Science needs to talk more but I know many scientists who don’t…

A comment I replied to on LinkedIn which I thought was worth expanding on here – a rare moment of clarity pre-coffee.

Scientists don’t engage the community while wearing their scientist hat for a range of reasons. These can include…

  • because their Organisation doesn’t support them 
    ..or actively discourages them
  • because they fear to make a mistake 
    ..but errors are correctable and making them is a normal human(ising) trait
  • because there are no rewards 
    ..selfless is for others huh? With less snark, there are only so many hours in the day and if engagement isn’t able to be measured and put in a CV with outcomes, some academics simply won’t partake. This needs to change – with or without someone having worked out a way to quantify these efforts – the world needs science voices. I’m pretty sure we can come up with innovative ways to make engagement part of the job/day/grant/life.
  • because they don’t realise the need for such communication is dire
    ..and it really is

Science can talk about what we do know and apply that knowledge to other situations in the news. Science can bring logic to the other aspects of our lives – yes, that includes political aspects of life of which we as humans are always involved.

There is also a need for scientists to communicate clearly to the public about what we and do not know.

Times are a’changing

The community is more educated than it was and the questions it asks are more sophisticated than they ever were. Brushing these off – and I’m thinking about vaccines in particular here – with “but there’s been no sign of harm” in the short term, is not good enough.

If we as scientists, even if from outside a particular field of research, cannot find and point to work that answers a question about harm – how do we expect a member of the public too? Assumption: they’ve actually looked. 

If this happens then we need to roll out that tired old grant-writing adage, “more research is needed”. Truth over sophistry is required today.

Not you. You shut up.

Not all scientists can communicate or can communicate in ways that non-scientists can understand.

Not all scientists can engage with annoying people without losing their temper-or becoming annoying themselves.

Not all scientists have knowledge on all topics (du-uh). I know what I’m talking about here because I’m talking about myself.

So what I’m saying is that we scientists are just like any other human being. But, because of our training and skills, we scientists can also add clarity to biased discussions or rebut crazy conspiracies calmly and with reason. If we can, we should.

Represent. Science.

In my opinion, many individual scientists that could be good at any of those things are yet to wade in and stay for the long haul. One does not have to do this while representing an Institution or Organisation. Scientists are citizens and can simply apply our accrued education and experience to a range of problems.

Having a supportive and vigilant Institution also makes a big positive difference to the scientist’s initial brand and trustworthiness. Science needs to talk more.

Let’s use our science powers for good, not just for papers and funding.

*Imported Post

  1. This post from 10FEB2017 was posted over on my old blog platform virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au. It has now been moved to here.

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