Eight students from the Science Journalism program at the UBC School of Journalism visited TRIUMF on January 21, 2008. Accompanied by their teachers, Professors Aldred Hermida and Eric Janciu, the students took part in a tour of the lab and a “mock press conference” conducted by two TRIUMF scientists.
The students were very enthusiastic during the tour and asked many excellent questions. The extended tour prepared them well for the “mockference” put on by TRIUMF Scientists Isabel Trigger and Goetz Ruprecht. Drs. Trigger and Ruprecht presented mythical new results on the reduction of radioactive isotope half-lives when implanted and cooled in metals. The mythical result would have had broad implications for the destruction of waste nuclear reactor fuels, and it was up to the students to probe the scientists to discover the underlying story. Professor Hermida then led his students through a mock editorial session, where he posed as an editor and asked the students to convince him to run the story. A long Q&A discussion followed, during which the pitfalls of trusting “expert scientific sources” was discussed.
The event was considered a success, and TRIUMF and UBC are looking forward to doing it again in the future.