Selling science to the masses

What comes to mind when you hear the word “science”? Nerds in lab coats? Chalkboards crowded with indecipherable equations? How about multi-billion dollar particle accelerators that you can’t quite remember the name of?

It’s fun to play around with stereotypes, but bloggers Chris Mooney, a freelance writer, and Matthew Nisbet, a professor at the American University, think such ill-conceived views of science are a big problem. The best way to remedy the situation, they say, is nothing short of an overhaul in how scientists and science writers talk to the public.

Why is this important? Politics. Author of the best-selling book The Republican War on Science, Mooney stressed that scientific issues are increasingly intertwined with everyday life. Whether embryonic stem cells or climate change, science that has the potential to save – or harm – millions of lives depends heavily on lawmakers and other members of the lay public, who often aren’t familiar with the underlying science.

The natural response is, of course, to shout “more science publications, more educational programming for the masses!” If we inundate people with information, people will educate themselves, and make better decisions about important scientific issues.

Not so, says Nisbet. People make decisions based on what they can relate to, and when they can’t relate to stem cells or greenhouse gases, they simply don’t care.

New Scientist