GeekStack is recruiting playtesters for our online trading card game with a science and technology theme. If you're interested, sign up here. Thanks!
Science Has a Serious PR Problem
Posted on | March 5, 2010 | No Comments
I’ve heard people say “we need to make science cool” – a lot of that talk was at ScienceOnline 2010 – and that would be nice, but I don’t think that’s really the answer. “Science” isn’t really going to beat out American Idol or the NFL or whatever.
Cool is important, but I think we need to make science relevant. There’s a difference. For example, I think every scientist should listen to Robert Krulwich’s 2008 Commencement Address to graduates of Cal Tech:
“When a cousin, or an uncle, or a buddy comes up and asks you, “so what are you working on?” even if it’s hard to explain, even if you know they don’t really want to hear it – not really – I urge you to give it a try. Because talking about science, telling stories to regular folks is not a trivial thing. Scientists need to tell stories to non-scientists because science stories – and you know this – have to compete with other stories about how the universe works and how the universe came to be. And some of those other stories – Bible stories, movie stories, myths – can be very beautiful and very compelling. But to protect science, and scientists – this is not a gentle competition – you’ve got to get in there and tell yours, your version of how things are and why things came to be.”
Yes, we should celebrate science and scientists in our pop culture. But it’s not enough. Science has to be accessible and relevant. Those who do it must be able to talk about it – not “media trained” but able to explain, in simple terms, what it is, why it’s important to them, and why could be important to everyone else.
via It’s Not a Lecture: Science Has a Serious PR Problem.
Delicious
Comments
Leave a Reply
