J.J. Buckfart* communications * environment * leadership * science *

Part of my work responsibilities at LUCAS is to bridge the gap between technical staff and more general audiences. A quick way to connect with your intended audience is to think about and employ schemata. You make an assumption about what the audience already knows, and build upon that assumption.

Here’s an example from “Made to Stick” by the Heath brothers. They demonstrate the power of using a schema. In this example they are attempting to describe a type of fruit.

Description option 1.
A pomelo is the largest citrus fruit. The rind is very tink but soft and easy to peel away. The resulting fruit has a light yellow to coral pink flesh and can vary from juicy to slightly dry and from seductively spicy-sweet to tangy and tart. Question: If you mixed pomelo juice half and half with orange juice, would it taste good?

Description option 2.
A pomelo is basically a supersized grapefruit with a very thick and soft rind.

In your communications can you think of examples where you can make accurate assumptions about your audience’s schemata and adjust your message to capitalize on those assumptions?

This video has inspired me think about story telling. I love how the producer took a well known story line and creatively added a bunch of science. Enjoy!

Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

In the spring of 2009, Lakehead acquired a PanAlytical MPD X-ray diffractometer (XRD for short). This unit is used for materials identification and phase characterization. It has applications in most fields, including chemical engineering, chemistry, geochemistry, geology, mineralogy and environmental sciences. They don’t let me touch the machine, but they do let me talk to Shannon. She’s really smart and has a doctorate in geology and runs the XRD. CLICK HERE to see the news piece on the LUCAS website.

In CSI: Miami an XRD was used to determine the materials in a hubcab found at a crime scene.

I am not a physics major, but last time I checked, X-rays are invisble to the human eye. Hmmmmm.

Image source: www.flickr.com (Shawn Ford)

I find it fascinating that the Bible contains late bronze-age wisdom that clearly pre-dates modern science, germ theory and microscopes.

God seemed to know a thing or two about microbiology and bacteria before modern science ever did. God instructed Israel on how to keep healthy by properly dealing with human waste. The people of Israel were given clear instructions on how to dispose of human waste.

And you thought the Bible had  irrelevant stuff in it.

You may recall the Walkerton tragedy, where negligence lead to human deaths when water was contaminated with human feces. Human feces can cause serious diseases and parasites.

It should be noted that all cultures have some cleansing protocol when dealing with human feces. Perhaps instead of learning sanitation via “trial an error,” Israel had the benefit of learning such things directly from God. All they had to do was follow God’s commands.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Stool_Chart.png

Biodiversity and Conservation

About a year ago, I co-authored a paper with some brilliant people. The paper is entitled, “Do tree-level monocultures develop following Canadian boreal silviculture? Tree-level diversity tested using a new method” and was published in Biodiversity and Conservation. In the paper we wrote,

“Modern forestry in Canada’s northern forests often includes clearcutting followed by site preparation, planting, and chemical or motor-manual tending. This suite of activities is criticized for reducing biodiversity (May 2005) to the point of creating monocultures (Mosquin et al. 1995) resulting in potentially unstable and unsustainable forest communities.”

Intuitively, I knew there was something amiss about the claim that these forestry activities created monocultures. I have walked through numerous clear cut areas in Northwestern Ontario. While these areas are not always being the most esthetic, I never saw a monoculture – not even on the most intensively managed forest.

Actually, the way forestry is typically done in Ontario’s boreal, it is next to impossible to create tree-level monocultures. With a variety of tree species naturally regenerating after a disturbance, it can be pretty much guaranteed that there will be a mix of trees as the forest becomes re-established.

However, I am aware of one situation where monocultures can occur in the boreal; that is the re-forestation of agricultural land. This is definitely not the way typical forestry is currently practiced in the region.

At this point, you may be wondering why I am making such as fuss about all this. Well the bottom line is that one of my biggest drives in life is discovering what is actual. The reason I am drawn to the sciences is due to my desire to discover and share fact. The reason I am drawn to theology and spirituality is due to my desire to discover and share truth.

I have seen the environmental community make big claims about how various land-use practices lead to environmental degradation. Sometimes the claims turn out to be fact, other times not really. I guess it urks me when we feel we need to spin what is really real, or make things sound worse than they really are in order to make a point. The bottom line is if we are stretching the truth, or misrepresenting the truth, we are not acting with integrity. We will be found out.

The Christian community seems to have this same problem. I’ve heard numerous statements flow from Christians lips that lack truth. Sure they sound pious and good, but there is err. For example, I’ve heard Christians tell their “pre-conversion” stories making their lives out to be a bit worse than it really was. As the story typically goes, after their “conversion” experience, life is described a bit better than it really currently is.

I think it will do both the environmental and Christian movements some good if we stop overstating our claims and communicate with greater integrity.