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comment by am_Unition

Maybe the most painful thing I've learned over the last few years is that the visceral appeal of pretty images is almost mandatory to justify a mission. Nevermind ever-better probes measuring magnetic and electric fields, or particle sensors with 30 ms full-sky time resolution, if you don't slap a nice camera on it and send it somewhere other than Earth, the public can't be bothered to relate.

kleinbl00  ·  119 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Okay, scientist, strap in.





Have to get









am_Unition  ·  119 days ago  ·  link  ·  


Nah, jk. By and large, I do agree with you, and I'm always good for a sesh of playing rhetorical punching bag.


I did! And you bought it, IIRC. Your family has spent ~$20 on the mission I'm working, so far. It's a harder sell to peeps with less scientific background than you, and I gotta get better at keeping those eyeballs from glazing over. Most of that's on me, for sure, and I can totes polish my pitching, but:

1) people are tired of hearing about scientists working on fusion. 2) ITER and KSTAR are kinda disparaging America's fusion prestige, atm, if it ever existed. 3) the other major angle, pretending like we need to better characterize the space environment for astronauts, is becoming increasingly disingenuous. and 4) it's getting harder and harder to convince myself that solar isn't the best thing to fund, energy-wise (besides some goddamn winterization, locally), at this point, in tandem with schemes to boost Earth's albedo, etc., 'cuz climate change.

So. Other than (finally) finishing my doctorate, I think it's time to leverage social media to my benefit. Not here, I'm talking my personal YouTube account. If nothing else, it'll give me the valuable experience of interacting with the general public ('Tube skews hella young, though). My work does excite me, most people do find it inherently exciting, and even though there are no pretty pics coming out of anything on board, I can make some hella memey shit (unrelated [OC]) with this Adobe subscription we all hate.

Thanks for that. I know, my/scientists' branding could use some work.

I will always be good for reposting this one more time:

Finding exactly who's to blame for that bullshit has been impossible. But Jesus if it still doesn't piss me right off, and I'm doubtful that the main culprit is "because scientists are unable to effectively communicate the potential benefits of unlimited clean energy". And as a "progressive", I've already used my once-weekly "blame oil and gas" punchcard for, uh, something in Texas. Edit: not really, btw, it was simply poor governance, it's just that the government here shares a massive revolving door with the fossil fuel energy sector (this edit is for posterity).