Sometimes I’m surprised at how many of my fellow scientists
don’t believe in popular science and science communication in general. To me it’s
a natural thing to do, to talk about our science to the general public. It’s
our duty after all. But to some fraction of scientific community it’s a waste
of time because of a number of reasons like: ”it’s not our job”, or, “we are
not good at it (speaking to the public)…we should leave that to trained
professionals (who ever that may be)”, or, “I’m too busy and I get nothing out
of it”, or, “whatever you do it’s gonna end up like stories in yellow press,
taken out of the context, misinterpreted, blown out of proportion”, or, “the government
should gives us funds no matter what and we shouldn’t have to justify ourselves
to anyone”. The next couple of lines are
intended for that fraction of scientific community…if they ever stumble upon
this.
See, I think science communication IS our job. We may not be
directly paid for it, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. Like doctors -
their job is to treat you, to cure you, but its understood that they should
also explain to you, in layman terms preferably, the illness, the treatment
etc. That is also their job.
Sure, not everyone is equally good in speaking in public,
talking to the media, and doing the whole science communication thing. There are enough prejudice and stereotypes
about science and scientist as something difficult and complicated, usually practiced
by the people who are hard to talk to, with no social skill and no clue on how
to speak in laymen’s terms and make sense of those complicated equations to
anyone. So yes, making someone like that
engaging in science communication would be counterproductive. But the easiest thing is to just say “I’m not
good at it”, and not even try, cause most of it can be learned! There are
tricks one can learn to help him/her talk about science to the general public
or media. For instance, I’m not very good at drawing. Almost no talent at all.
But I like to draw and I was a big fan of the Ninja Turtles when I was a kid,
and I really really wanted to be able to draw them. So I practiced. Drawing line
by line. Now, I can draw a really good Leonardo or any other Ninja Turtle, but
if you ask me to draw you Splinter, their rat friend, or anything else, I would
fail miserably. My point being – not everyone has the talent, but everyone can
learn tricks to compensate and be better at it. Now, you might think that that
looks like a lot of work for something you get noting out of? Why practice so
much to give public talks and talk about popular science? What’s in there for
you? An upgrade of your general talk-giving skills which you can apply on your
conference talks as well! Trust me, it will do wonders! Usually, only small
fraction of your colleagues do research in the very narrow field you are in,
and they will get your science talk anyway. But, scientific meetings are often
aimed for a wider research field, so there usually are people who haven’t spend
a lot of time thinking about your specific research topic. So if at such meeting you give a really
technical talk about your specific topic, some people may not fully understand
every piece of it, or fully appreciate your results. And you want them to
appreciate your results! Especially those people from a wider field because
sometimes they can have the best insight because they are looking at things
from different angle than you! So its important to break things down to
everyone when giving talks, even in the scientific community, because your point will get through more
easily. And you do this by applying the same skills and tricks you use when
communicating science to the public!
Now, some say that no matter what you do, the media and the
public always misinterpret the science and use it in a sensationalist way. That
might be true at some level but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying to make
things right, to get the right science story across, to talk about science to
the public! What would happen to the scientific literacy of the general public,
if we stopped talking about science and the media stopped covering it?! We have
enough astrology and other crackpot science as it is! Imagine what would happen
if we gave up! Rising the scientific literacy is what made people go more to
the doctor when they are sick than to the local voodoo priest! So its our duty
to talk about the science and fight all the misinterpretations and the
crackpots! Here in Serbia for instance, people hid in their homes during the
1999 solar eclipse, afraid that something bad might happen to them if they go
out! To me that was shocking and only due to the fact that we haven’t talked
about science enough, leaving most of the public scientifically illiterate. So
yes, we have to talk about it, correct the news that have been misinterpreting the
science, talk even about the things we the scientists find silly, like
horoscopes and “upcoming apocalypses” .
And finally, yes, I think we should in fact justify
ourselves and our spending to the public. Science would not die without funds,
but would be seriously hampered, and progress would be difficult. But sometimes
it’s hard for an average Joe, with few mortgages and loans in the middle of an
economic crisis, to understand why so much funding should go to science. It’s
our job to explain why and how is science improving his own life, and will
improve the life of his children. It’s our job to remind him of all the great scientific
achievements which he encounters in his everyday life, and to inform him about
how the current science is hoping to improve his life. It’s our job to make him
interested enough in the science so that when his kid gets interested, he is
there to support him and encourage him, rather than dismiss him and push him to
some other “more profitable and useful” career.
So, my fellow scientists, should we talk about science in
the public? I believe that if we think like the scientists, if we break it down,
look at it from all the angles, think
about the cause and the consequence, if we are objective, we can only reach one
conclusion. ..
Now go out there and give some public talk about the science
you love so much! :)
