This will be a short and sweet post.
The scientific community needs to become better communicators. If we as a whole were better able to translate our research into things that people can understand we would be in a much better place as a society. People outside of science (and some scientists) do not understand how we process data, run statistics or present findings. If every PhD candidate also had to to take a communications course, there would be much less doubt about science.
We would be much less likely to have people denying climate change.
Or in the case of what sparked this post today, we would be much less likely to have the head of the Canadian Football League (yes, we have a professional football league in Canada) denying a link between concussions (which are a traumatic brain injury) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The burden is in part on consumer of information to become more informed about what is there, but scientists do everyone a disservice when they poorly communicate to the media and general public about their findings. The media and their awful representation of science is a topic for another day.
Love always,
Ian + AL
P.S. Science rules
I agree with you.
There are great scientists or science shows on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites:
And last but not least the really great last lecture of Walter Lewin: For the Love of Physics
Enjoy spending some time learning a lot of things! :)
Thanks @renewable !
Yes communication is important, and I think it is important for people to realize that science is for everyone not just those with degrees and white jackets. I mean c'mon some of the biggest discoveries are from people experimenting outside of their field. (Mendel, Darwin)
I completely agree @scitechlive ! By having science on a pedestal that is unintelligible we do it a great disservice. I also think that a ton of future discoveries, especially in the technology/AI world, will be made by people without degrees as our education systems have yet to catch up to that rapidly adapting world - and I don't know that they ever will.