Communicating Science

Last week I had the chance to listen to a presentation by Art Markman, an Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin and Founding Director of the Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations. In his presentation, he focused on the key strategies for communicating science effectively to a public that does not have a science background, and how to keep that public engaged and excited while talking to them about science.

Coming from a science background, I was able to understand some of the scenarios he was explaining when it comes to communicating science with people without a science background. Even though I am still a scientist in training, I am picking up on the jargon of my field, and I’ve realized this while watching the presentation as I looked back at the times that I have talked to my friends back home about what I am doing in my research, and most of them gave me puzzled looks and simply said, “Wow that sounds cool!” They didn’t say that because they actually thought it was cool, or maybe they did, but they said that simply because they probably didn’t understand much of the words I was using to explain my research.

My biggest takeaway form Art Markman’s presentation was when he said that the goal of science is not to become famous, but to communicate what we (scientists) are doing, and why it is important because years from now it will matter to someone. Up until I watched his presentation, I always tried using the “big words” of my field to make me sound like I know what I’m talking about. However, as Art Markman mentioned, even though that makes me sound smart and technical, it doesn’t really help the cause of communicating the art of science to people who know nothing about it. Therefore, this time I plan on keeping my “big words” to the minimum so I can actually engage not only my friends in something I love doing and talking about, but also the general public. Who knows, maybe the research I am doing now will eventually rise up to be something that will matter for the rest of the world, and I want people who know what it is and what was it took the scientists to create that research and get the results.