Science Communication

A Practical Guide for Scientists

Laura Bowater, Kay Yeoman

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118406663
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Science communication is a rapidly expanding area and meaningful engagement between scientists and the public requires effective communication. Designed to help the novice scientist get started with science communication, this unique guide begins with a short history of science communication before discussing the design and delivery of an effective engagement event. Along with numerous case studies written by highly regarded international contributors, the book discusses how to approach face-to-face science communication and engagement activities with the public while providing tips to avoid potential pitfalls. This book has been written for scientists at all stages of their career, including undergraduates and postgraduates wishing to engage with effective science communication for the first time, or looking to develop their science communication portfolio.

CHAPTER ONE

A Guide to Science Communication

One can hardly believe that modern science is almost included within the present century. All before then, except astronomy, was more or less speculation. Scientists had only been playing, like children, in the vestibule of the great Temple. It may be that we ourselves have not advanced far within the precincts at least, those who study these subjects 100 years hence may think so.

Dr J.E. Taylor (The Playtime Naturalist, 1889)

1.1 Introduction

The issue of science communication has risen globally in its importance in recent years, not least due to a belief that science and technology are the basis of a knowledge economy. Science and technology are an integral part of our culture and heavily influence our everyday lives. The knowledge and applications produced from science are powerful and exciting and it's reasonable to suggest that the public should know about these new advances because of the questions they raise for our society. Public money also pays for a substantial amount of research undertaken in many universities and government institutes, although we must also acknowledge that the ratio of private to public funding for scientific research and development has dramatically increased over the past 50 years (OECD, 2004). However, regardless of how research is funded, its impacts must be communicated to citizens, even if the strategies used and the motivations are different for research and development funded by private as opposed to public money (Bauer, 2010).

Communication by scientists to the public is not a new phenomenon. Even before the term scientist was first used (not coined until 1834; Hannam, 2011), Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday were engaged in the popularisation of science and Joseph Priestly was even encouraging active science experimentation by the public (Broks, 2006). Twenty-first century examples of talented communicators include among others, the physicist Brian Cox and anatomist Alice Roberts, whose enthusiasm for and knowledge about their own subject and science in general has underpinned their willingness to communicate with the public.

1.2 The influence of science societies, charities and organisations

1.2.1 Science societies

Science communication in the UK has been shaped by historical institutions such as the Royal Society, as they have commissioned influential reports that have described the relationship between science and society. The committees producing these reports have often been chaired by eminent and respected scientists and the reports have affected the way that science has been communicated to the public within the UK and across the world. The Royal Society was one of the first science societies to be established and has been in continuous existence for the longest. It was founded in 1660 by a group of well known individuals that included Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren. The Royal Society was granted a royal charter by Charles II in 1662 and the society maintained itself with dues from its members (McClellan and Dorn, 2006). The French established the Academie des Sciences in 1663, but it differed from the Royal Society in one key aspect, it was a government institution, with patronage from Louis XIV (Gribbin, 2002). Other countries also saw the value of a science society and by the end of the eighteenth century there were approximately 200 societies across Europe and North America (Fara, 2009). The Royal Society was not established to facilitate communication to a public audience, but it did begin the concept of the ‘scientific paper’ with the publication of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society from 1666, enabling communication between individuals interested in science. This was published by Henry Oldenburg, first secretary to the Royal Society from his own private funds (Gribbin, 2002). Since then the phenomenon of the scientific paper has grown in importance. It can be equated to the ‘unit of productivity’ of science (McClellan and Dorn, 2006) and it forms a substantial part of the criteria used to judge scientists in the twenty-first century. This is epitomised by the ‘scientific paper’ being used as a major criteria within the UK's Research Excellence Framework (previously Research Assessment Exercise); a process used to judge research output from universities in order to determine the level of block governmental research funding (HEFCE, 2011).

Over a hundred years after the establishment of the Royal Society, the Royal Institution (RI) was founded in 1779 as a research laboratory. It also had a role in public education, specifically to educate young workmen (RIGB, 2011). The RI was intended to be different from the Royal Society; the science was meant to be sustainable, although in reality its activities were maintained by annual subscriptions. One of the original goals of the RI was to try to apply the latest scientific techniques to improve agricultural practices and reduce the level of poverty (Berman, 1978). This philanthropic goal was soon superseded by the use of science for entrepreneurial and professional purposes to improve and advance society (Berman, 1978; Broks, 2006). Notable scientific advances by the RI include the discovery of new elements calcium, magnesium, boron and barium by Humphrey Davy, confirmation of the structure of benzene in 1925 by Kathleen Lonsdale and the structure of the enzyme lysozyme in 1965 by David Phillips. The RI also popularised science and developed the public demonstration lectures first started by Humphrey Davy in 1802. Skilled workers would attend these lectures to gain knowledge they could use to advance their careers. The format of these demonstration lectures still exists today; the RI Christmas Lectures, first started by Michael Faraday in 1825, polled 0.86 million viewers when aired on BBC 4 in 2011 (Barb, 2011). These modern lectures have covered a wide range of scientific disciplines, and have been delivered by experts in their field.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, subject-specific societies began to emerge in England, notably including:

• The Linnaean Society (1788);
• The Geological Society of London (1807);
• The Zoological Society of London (1826);
• The Royal Astronomical Society (1831);
• The Chemical Society of London (1841).

These societies began to publish their own subject-specific journals. The process of peer review materialised as one of the secretaries of the Geological Society, a certain Charles Darwin, developed a system of sending papers out for scrutiny prior to publication. This process is now standard practice among academic journals across all disciplines. Science became a common amateur pursuit in the nineteenth century and in America it became common for even small towns to have a ‘science society’. Similarly in the UK, towns and cities were also hubs of amateur scientific activity. Case study 1.1 ‘The Playtime Naturalist’, highlights such a society and pays tribute to its founder Dr John Ellor Taylor.

---

Case Study 1.1
The Playtime Naturalist

Kay Yeoman

By knowledge, by humour, by rare and excellent gifts of speech, he opened the eyes of many to the order, variety and beauty of nature.

–Memorial to Dr J.E. Taylor

While doing some reading on the history of science, I came across a reference to a British Science Association meeting held in Norwich in 1868. At this time, the president of the British Science Association was Joseph Hooker, the first Darwin supporter to hold this post.

The Darwinians minus Darwin assembled at Norwich for the Association jamboree. From far and wide they came, a rallying call of evolutionary pilgrims of every persuasion.

–Desmond and Moore (1991)

At that meeting, Thomas Huxley, staunch Darwin supporter, gave an address at the Norwich Drill Hall to a group of working men. The lecture was entitled ‘On a Piece of Chalk’ and described what could be learnt about the geological history of the Earth and the passage of time by examining not only the structure of the chalk, but also the fossil remains of plants and animals that lay within it. The lecture provided a vivid description of animal and plant life at Cromer on the Norfolk coast.

Thus there is a writing upon the wall of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, that the ancient sea bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game the spoils of which have rejoiced your geologists. How long it remained in that condition cannot be said; but, “the whirligig of time brought its revenges” in those days as in these. That dry land, with the bones and teeth of generations of long-lived elephants, hidden away among the gnarled roots and dry leaves of its ancient trees, sank gradually to the bottom of the icy sea, which covered it with huge masses of drift and boulder clay. Sea-beasts, such as the walrus now restricted to the extreme north, paddled about where birds had twittered among the topmost twigs of the fir-trees. How long this state of things endured we know not, but at length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests grew once more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the reindeer and the elephant; and at length what we call the history of England dawned.

Joseph Hooker the president of the British Science Association had strong links to Norwich; his grandfather was a Norwich merchant and his father, Sir William Jackson Hooker, was born in Norwich in 1785. His father was a keen botanist who began the herbarium which eventually became the herbarium at Kew Gardens. This local link to these eminent past scientists caught my imagination and being interested in people, history and science, I began to delve into the science of Victorian Norwich. I was delighted to find several references to the ‘Norwich Science Gossip Club’, the records for which still exist today. With a mounting level of excitement (equal to unveiling a perfect Southern blot) I set off for Norfolk County Hall and asked to view the records of the Science G...