Editorial 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Amanda Yarnell PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills BUSINESS NEW YORK CITY: (212) 608-6306 Michael McCoy, Assistant Managing Editor Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Correspondent), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). CHICAGO: (917) 710-0924 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). HOUSTON: (281) 486-3900 Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (315) 825-8566 Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor) POLICY Cheryl Hogue, Assistant Managing Editor Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Jessica Morrison (Associate Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Senior Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Assistant Managing Editor Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), Matt Davenport (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (973) 922-0175 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), (925) 226-8202 Jyllian Kemsley (Senior Editor), (510) 390-6180 Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor) JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY (510) 768-7657 Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) (651) 447-6226 Jessica H. Marshall (Associate Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Wang (Senior Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Bryson, Assistant Managing Editor Sabrina J. Ashwell (Assistant Editor), Craig Bettenhausen (Associate Editor), Taylor C. Hood (Assistant Editor), Manny I. Fox Morone (Associate Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Assistant Editor) CREATIVE Robert Bryson, Creative Director Tchad K. Blair, Interactive Creative Director Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web Associate), Yang H. Ku (Art Director), William A. Ludwig (Associate Designer) DIGITAL PRODUCTION Renee L. Zerby, Manager, Digital Production Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production Manager), Marielyn Cobero (Digital Production Associate), Joe Davis (Lead Digital Production Associate), Krystal King (Lead Digital Production Associate), Shelly E. Savage (Senior Digital Production Associate), Cesar Sosa (Digital Production Associate) BRANDED CONTENT Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, Executive Editor Mitch A. Garcia (Editor) SALES & MARKETING Stephanie Holland, Manager, Advertising Sales & Marketing Natalia Bokhari (Digital Advertising Operations Manager), Kirsten Dobson (Advertising and Marketing Associate), Sondra Hadden (Senior Digital Marketing Specialist), Quyen Pham (Digital Advertising & Lead Generation Associate), Ed Rather (Recruitment Advertising Product Manager) ADVISORY BOARD Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Jinwoo Cheon, Kendrew H. Colton, FrançoisXavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Gautam R. Desiraju, Paula T. Hammond, Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Peter Nagler, Anubhav Saxena, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, William Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt, Deqing Zhang Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Thomas M. Connelly Jr., Executive Director & CEO Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicole S. Sampson (Chair), ACS Board of Directors Chair Pat N. Confalone, ACS President Allison A. Campbell, Cynthia J. Burrows, Jerzy Klosin, John Russell, Gary B. Schuster Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 95, Number 18
Curiosity and science
T
his week, I watched the fascinating recording of “How Science Can Save Us; How We Can Save Science” (bit.ly/2pr7PDm), an event that was held in New York City a few weeks ago. In recent times, there has been a lot of talk about the perception of science, the politization of science, and, more generally, the communication of science—and this event makes some interesting points about all three subjects. The format was that of a fireside chat with actor Alan Alda and paleontologist Neil Shubin, who were interviewed by journalist and educator Claudia Dreifus. Alda kicked the conversation off reminiscing about his experience as host of “Scientific American Frontiers,” a PBS show on science that aired for more than a decade. During his time at the show, he met and had conversations with hundreds of scientists. He admitted that he got interested in science not because the scientists were not good at communicating science—in fact, quite the opposite. They were very good at communicating science: “They were lively, they were funny, they told stories, they showed passion about their work.” One of the main barriers to communication of science is the use of jargon. Both speakers agreed that what the lay public need is “plain language. We need vividness too, we need emotion, we need stories,” despite many scientists’ obvious unease with the loss of precision that moving away from jargon confers. I have encountered this attitude on many occasions, when very often we (scientists) interpret the use of plain language as dumbing down or oversimplifying. It could be argued that in many cases, even other scientists outside one’s area of expertise would struggle to understand what we are saying. So it is not just the public but also scientists who need this clarity. And politicians. Legislators have difficulty investing money into something they don’t understand. Alda told the story of a member of Congress who recounted how in a meeting with a group of scientists who were presenting to a congressional committee, the members of Congress sat at one side of the table, the scientists at the opposite side. As the presentation evolved, the members of Congress started passing notes to each other that said, “Do
you know what this guy is talking about?” “That is not good for science, for scientists, for the country, or for the future,” said Alda. Are we approaching a crisis in science communication? Alda and Shubin agreed that society is disconnected from science, and this disconnect is more acute now than it has been for some time. Society needs to make decisions that are based in science, whether it is about agriculture, health, or the environment. But although we are increasingly in need of scientific knowledge in society, Shubin says, we have a population that is sometimes “naïve” and in other cases antagonistic to science, the scientific method, and the importance of evidence. Yet more people go to college than ever in history. As we lose the emphasis on evidencebased thinking and communication, we do indeed risk a crisis. Scientists should be against ignorance, and that’s not political. Alda spoke about various kinds of ignorance. The best kind is the one that combines with curiosity and makes you want to inquire and learn. He described himself as being part of this group, the group that approaches science with “natural ignorance and curiosity,” an approach that was key in making the PBS series successful. On the other hand, one of the worst kinds of ignorance is “when you think that what you know is what is known by anybody, and you don’t want to know any more because you obviously know everything.” Anybody who says something different is obviously wrong. Both speakers saw this “attack on expertise” as part of a more general trend, not specific to science. Science has taken us to the moon and has given us understanding of DNA. There is a lot we don’t understand, so we need to be humble and curious and fight ignorance.
Editor-in-chief @BibianaCampos
Views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.
2
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 1, 2017
