In 2003 when I began working in science communication I didn't know about all the different type of jobs available or the different sectors, so I began collecting examples of places that had employed, or seemed likely to employ, science communicators.
That list became a hugely popular blog post in 2009 and I have been perennially updating it ever since. The latest version (checked Nov 2017) now lives in a Google Spreadsheet: Scicomm jobs - list of vacancies pages employing science communicators
Science communication happens in medical research charities, schools, newspapers, museums, universities, community groups, learned societies, pharma companies, government - it is impossible to completely map all the possible ways that one can do scicomm.
The jobs are hugely varied too - health information professionals (my own background), PR people, journalists, museum explainers, bloggers, television or radio presenters and vloggers, scientists who talk about their work, non-scientists who talk about other people's work. It's a big sector!
Anyway if you're new to science communication I hope you'll find something interesting among the suggestions.
Note that these employers also employ IT specialists, HR personnel etc so the vacancies pages will probably be of use to anyone looking for a job, but the focus is on scientific (broadly) institutions.
Note to employers
PLEASE consider adding a /jobs redirect to the end of your homepage address and pointing that to wherever you're currently keeping your jobs. The reason this list of science communication vacancies pages needs updating so frequently is partly because you keep moving your jobs around every time you have a website refresh but also because you use different terms to describe jobs (jobs, vacancies, recruitment, work for us, work with us, opportunities).
Obviously you are free to put your vacancies pages wherever you wish and call them whatever you like but please let's all point to them with /jobs for simplicity. Thank you. This will let anyone type /jobs at the end of your homepage URL and go straight to your vacancies page, hooray!
Saturday, 11 November 2017
Tuesday, 7 November 2017
I've had it up to here with homeopaths marketing CEASE therapy quackery for autism
CEASE stands for 'Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression' - a name that belies its intention, despite advertising regulations.— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) November 6, 2017
Marketers cannot claim #homeopathy can treat or help w autism but they can link to official websites that do, & write acronyms out in full.— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) November 6, 2017
UK homeopaths are not allowed to make misleading claims about homeopathy (no marketer is allowed to make misleading claims about any product or service). We have a fairly strange situation with the marketing of CEASE therapy in the UK though, which I have written about before, in passing, in October 2016 and July 2015.
CEASE stands for 'Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression' - a name that belies its intention despite advertising regulations. As marketers are allowed to write out acronyms in full they are able to strongly (and wrongly) imply that the treatment can help people (typically children) who have autism.
I shan't link to it but there's an official CEASE therapy website which has recently been strongly criticised by the Dutch equivalent of the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). However that website, not being hosted in the UK, is more able to ignore the ASA's requirements for advertising. Homeopaths around the world who have completed the CEASE training can also have a page about them in the practitioners section of the website.
UK homeopaths can therefore bypass advertising regulations while still obliquely promoting CEASE as a treatment for autism by
(i) avoiding making direct claims about homeopathy, CEASE and autism on their websites (some of them instead say that the ASA forbids them from making certain claims, or that the ASA has told them to remove certain claims etc)
(ii) spell out the acronym CEASE in full
(iii) link to the official CEASE page which is currently free-er to make claims. That is, defer the actual marketing to another site
(iv) leave page visitors to draw the hoped-for conclusion
Basically it's "I can't say anything about this treatment (or I'll get in trouble with the ASA) but go and have a look at this website that can say stuff and then come back here and make an appointment." As an added bonus the sites often talk about detoxing from vaccinations, thereby maintaining the background anxiety that autism and vaccinations are linked in some way (they're not).
I would like to see the term 'CEASE' ceased and no longer used in marketing, also no more linking to the 'cease-therapy' website. Ideally the homeopathy professional societies would sanction their members for implying any treatment was useful for autism.
~oOo~ ••• ~oOo~
Teddington Homeopathy (Melissa Wakeling) has been on the ASA's non-compliant list of online advertisers since August 2015 for failing to make all the required corrections to her marketing of CEASE therapy. She did make a few changes, but the website still makes misleading claims.
Interestingly one of the criticisms in the original adjudication was that Teddington Homeopathy linked to two websites which contained problematic phrases in their URLs (web addresses). Here's what the ASA said -
"The page also contained links to external websites containing "homeopathy-for-autism" and "homeopathy-and-autism-faq" in the visible URLS..."and
"We welcomed Teddington Homeopathy's decision to remove the testimonial and other material from the page, but considered that the information about Tinus Smits and the URLs still implied a benefit for homeopathy and CEASE therapy for autism, and that the intention of CEASE therapy was to treat autism."Comparing what the page was like on 23 December 2013 and currently (screenshots below) shows that some changes have indeed been made, though the current version is at pains to imply that they haven't.
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| Teddington Homeopathy's page on CEASE therapy in 2013 before the ASA made them change it. |
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| Teddington Homeopathy's page on CEASE therapy after amendments were made, in line with ASA's requirements. As not all the amendments have been made yet the site has been listed as a non-compliant online advertiser. |
The Society of Homeopaths has noted in their 2016 annual report that CEASE therapy was something that a lof of their members were keen to learn about, as part of their continuing professional development... obviously I'd prefer that they take to task their members who are promoting a non-therapy to vulnerable families.
Friday, 3 November 2017
Invented words and phrases (by me) - a small collection
Sometimes the existing language won't do and you have to create a new word, or one suggests itself. A lot of the time it's just recombining prefixes, infixes and suffixes but occasionally one that I quite like emerges. I'm sure you have your own, here are mine. If you tell me yours I might add a section at the bottom for them :)
While you're listening enjoy the excellent poomphing sounds of Groove Armada's Chicago.
Apostroppy - people who get extra miffed with misplaced apostrophe's (see what I did there!). Inspired by @PenguinGalaxy's misspelling of 'apostrope'
Damplitude - a measure of how hard it's raining, from how high the drops bounce on the pavement
DNAouement - the conclusion of a Jeremy Kyle show
Flim-flammable - a phrase looking for a use, without much hope of a resolution unless there are some good fire myths it might be applied to
Lipidome / lipidomics - I came up with this in 2000 after attending a conference on lipid chemistry. Around that time proteome (and later metabolome) was all the rage I think and I, being the only lipid chemist in the department, jokingly suggested the lipidome - which has since become a real word. I doubt I was the first to think of it! [Edit - I can confirm it was in the academic literature before I 'invented' it independently.] The lipid-ome is the full complement of all lipids (eg cell membrane lipids).
Malheureuse legumes - reaching for a description for poisonous mushrooms during an O Level French oral exam in which I had to role-play the sister of a boy who'd eaten them in the forest. I'd forgotten the word 'champignon'. Fortunately I never had to use it as the examiner used the correct word in the preliminary introductions to the role play.
Quantumacious - the absolute determination, despite no evidence or even evidence to the contrary, that your particularly brand of quackery can be explained by 'quantum' something or other
Monthabetically - my efforts to solve the fact that the months of the year are not alphabetic (and a column with January and May in it won't naturally re-order by calendar date) so I've renamed them Anuary, Bebruary, Charm, Dapril, Ey, Fune, Guly, Haugust, Iptember, Joctober, Movember, Zecember for my own filing purposes. These days I tend to just go with Bruary for Bebruary, there's no need to overdo it.
'ping it me-wards' - please send me a copy. I don't really know what I was thinking there
Teledelegates - people attending a conference solely via the Twitter hashtag
Timeato - my preferred rendering of Pomodoro, the productivity tool named after a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
Whirritation - persistent helicopters overhead (to be honest I do quite like the sound, especially if Chinooks though they never seem to hover sadly), often heard early on Sunday mornings at the London Marathon which runs through bits of Blackheath near where I live. Those can be quite whirritating.
While you're listening enjoy the excellent poomphing sounds of Groove Armada's Chicago.
Apostroppy - people who get extra miffed with misplaced apostrophe's (see what I did there!). Inspired by @PenguinGalaxy's misspelling of 'apostrope'
Damplitude - a measure of how hard it's raining, from how high the drops bounce on the pavement
DNAouement - the conclusion of a Jeremy Kyle show
Flim-flammable - a phrase looking for a use, without much hope of a resolution unless there are some good fire myths it might be applied to
Lipidome / lipidomics - I came up with this in 2000 after attending a conference on lipid chemistry. Around that time proteome (and later metabolome) was all the rage I think and I, being the only lipid chemist in the department, jokingly suggested the lipidome - which has since become a real word. I doubt I was the first to think of it! [Edit - I can confirm it was in the academic literature before I 'invented' it independently.] The lipid-ome is the full complement of all lipids (eg cell membrane lipids).
Malheureuse legumes - reaching for a description for poisonous mushrooms during an O Level French oral exam in which I had to role-play the sister of a boy who'd eaten them in the forest. I'd forgotten the word 'champignon'. Fortunately I never had to use it as the examiner used the correct word in the preliminary introductions to the role play.
Quantumacious - the absolute determination, despite no evidence or even evidence to the contrary, that your particularly brand of quackery can be explained by 'quantum' something or other
Monthabetically - my efforts to solve the fact that the months of the year are not alphabetic (and a column with January and May in it won't naturally re-order by calendar date) so I've renamed them Anuary, B
'ping it me-wards' - please send me a copy. I don't really know what I was thinking there
Teledelegates - people attending a conference solely via the Twitter hashtag
Timeato - my preferred rendering of Pomodoro, the productivity tool named after a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
Mulling over how I can monetise the observation that another word for Pomodoro (as in https://t.co/JpsQ4WLp5y) is Timeato ;)— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) September 14, 2014
 |
| A 'timeato' |
Whirritation - persistent helicopters overhead (to be honest I do quite like the sound, especially if Chinooks though they never seem to hover sadly), often heard early on Sunday mornings at the London Marathon which runs through bits of Blackheath near where I live. Those can be quite whirritating.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Seller of GcMAF on trial - 'banned' product, unlikely claims made for it
Some of the people behind Immuno Biotech Ltd are to stand trial later this week for selling products containing GcMAF which has been wrongly touted (papers retracted by the journals that published them) as a cure-all for a number of conditions, including cancer. Despite that this trial does not appear to involve the Cancer Act 1939.
There's no good evidence that GcMAF is of any particular use as a treatment for anything and the fact that it's derived from blood products means particular care would be needed when giving this sort of thing to people.
In 2015 the MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) shut down a Cambridgeshire factory (UK's MHRA Shuts Down GcMAF Plant, 27 Feb 2015) that had been producing GcMAF (also known as First Immune). The product itself is unlicensed / unapproved (effectively 'banned') so may not be marketed for anything and the equipment used to produce it may have been contaminated because poor manufacturing processes were in place.
It was also banned from import into Guernsey in Feb 2015 and their health department urged users or former users of GcMAF to contact their GP.
David Noakes, CEO of Immuno Biotech Ltd, is a former Guernsey resident who appeared on The One Show in 2015 talking about GcMAF - the interview did not appear to go well.
He and colleagues* appeared at Southwark Crown Court yesterday before their trial begins on 5 Nov (or possibly in 2018, conflicting reports "All four will stand trial at the same court next year.") - it's expected to take six weeks.
Further reading
Things to bear in mind
There are several different ways in which an untested alternative "treatment" can cause harm -
1) by containing an ingredient that's harmful, or by being prepared in such a way that means harmful ingredients are present at problematic doses
2) by being utterly harmless but containing nothing of use and offering no real help - wasting time for getting real treatment and wasting money
3) by offering false hope
There's no good evidence that GcMAF is of any particular use as a treatment for anything and the fact that it's derived from blood products means particular care would be needed when giving this sort of thing to people.
In 2015 the MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) shut down a Cambridgeshire factory (UK's MHRA Shuts Down GcMAF Plant, 27 Feb 2015) that had been producing GcMAF (also known as First Immune). The product itself is unlicensed / unapproved (effectively 'banned') so may not be marketed for anything and the equipment used to produce it may have been contaminated because poor manufacturing processes were in place.
It was also banned from import into Guernsey in Feb 2015 and their health department urged users or former users of GcMAF to contact their GP.
David Noakes, CEO of Immuno Biotech Ltd, is a former Guernsey resident who appeared on The One Show in 2015 talking about GcMAF - the interview did not appear to go well.
He and colleagues* appeared at Southwark Crown Court yesterday before their trial begins on 5 Nov (or possibly in 2018, conflicting reports "All four will stand trial at the same court next year.") - it's expected to take six weeks.
Further reading
- 'Wonder drug' creator to stand trial (1 Nov 2017) ITV Report
- David Noakes bailed ahead of 2018 trial (1 Nov 2017, 14:32) BBC News
"He also denied money laundering in relation to £7m paid into Immuno's Guernsey bank accounts and a further £2m Noakes raked in personally from sales of GcMAF." - David Noakes bailed ahead of 2018 trial (1 Nov 2017, 16:47) BBC News
- Banned 'wonder drug' creator 'risked patient safety to pocket millions from sale of outlawed medicine made from human blood as a cure for cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and autism' (1 Nov 2017) Daily Mail
"Noakes denied two counts of manufacturing a medicinal product without a manufacturer's licence, two of selling or supplying medicinal products without market authorisation, one of possessing an unauthorised medicinal product without market authorisation and money laundering." - Guernsey Government's document on 'The Medicines Law and GcMAF - Frequently Asked Questions' (26 March 2015) [Web Archive copy]
- Drug banned in Guernsey amid fears it's not suitable for consumption (4 Feb 2015) ITV Report
Things to bear in mind
There are several different ways in which an untested alternative "treatment" can cause harm -
1) by containing an ingredient that's harmful, or by being prepared in such a way that means harmful ingredients are present at problematic doses
2) by being utterly harmless but containing nothing of use and offering no real help - wasting time for getting real treatment and wasting money
3) by offering false hope
Tuesday, 31 October 2017
Cancer Act 1939 convictions in the UK - part two
In 2014 I wrote a very, very long detailed post about all the known-to-me convictions under the UK's Cancer Act 1939 for which I could find information (see Cancer Act 1939 convictions on the UK).
I'm not aware of any new cases since then, other than Jerry Sargeant's from September 2017. There's not a great deal of information about his court case. An article from The Metro from 20 September, when he appeared in court, indicated sentencing would happen later that day but another article in the Daily Mail said that sentencing had been due on the day but would now happen on 8 November 2017, so not long to wait. Mr Sargeant is currently filling Twitter in a memely fashion with inspiring 'aphorisms' stuck on images of space.
Backing up a little bit to Summer last year we had Noel Edmonds making some odd claims on Twitter about a box and a mat which could, he felt, help with cancer. Not too surprisingly he received rather a strong response from pretty much everyone, for making misleading health claims. He didn't help his case much when someone with cancer challenged him and he replied that perhaps that person's negative attitude was why they had cancer. Oof.
Anyway, Tom Scott made this video about Why you can't advertise cancer cures in Britain, below. It's pretty clear, please don't do that.
I'm not aware of any new cases since then, other than Jerry Sargeant's from September 2017. There's not a great deal of information about his court case. An article from The Metro from 20 September, when he appeared in court, indicated sentencing would happen later that day but another article in the Daily Mail said that sentencing had been due on the day but would now happen on 8 November 2017, so not long to wait. Mr Sargeant is currently filling Twitter in a memely fashion with inspiring 'aphorisms' stuck on images of space.
Backing up a little bit to Summer last year we had Noel Edmonds making some odd claims on Twitter about a box and a mat which could, he felt, help with cancer. Not too surprisingly he received rather a strong response from pretty much everyone, for making misleading health claims. He didn't help his case much when someone with cancer challenged him and he replied that perhaps that person's negative attitude was why they had cancer. Oof.
Anyway, Tom Scott made this video about Why you can't advertise cancer cures in Britain, below. It's pretty clear, please don't do that.
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