It was more of a focus group session rather than a conference. I was invited to participate in a focus group of scientists in Malaysia and Singapore where we discussed the phenomenon of “hype” in science. The session as well as the whole research are led by Dr. Maria Teresa Soto-Sanfiel of NUS (National University of Singapore), who appears at the right corner in the screen cap above. She was the PI of this grant study at the Centre for Trusted Internet and Community that are about “hype” in science and scientific communication. ( https://ctic.nus.edu.sg/ctic.hype/ )

When I submitted my IC to her, I didn’t know who was going to attend. But I found it pleasant surprise to see some of my colleagues at Faculty of Medicine at UM also attending. Given that medical fields see so many hypes and misinformation circulating around, it was no wonder. We had a about 2-hour long focus group and discussed lots of topics related to the “hype” and “misinformation” in science as a whole, especially this time of post-Convid era. I’d be glad if I had contributed to the group to some degree. Thanks for the opportunity, Dr. Soto-Sanfiel!

For those interested in the topic and keen for scientific solutions:

To fight Covid-19 vax hesitancy: https://gizmodo.com/covid-antivaxxer-misinformation-vaccine-1849587965

To understand how our brain works with misinformation: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_our_brains_help_misinformation_go_viral

To see how scientists protect themselves from misinformation hype: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/06/news-misinformation-attack

To find out a massive effort (and funding) to combat misinformation at CAL: https://journalism.berkeley.edu/our-better-web/