Colin Purrington hates most poster presentations, although he doesn't want to. About 10 years ago, Purrington, an evolutionary biologist at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, created a Web site offering tips for how to make more successful posters. The tips run from the practical (using a Photoshop plug-in to test how a poster will look to colleagues with color-vision deficiencies) to the innovative (recording a message or audio sample onto one of the recordable cards available at drug stores and then affixing the card onto a poster). He also started a group on the photo-sharing site Flickr called "Pimp My Poster," where scientists can submit their posters and get instant feedback.
On a rainy evening last May, a group of about 25 researchers gathered in a small meeting room at Columbia University to hear Purrington talk about how to make their posters better. One of the first questions that came up ...
