In light of my continued and increasingly public involvement with Science Borealis (a Canadian science blogging network that a group of us are putting together), I think the time has come to put my actual name on this blog, rather than awkwardly skirting around the pseudonym issue. I was hoping to have a rebuilt site ready to go by now, but science has had other ideas and kept me busy lately. So, without further ado…..

Hi! I’m Stephanne Taylor — like Stephanie, but spelt just strangely enough to cause confusion — and I’m a PhD student at McGill University in Montreal. I’m currently studying physical oceanography, but I have done research in gravitational physics and also a bit of applied physics. I’ll have a full research write-up and bio when I finish the new site, hopefully within a few weeks.

In the mean time, I’m handling the Twitter account for Science Borealis for July, where we’re trying to build a robust network of Canadian scientists, science communicators of all stripes, and science enthusiasts in advance of our full site launch. Please join us there!

One time a couple of years ago, when I was working on my MSc, my parents took me out for dinner, and in the middle of it, my Dad handed me a pocket notebook and a package of eight Crayola crayons and asked me to explain my thesis to him.  I found a blank page, thought for a minute, and tried to put my very abstract thesis into pictures, to moderate success — art is not something I’m talented at, and the pictures ended up squished in a corner of the crowded page.  It must’ve made an impression on my Dad, though, because since then, whenever my Dad has asked about what I’m working on, he’s made a quip about having a package of crayons waiting for me.   

My parents are both very smart people, but neither of them have much of a formal background in science beyond high school.  Science is often communicated in technical language, which is often very discipline-specific and can be very obscure, or through popular media, which frequently obscures or misrepresents the findings.  However, I believe that having a grasp of solid, evidence based science is becoming increasingly important, regardless of what level or kind of formal education a person has.  This blog is my attempt to lay a plank over the gap between the technical language of science and the lay language of people like my parents.  Eight Crayon Science is not about jargon, obscure details, or pages of formulas and mathematics. It’s about the fundamental ideas underpinning the science that affects our everyday lives. It’s about communicating those ideas, discoveries, and theories in a way that’s clear, honest, and hopefully accessible. It’s about fostering a dialogue about science that everyone, not just specialists and scientists, can participate in comfortably — and I hope you do! Science is helping to provide us with the means to understand some of the most important changes occurring in the world around us, and I hope you’ll join me in exploring and discovering our world.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions for posts, or feedback, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at eight.crayon.science {at} gmail {dot} com. Welcome aboard!