What exactly do we mean by "impact"?
The word "impact" is thrown around scientific and academic circles, both in publications as a weak, generic verb that provides very little information about the relationships between quantities, as well as to describe the societal relevance of research. While I hope the former usage of the term becomes less popular, I will discuss the latter. Over the past few months, I have had the tremendous opportunity to be the "Lead Science Content Writer" for an exhibit on the Boulder Creek watershed at the Museum of Boulder. In this role, I synthesized a large body of work across a variety of scientific disciplines to create relevant and engaging content for a public audience of all ages. Through this process, I realized that in the sciences there are at least two distinct definitions of what constitutes impactful research. One school of thought defines "impactful research" as work that relates specifically to a particular community. For example, water quality as...