Science is for everyone, so science outreach needs to be for everyone too. Find your passion and harness your lived experience to create novel science outreach programs, and your authenticity will reach people. For me, that means building on my experience as a dad; you will have your own unique perspective. Hopefully you will find, as I have, that reaching out to bring science into the lives of others enriches you both personally and professionally. Here are a few of the activities that our lab has run over the years:
Becoming a Scientist
Science changes the world every day. Curing diseases, designing super-computers, building green technology, creating wearable nanotechnology... You may know what science can do, but what do you know about the people who become a scientist? In this graphic novel aimed at high school students, we tell the stories of the twelve scientists in our biomedical research lab in the University of Cambridge. You may be surprised to learn the diversity of challenges they overcame, the various role-models that inspired them on the way, and their different motivations for becoming a scientist. Science is a career for anyone curious enough to ask why, and stubborn enough to keep on asking.
I draw inspiration from these amazing people, so I hope you can too! Their stories are available online at "Becoming a Scientist: The Graphic Novel", and you can order a print copy from the Great British Bookshop or a digital copy on the Kindle. I was also interviewed about the book for Superbugs, the BBC and That's TV.
Sensory Science
With support from St Catharine's College, The Biochemical Society, and the British Society for Immunology, we brought the award-winning Sensory Science programme to Cambridge. Teams of researchers from the Department of Pathology were given mentorship in multi-sensory art and were matched up with artists from Anglia Ruskin University. Each team was then challenged to create novel artworks that would inform and entertain the public, but with a twist - all of the exhibits needed to be multi-sensory to be inclusive for the blind and low-vision public. The experience transformed participants and auidence members alike, and gave us all a newfound understanding of the importance of reaching out to people on multiple levels.
Read more about Sensory Science, and see photos from the event.
Public lectures
Diversity in the human immune system
(I was also interviewed about this lecture)
Using animal models to develop new treatments for traumatic brain injury
Virus Fighter
Build a virus or fight a pandemic!
Based on our original game Virus Break, and funded by Orion Open Science, we created the award-winning Virus Fighter. Congratulations Prime Minister, you are the one to navigate your way through pandemics - pick your poison, COVID, flu, ebola, or the nightmare scenario of an airborne ebola virus. The virus spreads and you have only limited advice from immunologists and economists on how to react - test your skills and see the impact of your decisions on lives and the economy.
For a more light-hearted note, play the "Wombat Invasion" extension, funded by the British Society of Immunology! After an unfortunate introduction of wombat's to the UK, our best scientists are helping to come up with a biological control solution. Engineer the virus to contain this ecological invasion, but beware the advice of "Dr Human"!
Children's books
Our children's books are perfect to introduce your children to the concepts of vaccination and immunodeficiency. If you have a vaccine-hesitant new parent, consider gifting them a copy so they can learn together with their child, and change the narrative on vaccination. It literally saves lives!
Maya's Marvellous Medicine
Follow Maya as she learns all about vaccines - the most marvellous medicines. Maya learns how the immune system works, and how vaccines help the immune system to be strong. Whether it is the immune system or a running race, the lesson is clear - practise makes perfect!
Battle Robots of the Blood
Tim is a regular 7 year-old boy, who happens to have a primary immunodeficiency, caused by a genetic defect in his immune system. This is Tim’s story of his life and how the immune system works. Heading into the hospital every month for treatment is just a normal part of his life. He doesn’t really see the fuss, but he knows how scared his parents are when he gets sick. For Tim, it is much more important that his friends are vaccinated so he can play with them!
Just for Kids! All about Coronavirus
A weird little virus from bats has us all staying at home. Help explain the Coronavirus to kids with this easy-to-read book all about Coronavirus and how we are defeating it!
The book is certified as scientifically accurate by Prof Hedgehog!
Coronavirus science simplified
During lockdown the Liston lab did fact-checking on claims about coronavirus and ran a series of illustrated articles boiling down the essence of cutting-edge scientific articles. Take a stroll down lockdown memory-lane, with the full collection of articles here.
Virus Break
The Liston lab has collaborated with Dr Simon Andrews at Babraham Bioinformatics to create an interactive model of virus outbreak spreading. This beta version has largely been replaced by Virus Figher, but if you want some open source code to play around with, Virus Break is it!
To play Virus Outbreak, pick a virus (Coronavirus, flu, ebola or measles) and simulate a viral outbreak in the community. The default settings are based on real medical data, but you can modify the viral properties - change the virulence (rate of new infections), lethality, incubation period and symptomatic period. Find out why an ebola virus with the virulence of measles is the worst nightmare of virologists, run simulations of flu vs Coronavirus to see why medical experts are sounding the alarm.
In Virus Outbreak, you don't only control the virus, you control the response against the virus. Let the virus run free to create "herd immunity", or pick between vaccination, quarantine or social distancing to see what difference they can make. Change your mind on the policy? Hit "stop", go into properties to change the policy, then go back and hit "start" to see how the simulation changes. Modify the vaccination rate, and see just how many people need to be vaccinated before real herd immunity becomes effective. We calculate not only the rate of infections and deaths expected, but also the cost to the economy and the NHS. Test just how good social distancing is for Coronavirus, and then compare the cost of vaccination to social distancing to see just how amazing vaccines are.
Bringing pathology into schools
Our team, led by Annemarie van Nieuwenhuijze and Dean Franckaert, designed and implemented a program to bring pathology into Flemish schools, teaching students how to use a microscope and look at histology.
If you are interested in our efforts to bring innovation to public outreach, we'd love a donation to keep the efforts rolling!