communicating science
pharyngula | October 12, 2007I unashamedly stole that title from Warren—it was just too good to pass up.
If I was an opponent of framing before, I'm afraid my views have now hardened far more: one Framer thinks Al Gore, winner of the Nobel, is a flop. What does a person have to do to convince the framing crowd that they're communicating science? That they're opening up the public discussion? That they're making people think? We already know that writing a best-selling book doesn't do it, and now we learn that winning the acknowledgment of the world community with a Nobel prize isn't significant, either. "Framing" seems…
laelaps | October 10, 2007On October 18th (next Thursday) the NYAS Science Allicance will be presenting a panel discussion entitled "How Various Media Outlets are Used to Popularize, Communicate & Promote Science" at NYU. Christopher Mims (Scientific American), Ann Marie Cunningham (NPR's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday), Kitta MacPherson (the Star Ledger's Science section), and David Levine (Office of Communications and Marketing for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation) will be the panelists, although I'm a bit disappointed to see that blogs aren't being represented on the panel and science…
pharyngula | September 30, 2007Now Matt Nisbet weighs in, and Mike Haubrich gives an amazing summary of not just what I said, but what I meant to say.
One thing I referred to I called the "science education extinction vortex", and referred to this hastily drawn diagram:
My point was that we have all these forces working together to amplify a problem, and slapping some nice words on it to make people feel good about it all isn't going to change things unless we actually commit to making substantive corrections to those institutionalized problems.
pharyngula | September 29, 2007Chris Mooney has his summary post up, in which he predictably and incorrectly declares victory for the forces of empty rhetoric, and Greg Laden correctly declares victory for the puppies and small children, which, of course, was our side.
No word from Matt Nisbet yet. He's probably having a late breakfast of roast puppy, served by his army of child-slaves. (←framing.)
pharyngula | September 29, 2007If you've been curious to know more about Carl Zimmer, he's having a conversation with John Horgan on Bloggingheads.tv.
pharyngula | September 29, 2007As expected, the Laden/Myers tag team utterly crushed the Nisbet/Mooney team. The decision was unanimous. Only a few crazy people might have found the framers at all persuasive. (It helps, too, that Nisbet/Mooney are on a plane flying away and won't be able to get out their side of the story until later, and even when they do, my blog has more traffic than theirs. I win! Hey, maybe this framing stuff has some virtues.)
If you want an independent account, look in the comments. The whole shebang was taped, so I presume it will be online at some time in the near future. And hey, guess what? Your…
pharyngula | September 28, 2007All right, homies, I hope some of you are planning to show for the big rumble at the Bell Museum tonight. I've arrived, and I'm flexing and stretching on the home turf, getting ready … in other words, I'm hanging out at the Espresso Royale stoking up on caffeine. Here's the deal:
Speaking Science 2.0: New Directions in Science Communications
Friday, September 28, 2007
7:30 p.m.
Bell Museum Auditorium
$5 Suggested Donation
I just noticed the unfortunate typo up there in the announcement: they misspelled "wrong" as N-E-W.
We'll hash that out this evening, I think.
pharyngula | September 27, 2007When I saw Chris Mooney in NY this week, the first thing he did was throw a blow — he punched me in the shoulder. Oh, he said stuff like "hello" and "good to see you," but I think that was just to throw me off my guard. And then we threatened to buy each other beer — in Mooney's case, bad beer — so you know this is going to be a ferocious grudge match. You'll want to be there. Here's the announcement:
SPECIAL EVENT:
Speaking Science 2.0: New Directions in Science Communications
Friday, September 28, 2007
7:30 p.m.
Bell Museum Auditorium
$5 Suggested Donation
Seed magazine writers and…
pharyngula | September 25, 2007I'm flying away today, on my way to New York to attend a little event honoring the winners of the second annual Seed science writing contest. This is really good stuff: the contestants tried to explain what it means to be scientifically literate in the 21st century, and make suggestions for improving scientific literacy for the future. The winners are Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Discourse by Thomas W. Martin and Camelot is Only a Model: Scientific Literacy in the 21st Century by Steven Saus — if you haven't read them yet, do so!
pharyngula | September 22, 2007The Burke Museum did good with their opening day festivities for their new squid exhibit. Geoff Arnold visited the public squid dissection in Seattle, and returned with photos. We should all do more of this: not just talk about science, but get out there and get our hands dirty with our fellow citizens and show them really cool stuff. It sounds like they got a large crowd, too, with enthusiastic kids.