communicating science
pharyngula | March 10, 2008Does this story sound familiar?
The narrative goes like this:
The famous, brilliant scientist So-and-so hypothesized that X was true.
X, forever after, became dogma among scientists, simply by virtue of the brilliance and fame of Dr. So-and-so.
This dogmatic assent continues unchallenged until an intrepid, underdog scientist comes forward with a dramatic new theory, completely overturning X, in spite of sustained, hostile opposition by the dogmatic scientific establishment.
Michael White summarizes a common trope in the media and elsewhere; there's often a misleading attempt to shoehorn the…
laelaps | March 9, 2008There's Icons and Evolution, and then there's Icons of Evolution. The first one I (unfortunately) became acquainted with shortly after my interest in evolution was sparked and the second was just released this past December (although I knew nothing about it until Greg mentioned it), but I doubt that the newer book is going to have any lasting effect. Outside of it seeming like a collection of more technical essays, the sticker price on the 2-volume set is $175.00 (the cheapest copy on amazon.com being $145.00), and I know I wouldn't pay that much money for a book that contains information…
laelaps | March 4, 2008Has there ever been a time when science has been highly valued by the general public? For all our discussions and debates about the popularization of science, framing, and science education, it seems that a sense of history is often lacking. Many of us feel like we're fighting a losing battle, understanding of science having degenerated in recent years. The push towards greater scientific education and government support of scientific endeavors after the launch of Sputnik acts as some nebulous high point in which science as a way of understanding the natural world was more fully embraced, but…
laelaps | February 27, 2008A post up at Bayblab is causing a bit of a stir; ScienceBlogs.com is singled out as an incestuous conclave of hacks* where bloggers are paid substantial sums to turn out tabloid-quality science writing. Alright, maybe such a summary isn't entirely accurate, but the post by "Anonymous Coward" paints an unfavorable caricature of ScienceBlogs, making it seem like my colleagues and I care more about popularity than about science.
[*Using "hacks" to refer to popular science writers who are looked down upon for not writing how members of the scientific community want them to write.]
AC starts off…
pharyngula | February 26, 2008Today is my very, very long day, but it's going to be loads of fun. This morning, my intro biology students and I are going to shred creationism in lecture; this afternoon, I teach our first fly labs in genetics (warning to colleagues: there may be escapees); and this evening at 6, it's time for our Cafe Scientifique, down at the Common Cup Coffeehouse in town. The first 7½ hours of my teaching day you only get to join in if you pay tuition here, but Cafe Scientifique is free and open to the public!
Tonight, Jamey Jones of the Geology discipline will talk about "Using rocks to tell time and…
laelaps | February 18, 2008As T. Ryan Gregory recently pointed out in his paper "Evolution as Fact, Theory, and Path," it is a shame that the English language is so impoverished as to cause the concept of evolution to be so controversial. Within the evolutionary lexicon, "theory," "saltation," " macroevolution," "direction," "purpose," and "design" are among the words that unfortunately seem to conflate rather than enlighten as far as the general public is concerned, and now Ken Miller (of Finding Darwin's God fame) wants to take back "design" for evolution. I don't have a good feeling about this one...
As John Wilkins…
pharyngula | February 17, 2008Apparently, there was some panel on the repellent practice of "framing science" at AAAS recently, which I'm sure the principals will consider a triumph, despite their refusal to have any dissenting voices there to speak.
It reminds me of something.
Recall the recent episode with the creationist, Geoffrey Simmons? He had a strategy for winning arguments: it was to get an exclusive hour on the radio to make his case without those troubling critics. He crowed victory afterwards, too.
laelaps | February 14, 2008Plans for the next annual science blogging conference are already under way, and the 2009 meeting is going to be biggest and best yet. The 2009 meeting will be from January 16th - January 18th, 2009, allowing attendees to double their fun (and bar tabs).
pharyngula | February 12, 2008
The old man would be 199 years old today, so biologists and other science-supporting people are celebrating all around the world. Even in Morris.
I'm actually giving two lectures today. The first is a fortunate coincidence: I'm teaching an introductory biology course that emphasizes the history and philosophy of science, and today just happens to line up with my coverage of the late 19th century, and especially Darwin … so the freshman get a mini-biography of Charles Darwin. I emphasize something I think many of them can relate to, that Darwin was a young man once, who went off to college…
pharyngula | February 11, 2008Richard Dawkins is retiring from academia, but I'm sure he'll still be involved in the greater culture, so this isn't sad news at all. Now the search at Oxford begins for a new professor to take on the Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science, and from that manifesto, whoever it is will have to reach high.
Good luck to Richard and to whoever has to try and fill his shoes!
laelaps | February 11, 2008At the 2nd Annual Science Blogging Conference held a few weeks ago, fellow Scibling Chris Mooney mentioned that there was some news about Science Debate 2008 to get excited about, although he wouldn't tip his hand as to what that news might be. Now the cat is out of the bag; Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama have all been invited to participate in a debate scheduled for this coming April at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
The candidates still have to respond to the invitation and there is a lot of work to do, but I have to admit that the initiative is a lot…
pharyngula | February 9, 2008Pharyngula commenter SteadyEddy has uploaded his audio recording of the Rue-Myers discussion. It's about 22M, so I'm still downloading it…but there it is. Thanks to SteadyEddy!
pharyngula | February 4, 2008Don't answer that. But just in case you can at least tolerate listening to me, I'm interviewed on NSTA's Lab Out Loud podcast.
laelaps | February 1, 2008As if things weren't contentious enough around here already, I've got another subject for general discussion that I'm sure will lead to some debate. In science there has long been a tradition of trying to engage the public, whether it be through public debates/lectures, books, etc. As Stephen Jay Gould noted in the obituary he wrote for Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection entwines both technical and popular writing into an effective and important package. (Indeed, the widely-published version of On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection was Darwin's…
laelaps | January 30, 2008"Evolution Sunday" is fast approaching, and even though it's still about 2 weeks off I thought I'd just put up a note that I'll be speaking to the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County for the event. My talk will primarily focus on contingency, human evolution, and where those concepts intersect religion, and the discussion is slated for 9:30-11:30 AM on February 10th.
I'll be borrowing a bit from the "what we think about who we are" post and some of my other writings, but I've got a few other tricks (references?) up my sleeve, too. I know most of you aren't anywhere nearby,…
laelaps | January 30, 2008Just in case any of you haven't heard yet, tomorrow night the Science Communication Consortium is going to hold its next meeting on "emerging media outlets" & science communication. The SCC was formed by my fellow Scibling Kate (among others), and Carl Zimmer will be speaking on the panel tomorrow, so Sb will have a definite presence during the gathering. You can register at the door or online (details about the location can also be found here), and I'm sure the discussion will be vibrant.
Previously I had said that I would be at the meeting, but that's before I realized that my human…
laelaps | January 25, 2008It might be a bit tenuous to base a post on something I saw in a cheesy 80's monster movie (complete with a synthesizer- and drum machine-driven montage), but the film Monster Squad got me thinking about science education. In an early scene, two monster-obsessed young boys are called into the main office, their principal extolling the virtues of science over adolescent interest in fantastic creatures. The principal, of course, comes off as a nerd and the overall impression is that science is utterly boring. While creatures of myth and legend can be pretty interesting, nature provides an array…
laelaps | January 21, 2008It's amazing how quickly three days can pass by; on Thursday I made a mad dash to make sure everything was in order for my trip to North Carolina and by 10:30 Friday morning I was sitting in an NC hotel room, not sure if I was awake or asleep. I didn't have much time to sort myself out, though, as I soon had to head out again to the Duke University Lemur Center. There I met up with Reed, Josh, Euan, and others for a tour of the facility. It was a fascinating place (even if a little pungent), and although I did happen across a television celebrity the highlight of the day was a face-to-face…
pharyngula | January 18, 2008I just learned that Jacob Bronowski would be a century old today. I wonder how many readers here know anything about the man? Many people will praise the impact Carl Sagan had on people with his program, Cosmos, way back in the 1980s, but I have to say that Bronowski's Ascent of Man was much, much better, and far more influential on me, at least. It's a program that PBS ought to bring back — thoughtful, deep, and intellectually enriching.
The testimonial above opens with a great quote from the man:
The great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader and yet are his own experience…
pharyngula | January 17, 2008I thought it might be useful for the readers of Pharyngula to get my sense of the Colbert show experience.
Being a scientist on the show carries with it some challenges. We need to convey facts of science correctly and do so in a way reveals how fun our science is to do and to think about. We need to educate, enlighten, and excite. The challenge is we need to do this in 5 minutes with Stephen Colbert sitting across the table. To make matters worse, the show does not tell you the tack Colbert is going to take in advance, largely because so much of what he does is ad lib.
Because of this,…