Mixing Up My Masters at Media140

Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon by Matt Hamm

This is going to one of those blog posts that won’t make sense to anyone avoiding social network sites or have no relevance. And this doesn’t sit well with me at all but I suppose I will have to get used to it because it is related to my Masters thesis. I haven’t mentioned much about my life as a university student this year so here’s an update and a mention of what my thesis is about.

My Masters project is examining science communication in social network sites and the factors that influence this. I am currently collecting data at the moment while barely keeping up with the mountain of reading I’ve got to do. Yes, I’m studying social network sites and getting a research higher degree in it. I can tell you that I do a lot more than sit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and various blogs all day. If only it was that easy.

It sounds like a waste of time and money. It really does. However, like other researchers I do think that what I find will help with the communication of not just scientific ideas but other complex ideas as well whether on social network sites or offline in the real world At a stretch I could say that I’m working towards world peace.

The most fascinating thing about social network sites that I find is the speed and reach of the information being disseminated. This really does come to the fore in times of emergencies, most notably the Christchurch earthquakes, floods in Queensland and close to home for me summer fires in Perth, to the unfolding radiation disaster at Fukushima in Japan. People rapidly form a community to help with updates on the situation and offers of assistance.

A lot of people try to harness this sense of community and thirst for information for all sorts of reasons. It could be to sell a product or a service, to educate, research, crowd source ideas or funds to name a few. In between all these agendas are people that use the social network site to keep in touch with one another. In my opinion, these are the users that are the lynchpin of a social network site because without them it just becomes a sea of advertising.

In amongst my academic pursuit I’ve been looking in at Media140 events happening around the place. What the heck is Media140? It’s an organisation that started off in 2009 focussing on the potential of existing and emerging social technologies being used as a tool for communication between consumers and business to increase engagement. All sorts of people have attended these events. In addition to the usual suspects of journalists, business owners, CEOs have been academics, researchers and the curious. Everyone meets to discuss the effect of real-time technology on their communication strategies and needs.

In April came the Media140 event I would have loved to have attended but couldn’t. It was dedicated to science communication. I did the next best thing I could think of. I lobbied on Twitter for a livestream and others around the country joined in and it happened. For an entire day on the 27th of April, my Twitter feed was filled with #media140 related updates. I was able to speak with others on science communication and how they were or were not using social network sites. It was brilliant.

Tomorrow, Media140 comes to Perth again. It doesn’t have a science communication focus but I am heading along because the themes that the business community will be discussing in search for better engagement I feel are related to what I am focussing on in my Masters project. It is also a wonderful opportunity to see what how another section of the community uses social network sites to foster a sense of community. I wonder if there are any differences or whether we’re all running around looking for the same answer before the other guy does.

So there it is. My Masters project is on social network sites, the bane of managers striving to meet KPIs and the frustration of school principals and I’m heading off to a social technologies conference for two days.

Food Provenancing

Food provenancing is the practice of tracing the origins of food back to the farm. It’s something that has caught on at dinner parties and restaurants are at pains to advertise where they source their meat and vegetables in the menu. It is done for a variety of reasons.

Take a trip to the local supermarket and without the need for a passport you can gather food from around the world. Actually, I can just look in my kitchen and I’m surrounded by food from Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Australia, USA and Belgium. If someone counting their food miles came into my kitchen, I am sure that they would think that I was an environmental fiend. When it comes to food, I most certainly am. I do take great pains to make sure that I get quality ingredients from particular areas of the world in a never ending chase for flavoursome food.

Though how do I know that the food I buy comes from where the label tells me? Is it worth spending the additional dollars I don’t really have on all this? I really don’t but applying techniques from forensic chemistry can be one way to be certain.

Food fraud is getting to be quite lucrative and unlike CDs, shoes, handbags and shirts it can be quite difficult to detect. However, plants grown in different geographical regions exhibit different trace element profiles as a result of growing in different soils. Research undertaken by Professor John Watling at the University of Western Australia has indicated that it is possible to not just establish the country of origin but in some cases, the state of origin and in the case of tea and coffee, the plantation it was grown in.

Prof Watling has developed a laser ablation technique to find the chemical signature of solid objects including gold, diamonds, bullets, Aboriginal art, antiques and plant material. Gold fingerprinting has saved the Australian economy an estimated $1 billion according to Prof Watling. The technique involves Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, (LA-ICP-MS), to characterise a gold containing item by its trace elements to reveal its mineral make-up and right back through to the bullion and even back to the mine from which the gold came from.

It is this technology being applied to analyse food and it is beginning to get noticed. Prof Watling has shown that his technique works with identifying wine to growing regions in Australia. It’s the scientific evidence of the French concept of terroir where it is believed that the geography, geology and climate affect the characteristics of foodstuffs like wine, coffee and tea. It turns out that the French were right. Inside every plant and animal, there is a chemical memory of its environment. Factors such as soil type and rainfall levels can leave a chemical imprint as an isotope ratio and this is unique much like fingerprints. It is this that reveals the origins.

For foodies like me, I would like to know that the additional dollars I pay for my food and wine are what the label says they are. While it may be easy to spot a spelling mistake like “Connawarra” on a label, once counterfeiters learn how to spell correctly, the differences may only lie in the chemical signature.

Related Articles

• The truth about food fraud (The Independent)
• Buyer Beware: the rise of food fraud (New Scientist)

Cacophony of Colour Marks Arrival of International Year of Chemistry in WA

Left to Right: Professor Allan McKinley, Dr Jeff Davis. Image: Magdeline Lum

On Tuesday night the Willsmore Theatre at the University of Western Australia, (UWA), experienced a series of explosions, flashes of light filling with smoke. There was no cause for alarm as Professor Allan McKinley from UWA and industrial chemist Dr Jeff Davis were creating a breath-taking chemistry demonstration for the first Bayliss Youth Lectures to tour the Perth metropolitan area.

The duo took the audience on a journey of how chemistry plays a role in every day life with a series of colourful demonstrations.

“The contribution chemistry has made, and can make, to our lives is underestimated. Chemistry has helped give us clean water, higher quality food, better clothes, better houses, longer and more productive lives with medicines to prevent and treat diseases and so on,” says Prof Allan McKinley.

“A lot of what goes on around us is chemistry. Often this is not recognised by people, particularly with more recent trends to rebadge it as nanotechnology, green science, environmental science,” says Dr Jeff Davis.

The Bayliss Youth Lecture is a lecture designed by the Western Australian branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, (RACI), for young people to interact with the chemistry community in Western Australia. The 40th anniversary of the Bayliss Youth Lecture coincides with the International Year of Chemistry.

“The International Year of Chemistry 2011 is a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Under the unifying theme ‘Chemistry – our life, our future,’ will offer a range of interactive, entertaining and educational activities for all ages,” says RACI’s WA Branch President Shane Koenig.

“RACI is working with different groups in Western Australia in a Chemistry Consortium planning a chemistry extravaganza, Chemfest, for late 2011. The festival will provide an opportunity for the Perth community to explore chemistry in their everyday lives.”

RACI has commissioned a series of travelling chemistry exhibitions across Australia, with support from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – Questacon as part of celebrating the International Year of Chemistry in 2011. In Western Australia, the travelling exhibition focuses on what we eat and drink.

Click here for more Bayliss Youth Lectures at Curtin University and Murdoch University.

This post has been published on Science Network WA.

Related Articles

• Emeritus Professor Noel Bayliss 1906 – 1996 (philosophicallydisturbed.wordpress.com)

Remember Those O-Day Promises?

The crowds at UWA O-Day

It’s the beginning of Week 3 at UWA. Orientation Week, or rather O-Week was a lifetime ago and O-Day is fading into the memories of a sunkissed summer. So here is a reminder, especially if you signed up to any clubs on the day. Have you gone to any meetings yet in amongst getting that timetable sorted?

This year’s O-Day was the first one that I have attended. I missed out last year because I was holidaying over at Rottnest Island last year. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect nor was I sure whether there would be anything that I would be drawn to given that I’m a postgraduate student and much of O-Day is geared towards undergraduate students.

I wandered around James Oval flitting amongst the tents checking out the wares and offers. I have to admit to dismissing discount offers and promises of free entry into nightclubs around Perth. Those offers are standard and they are pretty much available to anyone if they turn up early enough on the night. I was after something that would have more meaning.

An unlikely pair

There were many student clubs offering social activities, mostly heading out and painting the town red as well as other events. It was tempting to sign up to a few of these but I have to face facts. This year I celebrate three decades of orbiting around the sun. These clubs aren’t for me and I have left the nights of drunken fun well behind me.

Having said that, these social clubs had the best displays enticing potential members to investigate closer. There was music playing, inflatable pools filled with what I assume to be cold water on an incredibly hot uncomfortable day. And their advocates and recruitment team wore costumes.

University Television Adverts

They make me cringe. Every single one of them. At the back of my mind I do wonder if I’m missing something about university life despite spending much of my time around the institutions. Who is it that they are targeting? And why do these adverts show during the year when the time for enrolment is over?

Tonight during my Sunday ritual of indulging in a vacuous TV series, I witnessed for the first time, a television advert from my university and I was shocked. Someone on Twitter had mentioned seeing it earlier in the night and I was a little dumbfounded and went scurrying about the internet looking for it. I didn’t have to go far, the homepage of the University of Western Australia had updated itself over the weekend without me noticing with a link to the advert.

The thing about this advert is that as a student, I don’t feel that this is my university. It is so cold and devoid of emotion. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at UWA and am in the process of getting a research project underway. It’s just that there’s just no personality in the advert. Sure, there are some high achieving alumni members featured but the overall advert doesn’t give an inkling as to what daily life at UWA entails.

The advert doesn’t tell you that UWA has friendly and helpful librarians that don’t shush you. More than one of them have helped me find my way around the libraries. They have even helped me resolve reference software issues and then many times after the initial confusion. The peacocks that reside over near the Art building don’t even get mentioned. I don’t even like peacocks ever since one of them pecked my foot during a visit at Rottnest Island but yet I feel some ownership of these birds. They even survived the Great Hailstorm of 2010.

You know what else you don’t see? The extensive gardens at UWA drenched in warm sunshine. Nor do you see the massive amounts of grassy areas that when they aren’t being practice fields for a sporting team become a place for students to study, prep for lectures, have lunch or just a place to relax. Sometimes there’s even a student run BBQ raising funds on one of these grassed areas.

When it comes to defining my vision of UWA, deep beneath the rocky cynical layers of my postgraduate research heart, this award winning student made film provides warmth and reminds me why I enrolled at UWA in the first place. It doesn’t even make me cringe and it is a film that I show people who ask me about UWA.

So, who are university adverts targeting?