Hey folks!

This is the first, newly revamped newsletter. It is unfortunately a wee bit later than usual because I became sick towards the end of January that trapped me under a blanket with a horrible cough and fever for a while. I write to you all coming out of the fog of congestion and a small fortress of used tissues.

Before I begin, I want to pass along some resources to help our fellow Americans in Minnesota.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good one to start with.

Also, if you haven’t been calling your senators via the 5calls app, start doing so daily. They have scripts that make it easy for a call.

I want to write about my feelings on ICE’s murdering of innocents and occupation of Minnesota, but I want to do that writing with the justice and time it deserves. That means waiting for the next newsletter when I’m no longer sick.

But what I will say is this: if you support what ICE has been doing, and what this administration has been doing, LEAVE. This newsletter is not for you. My content is not for you. Click off.

If that isn’t you: thank you for staying. Let’s go.

There’s now going to be a section towards the bottom of the newsletter titled: “So you want to start Science Communication.” It’ll probably be the lengthiest section of the newsletter. That’s because this is meant to act as a solid online written resource.

Some of my other content wont change, such as the life updates, upcoming scicomm projects, and the blog post links! But I wanted to make this a real resource for those in STEM who want to dip their toes into making science content.

I had every intention to have a blog post done by the end of January. I have 5+ pages of the blog written, and I just have the beginning and end to write/edit.

The problem: I got hit with the worst cold towards the end of January, and instead of writing, I spent my time surviving body chills, flaring asthma, and congestion that gave me a splitting headache. I feel horrible about missing the blog publication, because I really wanted 2026 to be the year I got back to my usual blog schedule. I miss being able to hit my deadlines.

But because I’m going to do another newsletter in the next few days, I decided to not stress myself and finish editing it for the next newsletter. I’m so close, and I’m no longer sick as a dog.

I’m so excited to announce that I’m running a webinar next week for Stand Up For Science!

It’s the first of two webinars that I’m running for this group. Stand Up For Science was created to bring awareness what’s happening politically to STEM in the USA right now, and they want to . Since my current job makes it difficult for me to do any substantial volunteer work out in the streets, I offered to provide free webinars to help train folks on science communication basics for public speaking and writing.

If you’re a scientists, you can register here for the free webinar! https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kmx55xliQ5mOgp39o33SKw#/registration

The difference between the webinar and my newsletter is that my newsletter goes much more in-depth into how to go about finding your own niche in science communication.

Speaking of which…

No.

Okay, that's admittedly way too short for a section, but it’s the quick answer for those skimming the newsletter. Let me explain:

There are countless ways to do scicomm work, but there are some key “do nots” in the buisness. In this current day and age, it can be very tempting to look at generative AI and see it as a useful tool to create content. Need to write a post? Have ChatGPT spit one out for you. Who needs art skills when you can prompt generative AI to make you an image. Saves you time, and time is money, right?

Except with each prompt, you may be undermining your scicomm work, making each post DOA for your intended audience.

Now, in the grand scheme of science communication, there’s still discussion about AI and its uses. I’m talking about specifically generative AI being used for “content creation,” where you craft artwork (be it visual, audio, or written) to be put on social media platforms to be enjoyed. When you’re starting out, this is probably the type of science communication you’re going to do.

Personally, I believe gen AI should stay out of all forms of scicomm due to the plagiarism potential (see below), but that’s a discussion for another time. Today, we’re focusing on content creation for social media.

We need to break down the reasons why, as content creators, you should avoid gen AI. Some of these are moral, but many are surprisingly strategic.

1) The content creators of the scicomm community collectively look down on it- Look, the truth of the matter is that if you want to do scicomm of any kind, you need to work with the rest of the community both on and offline. We’re a small niche community, and we work to lift each other up.

If you use genAI, you’re effectively spitting in the face of your peers. It doesn’t matter what your reasoning is, everyone will see that you’re using it and will discredit you as a scicommer. More importantly, they’ll refuse to work with you. And if no one in the community will work with you, consider your scicomm content DOA. In niche communities, you need the word of mouth and networking to get your work seen.

Don’t alienate yourself from your peers!

2) Climate and environmental damage- Scicommers work with the community. Currently, genAI is seen as doing damage to the community through excessive drinking water use and air pollution from the data centers. When you use genAI in your content, you’re signaling to everyone—your audience and other scicommers— that you value attention more than protecting communities.

Even if that’s not what you intend, that’s what you’re signaling. You have to be extremely cognizant of what you’re signaling to your audience and peers. And keep in mind that most scicommers, myself included, do this job because we’re passionate about giving back to our communities through shared, accurate knowledge/wisdom. Anything that signals against those values will raise alarms to any onlookers, which could result in people devaluing your work.

3) Gen AI = plagiarism- Gen AI is designed to copy-and-paste what it finds on the internet and maybe rearrange what it finds.

This is how a friend of mine had her work plagiarized by ChatGTP.

Look, there’s a chance you’ll catch the plagiarism in your editing, but there’s also a good chance you won’t. It all depends on how fatigued you are, how fast you’re working, if you have the time to even check, etc. And in a field where plagiarism could ruin your scicomm career, you really need to ask yourself if the chance is worth it.

4) Gen AI is embarrassingly easy to “poison”- This ties in directly to #3 above. Gen AI not only copies what it sees, it also does so without determining if the facts its finding are outdated or out flat out misinformation.

THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM IF YOU’RE TRYING TO DO ACCURATE SCICOMM.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH: GENAI IS NOT A SEARCH ENGINE.

You will create SO MUCH more work for yourself if you use gen AI for your “research” because it’s so easy to have misinformation spat out in the slop. Trust me when I say that this will create twice as much work for your compared to just doing your own research in the first place. For the sake of speed and accuracy, don’t use GenAI this way.

The Scicomm YouTube channel, “Kurzgesagt- In a Nutshell,” did a great video on this poisoning issue: https://youtu.be/_zfN9wnPvU0?si=edeQB8s0VoaR93Nq. It is sensationalized, but that’s also in their style of storytelling.

5) Handmade = More Soul = More retention- We know people crave human-produced content right now. Your audience will appreciate. Every mistake in your projects will endear you to your audience, which is crucial for building a loyal fanbase and credibility.

Do the stick figures. Do the silly art. People will adore your work for it because it’s less polished!

*****

There are more reasons, but these are the top 5 for me. Strategically, avoiding genAI will not only retain your peers, but also will build a more loyal audience. Those are the big ones that you need to consider. Your community, be it the one you make via your content or the one you make via networking, will be more connected to you.

As I said before, there will be another newsletter coming in the very near future! We just need to finish the blog post, hopefully I should have some news on how folks can support my scicomm work monetarily, and I’ll add another “how to scicomm” section as a bonus!

Keep on trucking, folks!