When I started writing science articles for people around me, little did I know that I was in fact communicating science to them. So I thought I'd create a blog and upload those articles for everyone else to read. Only after I had started writing these articles did I realize that communicating science to the ordinary folk is a very important task. Every year scores of scientists churn out heaps of research material that directly or indirectly touches/ influences our lives and it is just anybody's guess as to how much of the research gets communicated to the people in the right style and content.
Though things are slowly beginning to look up & the landscape of science communication is changing, a lot is left to be desired. Let me tell you, that newspapers & magazines have begun to dedicate a column or two to discuss breakthroughs in science & technology. Internet has become an indispensable platform for releasing latest science news, forming discussion forums online & to brainstorm and deliberate on various scientific issues & questions at hand. News & knowledge based channels are dedicating their precious time to air programs of scientific importance. These channels are in fact going all out to attract audience by redesigning the content & the presentation style of their programs to make them 'edutainment programs'.
Science- Lost in Transmission:
The reason why I said that a lot is left to be desired is because the penetration level of these science communication articles or TV programs is still fairly low and it hasn't reached the masses yet. Masses don't find scientific programs alluring and they certainly don't find Neil deGrasse Tyson and his likes endearing either (heck, they won't even know who he is), probably all they want to see is their favorite movie stars jiggle & gyrate on their TV screens.
I've personally seen & known lots & lots of people who immediately skip the section of the newspaper which discusses science based articles (sadly a lot of people read newspapers for Page 3 parties, fashion, gossips, movies, and their daily horoscopes!). Why? Because they feel science is not for them or that those articles are solely based for people with science background or they don't understand the scientific jargon involved in those articles or they feel that reading them isn't of any importance to them at that moment and that they would get to them when the need arises. Like I've stated earlier, the readers/ common people aren't to be blamed entirely for their apathy towards science and its articles.
My experience with a science article:
I had once read an article in a newspaper about what could possibly be leading to the failure of pancreas to secrete insulin. For the starters, the article was very coarse in its approach towards explaining the concept. None of the scientific hard words were explained. The description of the pathway leading to the failure of pancreas seemed overly complicated. Being a post graduate in biotechnology & proteomics I found myself struggling with the article. Not only did I not understand it in one go, but I had also lost interest in finishing the article. So you can imagine what a non- science person would go through reading it. Oh wait! I don't think he/she would even bother reading it beyond the first couple of lines, they would yawn instantly and move onto something more juicy and interesting. But owing to my interest towards science in general, I didn't give up on the article, read it twice slowly, did more background research on that topic and formed an idea/ image in my head as to how pancreas must be failing to secrete insulin.
The Myth buster gets busted!:
But this is a laborious process to read & understand science isn't it? Why would ordinary folks with no science background bother to put in that kind of effort? And this certainly isn't a stray incident of bad science communication. Whatever little science is communicated, majority of it ends up the complicated way. I sometimes feel newspapers & magazines report science news as mere formality. This disinterest and apathy gets carried forward to their readers as well. Science the 'myth buster' is plagued with so many misconceptions unfortunately that students neither want to pursue the subject in their higher studies nor want to pursue a career in the field.
Communicating science- a bungled job right from the elementary school level:
I strongly feel people's fear of science also stems from their experience with science textbooks and teachers in school (like my fear & apathy towards maths and maths teachers and maths textbooks). Most teachers don't put in the effort to make science interesting or fun. The textbooks are worse...the illustrations are drabby, boring and stifle any imagination or interest the kid might have towards science. So, effectively science communication is failing right from the school level. If we want a future devoid of any scientists, then this is the perfect, failure proof recipe to adopt.
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