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The floor is yours.

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Good. Can you hear me and see my slides?
Yes, yes. Okay. Thank you. So yeah, I was

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just I have some experience of writing.
I'll say what that amounts to during the

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talk. But I really just going to talk
about science writers or science

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scientists who writes and I guess if you
get one thing from the talk, in the end,

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you'll be really clear about what I think
the differences. So here's his top four, I

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see we have quite a lot of people
connected. And it's kind of interesting

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among giving a communications talk, you
know, LSE physics meeting. So I have to

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make some assumptions. It's obviously for
you since you're listening, I hope you get

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something from it. But who am I assuming
you are? I'm assuming the idea sir,

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essentially interested in particle
physics, actually, particularly the Elysee

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interested in science communication and
interested in the writing aspects in

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particular science communication, but
there will be some very different mixes in

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the audience. So there'll be some very
experienced professionals. Some just

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starting or thinking of starting. And I
mean by that, you know, there'll be some

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very experienced physicists and we're
thinking of starting more communication

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activities, probably some very experienced
communications professionals who are maybe

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not so experienced in physics or maybe a
new to studying science communication

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about particle physics. So that's who I
think you are, who am I? This one, I'm

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more sure. I guess. I'm a physicist on the
ATLAS experiment, the LSE. I'm also an

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academic in the UK. You've already seen
the UCL logo a few times and I'm another

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UCL person. We took over the city of
education from the previous talk a couple

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years ago.

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We merged with

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the UN I'm also an author. So as an
author, that's multiple roles. We I

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am an author of scientific papers, both as
part of Atlas and previous large

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collaborations, and also shorter author
this papers. I'm an author of courses and

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lectures in my teaching role at UCL. Both
of undergraduate and postgraduate. I,

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myself have not written any textbooks, or
at least probably people in the audience

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who haven't. It's an important aspect of
writing for science communication. And I

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also write on the science, about science.
For the layperson. I have a blog column

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articles and books. And it's this one that
the main focus of the talk will be on,

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although I say a little bit about the
first two, what I am not as a journalist,

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I don't do journalism. And this is
something even I've written in a British

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newspaper, not as a journalist. Obviously,
journalism is very important, but it's a

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different thing. I will say a little bit
about it, because I've been on kind of the

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receiving end of journalism. I've done
many interviews with journalists and

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things over the time. So I'll say a little
bit about all four of these, sorry about

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the helicopter in the background.

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But I will focus on the third one.

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So some I'm going to try and give you some
personal experiences and opinions which

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might be useful or interesting. I'm going
to focus as I said, on writing for

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laypeople. I hope for some challenge in
this course. from people with different

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experiences because I'm aware this is very
much ad hominem This is about my personal

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perspective. And many people have
different journeys through this kind of

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world. So one slide on journal papers.
When we're writing scientific papers, we

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give priority to important detail and
avoidance of ambiguity. That said, we

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still an ambiguity is a useful tool,
sometimes in making people want to read

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what you write. So we don't want that in
our scientific papers. However, we should

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still write them as if we want them to be
read or readable. Not sure that's high

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enough upon our agenda sometimes when
we're writing these papers, but I think it

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should be. And so in my view, actually a
bit more clearly identified speculation

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and enthusiasm in the discussion paths
would sometimes be good. But it's very

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difficult when you have a large author
list. And of course, we have to be very

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careful not to overhype our own results.
The main point and point of these papers

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is to report facts. left some courses,
kind of similar in some ways in that it's

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about communicating often quite technical
detail. But I think as teachers, we all

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place a lot more emphasis on engaging the
enthusiasm and the activity of the

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audience. Because as we papers, you can
only do a certain amount by putting facts

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in front of people, you need them to
engage with them and digest them and

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explore them. We hope our scientific
colleagues are all teed up to do that when

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they're reading the paper. We are trying
to encourage our students to do the same

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thing. Depending on the level, we have
various levels of success. The

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mathematical methods is quite a tricky one
to do that with sometimes but that's what

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that's our goal. Okay, so then the main
core of the talk science for the

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layperson. And this is really about my
personal experiences. I'm not trying to

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make any universal statement here, but I
have I think there are some themes that

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might be useful to people that might come
out and just of interest maybe it all

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started for me with life and physics.com
WordPress blog that I wrote, and that

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blog, in fact, stimulates you by a series
of videos called colliding particles,

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which you can still find on Vimeo there,
which were funded by stfc, and directed

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and filmed a marketer, Mike Patterson, not
scripted, they were completely just, he

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would point the camera at us and talk to
us. And I featured my student at the time,

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Adam Davidson, who's now head of data
science at the economist, Gavin salon, who

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many of you will know and Matthew Rubin
who was his student at the time. And it

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started in the run up to the LSE turn on,
thousand seven, eight, finished just

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included the fake turn on in 2000. In
fact, it finished the stuff that Higgs

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discovery and it was aimed in the UK at
the kind of how science works, the

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curriculum. So it wasn't about trying to
teach people particle physics. He was

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trying to teach people what scientific
researches and how it works, which is was

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very interesting, actually very good. But
I started a blog down to try to explain

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more what the science actually was because
I got lots of particle physics. Questions

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on the back of those videos. And the
videos didn't really explain the particle

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physics. So I was trying to do that in the
blog. And it ended up also talking about

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how science works. And it also ended up
banging on about politics occasionally

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because unfortunately it's not ignorable.
And I still write it occasionally. And the

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best thing about that whole experience is
that we I got lots of feedback from

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readers and plenty of time to try and what
works with different audiences and what

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doesn't, and also to learn that you can't
possibly please everyone all the time.

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Picture down on the right there, that's
that's me on an aeroplane. If you remember

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aeroplanes, we're trying to do some work.
And that's the header of the blog page,

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which is as it is now. And that's the kind
of forward love that map picture is

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something that we'll come back to shortly.

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So the blog, then,

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led to the guardian. The Guardian is one
of the UK's leading national newspapers

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with presence also the US Australia
required Like, international readership,

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The Guardian size team in 2010 ish with
olive jar who's also now The Economist,

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actually, who was keen on starting a blog
network for the paper ideas sample, you

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may have seen his book, The called
massive, which was he was writing about

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the Higgs before we actually found it. And
he's a big fan of particle physics. So

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they saw my WordPress blog initially
bought some articles off me to post on the

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guardian. And then in the end, they
offered to host it. This is really good

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experience. Some worries about whether
you're actually displacing science

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journalists by doing this, but they
actually paid me for it a reasonable rate.

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So we were not doing we're not undermining
the, the living of journalists that way.

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And also, as I say, we were not actually
doing journalists. So journalism, so there

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was a really quite a distinct role. This
was reporting from the inside, not from

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the outside. Journalists clearly have to
retain some more distance from the subject

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than I do. When I'm writing a blog. For
instance, those article had a fantastic

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experience a whole new bunch of reader
feedback and chances to try things out

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again and fail and fail better.
Unfortunately, the new editor once on

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Rusbridger left and the new editor
eventually noticed this blog network, she

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closed the whole thing down as part of the
vision, I mean, it shouldn't really

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complain because the garden is not at
least not going bankrupt anymore. But it

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was a bit of a shame. I think it was a
missed opportunity. But I'm very grateful

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for the seven years we've had doing that.
And I carry on now In other media. So once

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you get on a journalist contact list, of
course, you will come back to so many

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stories to consult and discuss sometimes
not related. And it's quite important to

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say no, this is not something I wish to
talk about because either is stupid, or

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there's 10 other people that are qualified
here and I'll get I'll give you their

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names. I've written for the new
scientists, nature, news and views on

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various others, but a lot of interviews
and they're very different. The even if

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the interview ends up being almost
entirely things you said to the

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journalist, you have no control over what
they're going to say at some level, they

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will sometimes fact check but there's no
guarantee. So it's a little more nerve

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wracking in some ways. And not just print
media but this is also talking about TV

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radio podcasts. We did horizon program on
the Higgs and chat shows, which not that

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many science chat shows, but there is one
quite well known in the UK, which is the

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infinite monkey cage and that's Robin
Hanson, Brian Cox to do that. But transfer

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Linda Burton run this thing called cosmic
shambles with Robin, with a lot of overlap

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with what the people including Brian have
people who go on Infinite monkey cage, and

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when the Guardian shut their

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network down.

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These guys basically took over at least
the blog so they were going concerns that

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they wanted including mine. There's a nice
website mixes science, music and comedy

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very active during the lockdown. They do
podcasts and little video. It notes and

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things as well. And as I say, they're now
hosting several of the old Guardian books,

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including mine. I don't actually use that
really as a blog, though I tend to know

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write articles for them that are more
fully formed and use the blog is more of a

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stream of consciousness stuff. And then
finally books. I'll say a little bit about

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how I got into but what I will say now,
the key thing if you want to write a book

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that people will actually read is, first
of all, get an agent and then get an

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editor. And I got an agent. This is at
least my experience, I got an agent

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because of the blog and the guardian.
Because she saw as Diane banks have

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nothing talents and facts, and she saw
that I could write and saw that people

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wanted to read what I could write. So I
think the main message here is if you want

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to write things, then start writing and
put them out there for people to read and

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learn the lessons and then you have a
portfolio to show an agent and then the

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agent. If they're good. We'll get you the
editor, which is what Diane did for me. So

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the first book I wrote with smashing
physics, which is called most once a

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particle in the United States and Canada
is a member personal Academy, the Higgs

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discovery. He drew heavily on the blog,
although it was completely rewritten the

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blog was a fantastic backbone for this. It
was published by Hachette in the UK and

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experiments a little publishing house in
the US and translated into a few

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languages. And as I said, the experience
of writing this The concept was quite well

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defined it was the editor was quite hands
off, but obviously helpful because he

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would, he helped me pull the background
flesh out the backbone, if you like and

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turn it into stuff people could understand
give the book a more continuous narrative

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on of the narrative was really provided by
you know, the the point of the book is

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what was it like to be involved in
discovering the Higgs boson and that was

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that's kind of writes itself in terms of
the plot development there. But the editor

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was fantastic and in basically tried to
make sure that I didn't disappear into

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physics and I was very keen not to be
fascinated about this, I wanted to be

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real, I wanted to give the real physics
and the real experience. And as we know,

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some of that can be difficult and elitist,
and, and also boring sometimes, in fact,

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having an editor, try to stop you doing
all those things is very useful. And then

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the second book, The only other one I've
read so far was a map of the invisible,

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which is called lots of land in the US and
Canada and Italy and France. And this is a

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more playful journey through particle
physics is a lot less personal. It's not

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really, I'm not really in this book, I'm
all over the place in setting physics. And

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it uses exploration of the metaphor is
published by those people around the

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world. And the concept in this case was a
different publisher in the UK, in fact,

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and the concept was developed much more in
tandem with the editor and eventually with

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the illustrator as well. And that was a
very different experience and equally

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interesting and rewarding, but very, very
different. The industry This is where

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these maps come from. This is drawn by
Chris wormald, who's the illustrator that

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does the book illustrations for Philip
Pullman, His Dark Materials books, which I

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was very honored to get him to draw
physics. For me. This was a lot of fun

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drawing this kind of stuff. And it seems
to have seems to work well in terms of

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making people less frightened of reading
about particle physics because they see

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the cartoons, this kind of Tolkien esque
map. So they're so I'm aware that a lot of

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that is very individual and just about
where I happen to do this, but maybe,

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maybe in different we do collect enough
anecdotes, we do get some kind of data.

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I'm not sure about that. But I think there
are some thoughts and conclusions

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absolutely worth drawing from it. Writing
from the public for the public is hard

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work, but it's enjoyable, at least. I
don't think you should probably do it if

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you don't enjoy it, and I do very much. I
find it really rewarding and interesting

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to see professional editors, journalists,
agents, publicists the work may come as a

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shock to us particle physicists can do
everything. We are very smart, but we

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don't know anything. It's seriously been a
real privilege working with some of the

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people involved in these fields.

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More Personally, I find the writing code
and papers competes directly with writing

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other stuff. So those books and most of
the blog were written while I was doing

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more management roles, I was head of
department at UCL. And that was before

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that it was head of a physics group on
Atlas. And I didn't have my own live

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analysis, then I wasn't actually writing
science paper. Because myself I was more

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overseeing, facilitating other people
doing that. Now, after a year sabbatical,

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stepping down from those and writing a lot
more science and a lot more code. And I'm

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finding it much harder to actually write
other things. I hope that changes at some

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point, I hope I can manage to do both. But
I find I'm using the same creativity when

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I spend the day right doing writing code
and doing physics. I'm too tired to write

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a blog. Whereas when I spent a day in
management meetings, I was kind of eager

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to write the blog. It's an interesting
class I didn't really expect that I must

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say. And finally, I haven't really talked
about science writers and journalists in

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general, I think I have enormous respect
for the writers who research new areas,

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and then write about them. And people like
Philip ball, and Jim Baggett and various

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other people in our area who do this, I
really only write about my own research.

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So I've done most of the hard work
already, because that's my job as a

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particle physicist. And then all I have to
do is put it down on paper. So I think

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this is the thing about scientists who
write and science writers, I am a

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scientist who can write hopefully
reasonably well, about my own stuff. But

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that's very different from writing about
someone else's stuff, which means you also

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have to understand it. You have to go out
there and research the topic before you

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write the data. And research is obviously
made in particle physics is obviously my

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day job. So it's done already. Okay, I
hope that was useful and interesting to

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sort of you, I'm happy to talk about

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Thank you very much. Do we have a couple
of questions about writing about science,

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science writing?

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See, there is one. Okay. So Matthew.

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I was just interested in how, at this
point, there have been lots of books

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written about astrophysics in our field.
And it seems that, you know, ground has

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been covered. So, whoo, how do you find
something new to write about, or how do

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you find something, a way to put things
across that hasn't been done before?

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Yeah, I wish I wish knew how to do that
reliably because there's a reason I've

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ever heard, because I can't think of a new
angle. You're absolutely right. A lot of

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things have been done. I mean, the first
book, that was a no brainer, because well,

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first of all, the Higgs discovery was new,
and no one had written about it that

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anyway, lots of people were, of course,
but no one had. So I had like the unit, it

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was a personal account. And that was good.
And that was clear. The second one was how

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to work. And that's why, as I said, the
concept was kicked around more with the

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editor. I think in that case, I was a
little fed up of the fact that the idea

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that we're, we're taking off boxes in the
theoretical world, you know, that we tick

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a box with the Higgs and things and I
wanted to really use a metaphor for

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exploration, which is actually a metaphor
I use in my own work and I use in

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seminars, and I felt that that was under
not not fully not well enough understood.

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We, a lot of popular science books talk
about the fundamental. You're going to

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prove string theory, you're going to prove
that The existence of this kind of stuff.

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And I wanted to make the point that
actually we're exploring that. So that was

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the underlying idea. And the maps was just
a joy when we came up with that idea that

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was actually in discussion with the
editor, that we came up with that idea,

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and then he found the illustrator. So
those two things work that way. I haven't

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most of a preferred way of working. So if
you've got a good idea, go for it.

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All right, then, maybe in the interest of
time, if there's any other questions

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coming up for john, then we can maybe take
them after everyone gave their talk.

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Thanks again, john. Okay, and then we can
come to alter. Another aspect of doing

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outreach we thought is networks national
networks and