Student-run Stemosphere blog makes science news accessible

Friday, March 31, 2017

Stemosphere

The intersection of science, society, and daily life.

Undergraduate fellows in CLAS’ Latham Science Engagement Initiative and Fellowship Program are hard at work making science accessible to the general public. In one Latham project, the science blog Stemosphere was created to engage the public in discussions of science and opportunities in STEM.

“All too often, science articles are either incredibly condescending and full of jargon or oversimplified and the integrity of the research is lost,” says the “Stemosphere Story” section of the website. “In this blog, we hope to spark your interest in new research and scientific discoveries and communicate scientific topics in an easy-to-digest way.”

Stemosphere is completely directed and edited by student staff, and all contributors to the blog are fellows in the Latham program. Founded in 2016 by Latham alumnus George C. Murray, the blog is now run by editor-in-chief Cassandra H. Poulos and Video Director Steven Huang.

Sample blogs from Stemosphere:​

Stemosphere has also recently added vlogs to the mix, recording the progress of other Latham fellows’ STEM outreach projects.

Visit the Stemosphere blog, or follow it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep informed on the latest science news.

The Latham Science Engagement Initiative and Fellowship Program, made possible by a generous donation of Robert J. and Sue B. Latham of Cedar Rapids, is based in the Department of Biology in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. 

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.