PIO FORUM

by Dennis Meredith

Dennis Meredith

Welcome to the first of what is hoped will be a long and useful series of ScienceWriters columns for PIOs; an answer to a strongly expressed need in the NASW member survey. I'll be alternating as columnist with my esteemed colleague Joann Rodgers of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution.

Plunging into the Multimedia Pool

My first column covers online multimedia, since it holds such enormous promise for explaining science-and also because most of us PIOs, including myself, are still mucking about trying to figure out the best ways to use it and learning the new skills it requires. That is, all except for pioneer science writer Jane Stevens, to whom we should all be grateful for helping us newbies to understand the power of these new techniques. You can see links to some of Jane's projects at the end of the article. In fact, to avoid cluttering the column, all pertinent URLs are listed in a sidebar.

Of course science journalists, even those who prefer text as their medium of choice, also need to become multimedia savvy. After all, even if a science journalist isn't assigned to seek out video clips or animations for an employer's Web site, he/she will invariably need to view videos or animations to figure out complex scientific concepts to describe via prose.

So, first of all, I propose a pact, in which journalists and PIOs agree to a set of multimedia standards, so we'll be able to communicate with one another-and, by the way, with the public.
First of all, I suggest that everybody commit to upgrade their browsers to the latest version. I use the laugh test: if one of my kids checks out my browser version and laughs, I know it's time for an upgrade. Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5 and Netscape 6.0 are the latest versions of those popular browsers. However, IE has become by far the preferred browser, since the new Netscape has proven to have serious Web compatibility and usability problems.

I also highly recommend upgrading your home Internet connection to high-speed ADSL or cable modem. Believe me, it's worth any trouble. Enjoying high-speed access is like having the heavens open up and a shaft of golden sunlight shining down to warm your upturned face. (Sorry for waxing poetic; it won't happen again.) The stunningly fast downloads and always-on status will transform the Internet into a utility as easy to use as the telephone.

Beyond these upgrades, my multimedia-savvy colleagues recommend the following standard software and browser plug-ins-all of which are free downloads or come bundled with new browsers:

• Adobe Acrobat for reading .pdf files. I also like Adobe eReader, which allows highlighting and annotating of .pdf files.
• Flash for viewing the widely used Flash animation.
• Shockwave interactive media player.
• RealMedia and/or Windows Media Player for playing video and audio files.

Most of this software will either install itself when downloaded, or you can save it to a directory, then click on the file to go through a standard installation process.

There are also a few other extremely nifty multimedia technologies that are not quite yet standards, because they're just not widespread enough.

One such technology is Hypercosm, which allows 3-D perspective animations that can be manipulated with a mouse to change the angle of view. The New York Times Web site offers a stunning set of animations showing such key concepts in genetics as DNA replication. The catch is that such animations are surely expensive to create, and I couldn't get the Hypercosm plug-in to work on my Netscape 6 browser, although it worked well with IE.

Another promising technology is iPIX, which produces 360-degree "bubble" Web images that allow a user to scan around, zoom in and out, and click on embedded links to get more information. For example, a prototype "Duke360" tour was very well received, and a more elaborate iPIX tour is now in a testing phase.

Although installing and using such multimedia viewing software is usually easy, creating multimedia can be a major and often expensive undertaking. Herewith, some examples:

The most common multimedia are, of course, digital photo images. My intrepid Duke colleague Monte Basgall showed how effectively a PIO could use first-person journalism and digital photography to cover research when he embarked on the NSF-sponsored Mid-Atlantic Ridge Expedition last November. On that month-long expedition, Monte transmitted text and images from the R/V Atlantis back to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where they were posted, along with animations and other background materials, on the expedition's Web site.

The result was an informative educational site that was inundated with hits when the expedition discovered a sub-sea thermal vent field-which they named "The Lost City" because of its stunning building-sized stalagmites that reminded them of the mythical Atlantis. Unfortunately, the cost and limitations of the available satellite link precluded digital video transmission, but lower-cost cameras are making video production of such scientific adventures our next objective.

Flash has become a key technique for animating scientific concepts, and good examples can be found at the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center and Explore Learning.com sites.
The challenges PIOs can expect to face in creating Flash-and in fact all multimedia-are perhaps best exemplified by David Salisbury's experience in developing his elegant new online Exploration magazine for Vanderbilt. Working with the programmers on Flash animation of a Vanderbilt-invented robotic bug, David found that he couldn't simply hand over images and descriptions and expect an accurate animation of the bug's walking motion. He found that he had to go through a multitude of iterations before the animators accurately portrayed the mechanism by which the bug ambulated.

Similarly, when I worked with the Web designer to create the latest version of Duke Research, I found that he insisted on inventing a new Flash-based navigation scheme, including animated arrows and graphic icons, that thrilled him but surely mystified the user. I'm sure I wounded his artistic pride when I insisted that he return to the familiar interface of scroll bars and text labels.

Despite the effort and cost, however, it's clear that multimedia can contribute enormously to explaining the complex scientific concepts both PIOs and journalists are now faced with communicating. Fortunately, there are online tutorial Web sites, one example is WebMonkey, that will help us learn them; and creative programmers that can help bring our concepts to animated life.

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Dennis Meredith is director of the Office of Research Communications at Duke University. He can be reached at dennis.meredith@duke.edu, or 919-681-8054. He welcomes comments and topic suggestions for future columns.