise so that some are more reliable than others.
Are all scientific blogs technically demanding? / Jon explains that some blogs are more technical, others are more popular.
How have blogs made scientific findings more available? / Anyone can look at a blog; previously, we only had access to reports in the press and magazines, or ‘3 minutes on the Today programme’.
Are blogs useful to other scientists working in the field, or are they just for interested members of the public? / Adam says that he can find things in blogs that would take him days to work out for himself.

Where they blog

Philip Gibbs’s blog is at

Jon Butterworth’s blog is at

Showing the film

The film is available in 2 versions from the website: the original version, and a special ‘Classroom Edit’, which break the films into themed sections with spaces in between for easy pausing.

The original version of the film can be shown straight through and uninterrupted. This will allow students to start recognising the different personalities involved.

Subsequently, the ‘Classroom edit’ can be shown in sections (see Summary below), with a discussion of the main points arising after each section.

Classroom Edit Summary

Jon Butterworth, experimental physicist, University College London

Adam Davison, research student, University College London

Philip Gibbs the unshaven blogger

0:00 / March 2012 / News about the hunt for the Higgs boson is expected from the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in the USA.
0:15 / First blogs / Philip Gibbs is working on his blog, ready to comment on new data as it becomes available.
1:05 / Novelty / Philip Gibbs explains that the use of blogs to report and interpret new scientific findings is a novelty.
1:45 / Different blogs / Jon describes the range of blogs, with varying levels of detail and reliability. This makes for a greater range of sources for lay people.
2:15 / Interpreting data / Philip Gibbs looks at data and prepares a blog entry.
3:10 / Using blogs / Adamexplains the value of technical blogs to an insider – they give a useful overview and may have presented the data in a useful way.
3:45 / Posting a blog entry / Philip Gibbs checks his blog entry and posts it
4:00 / END