write an interview with the scientist
Answers
Answer:
This week, I covered how to interview a scientist for my science communication course at LSU. We talked about how to prepare for an interview, and what kinds of questions you can ask during an interview to pull out interesting details about the scientist’s life and work. My students will get to practice what they learned on Monday, when LSU researchers will be visiting our classroom for “mock” interviews. And naturally, we will be recording these interviews and sharing them with our interviewees and online!
So how does one interview a scientist? I’ve collected a variety of resources here, including feedback I received via Twitter after I asked science writers to describe their favorite questions to ask scientists during an interview.
The Questions
The Origin Story
What are the discoveries that have lead up to your current work? (Ian Street)
The origin story: How did you come up with this hypothesis & what got you interested? (Shelly Fan)
What spurred this study or this question?
So What?
Why is your research important? What are the possible real world applications? (My Sciencey Life)
What kind of response have you gotten to your research / findings? (Christina Scott)
What question or challenge were you setting out to address when you started this work? (Matt Shipman)
And after they've explained their work, I often ask (as nicely as possible): "So what?" or "Why is that important?" (Matt Shipman)
So the big picture: “What's your assessment of the current state of …? I usually read up on media reporting and ask their opinion. (Shelly Fan)
Why is your area of scientific discovery important (or relevant) for the ordinary citizen of this country? (Christina Scott)
What happens next in the process of discovery? (Christina Scott)
Analogies Rock
(Especially for technical fields): Do you have an analogy to help me understand your work? (Ian Street)
Answer:
A genius is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creative productivity, universality in genres or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge.