JLVernonPhD presents "American SciCo"

I didn’t attend the Science Online conference as a “science writer.”  I’m not a writer.  I’m a scientist who tries to write effectively enough to share my opinions about science and politics.  I do so because I believe the health of the science community depends on the policies that govern it.  Modern politics has demonstrated a strained relationship with the scientific community, questioning the authority of scientific “experts” and the motives of various groups of scientists whose research has an impact on corporate America.  In this economic and political climate, science is under as much of a threat as ever.  So, I attended the Science Online conference because I recognize the value that these science communicators offer the political side of science.  I’ve also become quite friendly with many within the Science Online community and I wanted to actualize some of those relationships.  Here, I will share my thoughts on this inspiring group of people and how I feel they are likely to change the world.

As you surely know, public opinion is the key to good policy-making.  Politicians usually respond to the demands of their voting constituencies, therefore it is imperative that the voting public be scientifically literate in order to press their representatives to make good science policy decisions.  Now, comparatively speaking the U.S. actually ranks quite high (#2 behind Sweden) when it comes to scientific literacy among adults, so we have a decent starting point.  However, while our citizens may be factually informed, they still suffer from an inability to translate that scientific knowledge to good evidence-based policy.  Somewhere along the way, there is a disconnect between knowing the science and applying it to solve real world problems. 

What I think we’ve been missing is a trustworthy and reliable source from which the public can draw information when formulating opinions about science-related policies.  The first step toward improved policy is to earn that trust.  To earn the trust of the American people scientists can’t lock themselves up in the Ivory Tower.  They must become valued members of their communities.  I’m not saying anything here that hasn’t already been thoroughly discussed in numerous books and blog posts.  However, I think there is a shift occurring in the system. 

Whereas in the past, scientists have been content to lay up in the confines of their labs and offices, I think there is an awakening occurring in the scientific community.  And whereas in the past, because scientists shied away from public debate, science was largely defenseless in the face of countless blistering attacks designed to turn the public against it.  Today, after attending the Science Online conference, I believe we’re approaching a time when science will finally have the will and the might to fight back.  I believe that will be the legacy of the Science Online community. 

For years, scientists have been slaves to their research.  In order to produce the necessary publications and earn the appropriate grant funding to achieve a tenured position, they sacrificed their free time, their holidays and vacations, even their family lives.  Science is not a career for the 9-5er.  So, when researchers were attacked by law firms, think tanks and public relations firms for discoveries that threatened corporate or religious institutions, they had little recourse.  They had limited time to secure their careers let alone confront anti-science zealots.  The traditional professor would most likely respond by telling his opponents to read the literature.  Needless to say this was quite ineffective.  Unfortunately, those who were willing to engage were often ill-equipped to deal with the media or participate in town hall meetings.  Occasionally, a brave scientist would convince his peers to join him in writing a letter to a major newspaper or even to the President.  But, for the most part, scientists didn’t want anything to do with the politics of science.  It was just a distraction from their “more important” work.  Little did they know that they were ignoring a growing threat.  Because scientists ignored rather than confronted their detractors, the opposition has become wealthier, more powerful, more numerous and more sophisticated than ever before.

Fortunately, as I see it, the days of the defenseless scientist are a thing of the past.  We have our own rising giant.  What I previously perceived to be a fledgling science communications network is much more than just a few clever folks tapping away at their keyboards at all hours of the night.  No.  It is a great deal more than that.  The Science Online community could be the antidote we need for the sick political system that has all too often sacrificed scientific integrity for political gain. No longer.

My fellow Science Online attendees are a gritty and determined group of outspoken science advocates who are honing their skills to win this war.  Whether they consider themselves to be a part of a movement to defend Science or not, they are leading the way in the fight against denialism and general science skepticism. They are a diverse conglomeration of amateur and professional science advocates.  They use media ranging from books and blogs to podcasts and film to deliver their message.  And that message is loud and clear. “Science is vital!”

In the past when I’ve spoken to my peers about the future of science communication, indeed when I led discussions with my SEA science communication interns last year, I always made a special point to temporarily put aside the academic theoreticians and talk about this community.  These are the ones who are fighting in the trenches.  These are the people who will make the difference.  Despite my optimism about the Science Online community, though, my conversations often lead to the obvious final question, “Is there a real impact beyond the blog or is this simply another internet echo chamber?”  

Well, today, I can honestly say that the Science Online conference has helped me come up with an answer to that question.  Even though, I had occasionally read a blog post here and there about anecdotal evidence of impact, there was no study to which anyone could point that confirmed the effect of this community on the public appreciation for science.  However, thanks to the brains behind the Science online conference, Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker, I have been given new insight into the potential of this community. 

By assembling all these people in one place and piecing together their stories, I have confirmed that this is much more than an echo chamber.  That confirmation began on the first night of the conference with the keynote address from Robert Krulwich, who is primarily a radio host but who also has a blog.  His presentation, which cataloged audio clips from years of communicating science on his radio show, was so compelling that by the end there was hardly a dry eye in the house. Indeed, if he had reached none of his millions of listeners, he had greatly impacted an audience of the faithful.  The coup de grace came in the form of a beautiful video clip entitled “Moments”.  (It is a video that I am sure will move you, as well.  Perhaps it will motivate you to learn a little more about his “non-sciencey” science show and so Krulwich’s impact grows.) 

As the days went on, I continued to gather examples of stories confirming the impact of this community beyond their blogs.  One of the most intriguing stories belonged to Ed Yong, whose blog serendipitously brought together a chicken farmer and a developmental biologist for a scientific collaboration that will soon be published in a scientific journal.  You can read more about it here.  

In another session, I heard from students from the Staten Island Academy where Stacy Baker has integrated science blogging as a teaching component in her science classroom.  Not only was Stacy’s pioneering effort a novel teaching method, but she has now passed the torch to at least two of her students who will be blogging at Scitable.  They will be writing about science for kids their age.  So, what began as an experiment incorporating social media into the classroom has now expanded to the broader community. 

On Saturday evening of the conference, I attended a book reading in Durham by Sheril Kirshenbaum whose recently released book entitled “The Science of Kissing” is the epitome of a science online experiment that has emerged into a public outreach jugernaut.  Every chair in the room was taken.  The audience was diverse and was most definitely not composed of scientists.  After reading a few excerpts from the book, Sheril took questions for at least 30-45 minutes.  In my mind, there was no doubt about it.  She had successfully stimulated within her audience that part of the brain that wants to know more.  She had elicited a genuine interest in the science behind the act of kissing, and I had another story about the impact of the science online community. 

On the last day of the conference, I was stunned to see a child with her shirt pulled up to reveal her belly button into which she was inserting a Q-tip.  Soon I realized that I was witnessing a citizen science project sponsored by the Nature Research Center and carried out by Rob Dunn a biologist at my alma mater, North Carolina State University.  Dunn and his students are collecting samples to study the biodiversity of belly buttons from citizens across the state.  Again, it struck me that the Science Online community was reaching people in a variety of ways beyond what I had even begun to appreciate. As I was discussing the project, Dunn pulled out a copy of his recently published book.  Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

The examples continued to accumulate throughout the week, but it wasn’t until one of the final sessions that I realized that this snowball of science outreach was exploding from the internet into the public with magnificent success.  I was completely overwhelmed by the presentation given by Science Cheerleader, Darlene Cavalier.  Although Darlene has gained a lot of recognition for creating the Science Cheerleader organization, I thought her presentation showed the highest level of sophistication of any at the conference.  Darlene has been able to take those ideas that most of us consider for a just a minute before we realize it would be really hard to make happen and she makes them happen.  Yes, the science cheerleaders are great.  They have made great strides to overcome the stereotype that you can’t be beautiful and smart.  I applaud Darlene and the cheerleaders for there efforts, but it is impossible to limit her to this singular accomplishment.  Darlene has created something of an empire of science outreach.  Through her work with the NSF, she has partnered with the NFL to produce videos that explain the science of football that are shown during NFL games.  She has organized a website called Science for Citizens that highlights citizen science projects from across the country.  And, she continues to develop new ideas with seemingly limitless potential.  I have no doubt next year will be even more impressive. 

Others who give me hope include:

My good friend Adrien Ebsary comes to us from Ottawa, Canada where he is founder and producer of Peer Review Radio, a weekly radio show and podcast that tackles important topics in science, using language that anyone can understand.

Someone I met only briefly, Alok Jha, works for the Guardian producing podcasts that reach millions in the U.K. and beyond, most effectively captured the spirit of the Science Online conference in his podcast, which you can find here.  Alok has science policy on his mind and I expect his podcasts to inform many around the world about the American political scene as we enter the 2012 election season.  I was recently pleasantly surprised to find out that Jha has also released a new book.

Not only were there people who were reaching out to the public.  There were also a few attendees who had made it there job to influence the other side of the outreach coin.  Liz Neeley, Assistant Director of Outreach for COMPASS, trains scientists to communicate with the public.  Liz was also there to promote a book entitled “Escape from the Ivory Tower” written by her boss, Nancy Baron.  It is a book that speaks directly to the issue of communicating science to the public. She was attending the conference to network with this community, surely for reasons similar to mine.  How do we build on this network for the purpose of impacting science policy?  In her case, there is a focus on environmental issues, but the outcome is the same, educate and inform the public on issues relevant to science policy.  It’s a beautiful thing to see!

So, the answer to the question is YES, the Science Online community is having an impact. 

Now, obviously exposing the public to science is one thing, but actually convincing them to embrace and invest in science is another.  I admit that question remains to be addressed, however I have no doubt that at least one little girl will become passionate about science because of the efforts of the Science Online community.  I can only hope that it will be more. 

We can look to our history to help us determine if there is hope for improving the state of science in our political landscape.  In the 70’s and 80’s, at a time when we needed a voice for science, it came in the form of a compelling figure, Carl Sagan.  Carl became the face of science and he used the trust afforded him by the public to influence the political debate over nuclear arms.  In addition, he was an effective advocate for science, creating millions of new science enthusiasts.  Surely, a large contingent of the Science Online community was drawn into science because of him.  But, Carl was a single man.  He was limited in how much he could do.  He also faced jealousy and envy from within the scientific community.  Still, he stands as the pre-eminent science communicator, someone we all strive to emulate. 

Carl was able to have an influence and rise to “science stardom” because of many successful books and films.  He was able to make quite a career out of his efforts.  That remains an area that needs to be addressed for the Science Online community.  How can we become financially sustainable?  Who values good science advocacy enough to fund it?  Will the occasional successful book be sufficient? One would think the NSF would make a larger effort to support this community.  I suspect the funds will come from philanthropic agencies like the Wellcome Trust, who share an appreciation for science and sound science policy.  For now, getting rich is not the goal for these folks.  They do this because they love it.  They have the desire to deliver science to the public and they are doing it well. 

Finally, I’d like to make one final prediction for the Science Online community.  Since Sagan’s death, we have been left waiting for the emergence of a new “face of science”, someone who has broad enough appeal to draw in the next generation of science enthusiasts.  If we are to create the next generation of scientists and engineers as was mentioned by President Obama in his State of the Union address, we will need an even greater personality than Carl Sagan to overcome the constant noise from music, tv and video games.  I believe within the Science Online community we are witnessing the emergence of our modern-day Carl Sagan, but as the science communication frontier has changed, so to has the formula for replacing Dr. Sagan.  This generation’s Carl Sagan will not be a single handsome face framed by a black back drop and a red turtle neck sweater.  No, today’s Sagan will consist of the hundreds of faces that zoom by as avatars in a Tweet deck column under the heading “Science”.  They will hone their communication skills by blogging, but they will amplify their impact by getting out there and mixing it up with the public.  These modern day Carl Sagans will not have a singular male voice with a Northeastern accent.  No, our Carl Sagans will have the sweet voice of a young southern female scientist,  the urban slang of an african american science blogger and the british accent of science writer.  Today’s Carl Sagans will not be limited to 70’s documentary film technology.  Our Carl Sagans will be featured in Hi-Def videos produced by the Discovery Channel, grainy smart phone videos recorded in the lab and animations produced in the Jib-Jab format.  Our Carl Sagans will not be limited by a single individual’s yearly calendar.  Our Carl Sagans will be in a thousand places at once.  Our Carl Sagans will be simultaneously speaking to children in classrooms, to crowds in townhalls, to the media, in documentaries and in museums, not to mention via podcasts and YouTube videos.  We must be our own Carl Sagan.

Having come to the conclusion that I had surely met at least a few Carl Sagans at the conference, I knew it was only a matter of time before my predictions would bear fruit.  It took less than a week before the first evidence began to trickle in.  Shortly after returning home, I received a link on twitter announcing an appearance by Carin Bondar on Vancouver’s Urban Rush.  And so it began. 

Since the conference, I’ve seen articles in magazines about Sheril’s book and last week, I caught up with Seth Mnookin who was doing a talk about his book “The Panic Virus” at American University, which is directly addressing the problems with public misunderstanding of vaccine science.  I would say, we’re off to a good start. 

Thanks to Joe Hanson (@jtotheizzoe) for this image: