In January, Kristopher Hite moved from Colorado to join Emory as a post-doc in the biology lab of Roger Deal. Hite hit the ground running, fueled by his love of good science communications, along with his passion for science itself.
Hite recently attended ScienceOnline, an annual event in Raleigh, North Carolina, that brings together scientists, writers, educators, programmers and others using the Web to change how science is done, taught and communicated.
“You bring what you know to ScienceOnline, and you receive an immense amount in return,” Hite says. He compares it to teachers learning from their students. “The wider the audience of people that you interact with, the more you can potentially learn,” he says.
While at Science Online, he heard about a Twitter event started by Adam Taylor, a high school science teacher in Nashville. Called #scistuchat, it unites high school students and leading scientists for virtual conversations.
Last week, he participated with three other scientists in a #scistuchat about cloning, using his Twitter handle @thorsonofodin. “It was so cool!” he says. “There was an explosion of tweets from high school students from all over the country, asking relevant questions.”