Lesson 10: Scientists Communicating

Scientists communicate their research results in a variety of formats: 

• Scientific papers

• Conference talks

• Research posters

• Informally through discussions with colleagues

• Press releases and newspaper articles

• Non-traditional avenues, like tweets, blogs, infographics

The most detailed record of scientific research is always the peer reviewed scientific paper. A scientific paper is a document that presents new scientific results including the method by which the results were obtained, the results themselves and detailed analysis and discussion. 

Reading Scientific Papers

Reading a scientific paper for the first time can be very confronting. However, there are some key tips that will help you avoid becoming overwhelmed and instead use papers to learn information from original scientific data and the science experts themselves rather than a journalist's interpretation of that paper. 

• It is extremely important that you know early that you are not expected to understand everything in a scientific paper - even experts will struggle outside their immediate field of expertise. 

• Read papers with a purpose: most papers will not be EXACTLY perfect for your given subject, but it is completely acceptable to only use the parts of the paper that apply to you, or to only use certain results or conclusions. (as long as you don't ignore contradictory results)

In many ways, a scientific paper is an evolution of your standard experimental report - often it has a similar structure, e.g. introduction, method, results, discussion and conclusion. 

However, you should almost never read a paper in the order it is written!

When reading literature, it is recommended that you view the sections in the following order:

• Abstract - the abstract is the summary of the literature paper. It is recommended that you read this part first since it will give an overview of the rest of the paper and can help determine if the literature is suitable for your research. Ask yourself a few questions here and summarise the answers in a few sentences:

  • What is the big picture/broad topic?

  • What is the paper specifically about?

• Introduction - the introduction gives a more in-depth view of the paper, and often details the motivation and background for the paper. Add to the above questions if needed.

• Conclusion - the conclusion will summarise the results of the paper. In science, it is completely acceptable to read the end of the paper before reading the middle - literature papers are not mystery novels! Answer the following questions:

  • What are the key findings?

  • Do they address what I have written above?

• Method - this details how the scientist measured their hypothesis and recorded results. This section may, or may not be important to you. If needed, summarise the method. This can be done in the form of a flow chart.

• Results - this summarises the data collected in the experiment but does not make a judgement on it. If the results section is in parts, summarise each part in a few sentences, recording any data needed that is useful to you. You may use this data to produce figures for your talk. 

Scientific papers also include many references. If, while reading a paper, you discover a sentence or idea that relates to what you are searching for, make sure to look through the references of the research paper to find the additional sources/papers to support your argument. 

An Example Paper and Topic

Exploring which chemicals make good or bad biosignatures

Background information

There are a large number of molecules associated with life on Earth. Many of these molecules can be readily produced by abiotic (non-biological) sources and are therefore not good biosignatures. Abiotic sources of molecules include comets that impacted the planet, volcanoes and photochemical reactions in the planet's atmosphere. 

Therefore, the usefulness of a biosignature is determined not only by the probability of life creating it but also by the improbability of non-biological processes producing it.

One key thing astronomers look for is disequilibrium, a series of molecules that shouldn't exist stably in an atmosphere unless they are being continually replenished. For example, molecular oxygen and methane react quickly and would not be present in Earth's atmosphere unless they are continually replenished. 

Scientists also need to be able to spectroscopically identify the molecule; chemicals which give strong peaks and are not overlapped by other compounds give the best biosignatures. 

Currently, there is a lot of controversy around which molecules make a good or bad biosignature in different astrophysical environments.

By examining the scientific peer-reviewed literature, we can assess current evidence and debate some of the big issues in exoplanetary spectroscopy. 

⬅️ 9. Molecules, Light, and Planets                                                               11. Phosphine on Venus ➡️