Making Communities: Public Science in the Time of COVID-19. A Conversation featuring Margaret Talbot (New Yorker) and Don Undeen (Georgetown’s Maker Hub)

What happens when supply line production of essential goods and equipment is disrupted? Can public science offer solutions? Citizen scientists and community labs are developing everything from affordable insulin to low-cost, open-source medical supplies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, maker communities such as Georgetown’s Maker Hub began producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for local healthcare facilities.

This conversation between Margaret Talbot, journalist and writer for The New Yorker, and Don Undeen, Manager of the Maker Hub In Lauinger Library, moderated by Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan (Dir. of Medical Humanities at GU), and featuring undergrad Maker Hub staffer and EMT Luce Zhu (SFS ’21) explored the worlds of open science and maker culture. How might these break through barriers in scientific research and communication, delivery of essential goods, and revolutionize communities?