How to unboil an Egg – Simplifying a scientific discovery

In 2015 this discovery made the headlines around the world  

Scientists figure out how to ‘UNBOIL’ an egg – EGGSTRAORDINARY! 

and

Scientists discover way to unboil an egg – and the results are not as pointless as that sounds 

Now I believe this a great example of a couple of issues, scientists having make their discovery interesting enough that it is reported in the media, and some people’s preconception that scientists are occupied studying things that have no bearing on normal life. Notice how the second headline tries to combat this second issue.

Firstly, the research is actually about using Urea and a “vortex fluid device” to speed up the method of unfolding misfolded proteins which could dramatically reduce waste in all sorts of biochemical processes by allowing recovery of material. So yes it is useful scientific research, but not the kind of thing you would expect to be so widely reported that you can find articles about it in every major newspaper, from the Daily Mail to the Guardian.

Now we come to how the discovery was packaged. Unboiling an Egg. Now I believe that someone was inspired when they came up with that idea. How do we make this interesting? How do we get people to relate to this? And most importantly how do we get media coverage? As someone funding research you want to know that people will hear about it, so if someone has managed to get the world to report on their previous research, I imagine, that you would look more favourably on them. After all the idea of science is that knowledge is shared and built upon, that doesn’t happen if no-one knows about your research. However not many people will have read beyond the headline. I mean isn’t that the point? You read the headline to see if you want to read the rest of the article. So has it just divided people further? Those with an interest will have probably chuckled at the headline and wanted to find out what was actually discovered but those who don’t have an interest might just skipped over the article and been left with a stronger impression that those scientists are just messing around again, not doing anything useful.

I believe that one of the issues is that this particular research represents a complex area science. Yes, everyone can relate to boiling an egg, everyone has at some point boiled an egg in their life (if not, I am sure Delia can help you). But it is a big leap from that to understanding how proteins fold, why you would want them to fold in different ways and why there would be wasted misfolded proteins. It doesn’t matter if you can make one part of your research accessible if that is the only part you can get the layman to understand. If your discovery needs to to leap that barrier between those in the field and the layman then you have to invest time in simplifying the all research. Otherwise are you just entrenching the lines further?

Further Reading

The scientific paper – Shear‐Stress‐Mediated Refolding of Proteins from Aggregates and Inclusion Bodies – https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cbic.201402427 

The Mirror – Scientists figure out how to ‘UNBOIL’ an egg – EGGSTRAORDINARY! – https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/scientists-figure-out-how-unboil-5044335 

The Independent – Scientists discover way to unboil an egg – and the results are not as pointless as that sounds – https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-discover-way-to-unboil-an-egg-and-the-results-are-not-as-pointless-as-that-sounds-10004682.html 

Delia Smith – How to Boil an Egg – https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/egg-recipes/soft-boiled-eggs