Insights The Complexity of Modern Science - Comments

[mfb]

mfb submitted a new PF Insights post

The Complexity of Modern Science

Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

 

[phinds]

I think the biggest problem is that people find it SO much easier to watch pop science on TV than to do any actual study of science, and you know how those shows get so much wrong. I think they do sometimes inspire young people to study but overall I'm not sure but what they do more harm than good and they certainly give those adults who are not likely to further pursue actual science a very poor view of actual science of the kind you talk about. The producers of the TV shows can't be blamed for this any more than McDonalds can be blamed for serving tasty junk food. People sell what other people buy and there are lots of buyers for junk food and junk science, especially since they LOOK so tasty, what with all the nifty graphics and tomato sauce and all.

The first thing we COULD do (and won't) would be to insist that people who teach science, at any level but particularly below the college level, be required to have at least some idea what they are talking about. Teachers below the high school level in particular have no idea, generally, what science is really all about.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Hi mfb:

This is a great topic to discuss. I hope that some useful ideas will emerge, but I confess I am very pessimistic. NOVA is an excellent source for informing the public about science, but I am guessing that for each viewer of NOVA there are more than a hundred viewers of FOX NEWS.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Isaac0427]

I think the biggest problem is that people find it SO much easier to watch pop science on TV than to do any actual study of science, and you know how those shows get so much wrong. I think they do sometimes inspire young people to study but overall I'm not sure but what they do more harm than good and they certainly give those adults who are not likely to further pursue actual science a very poor view of actual science of the kind you talk about. The producers of the TV shows can't be blamed for this any more than McDonalds can be blamed for serving tasty junk food. People sell what other people buy and there are lots of buyers for junk food and junk science, especially since they LOOK so tasty, what with all the nifty graphics and tomato sauce and all.

The first thing we COULD do (and won't) would be to insist that people who teach science, at any level but particularly below the college level, be required to have at least some idea what they are talking about. Teachers below the high school level in particular have no idea, generally, what science is really all about.

So first of all, I find this insight to be very interesting. However, as a crackpot by some definitions, I must disagree with you and phinds on one point. I do study actual science and calculus with that science. I learned on this forum to stay away from popsci, but still, I come up with "theories". No, as a middle schooler I do not believe these theories will go anywhere. What I do is I make a theory based on math and what I have learned so far from other sources, and then I look for what I did wrong. Sometimes I need to ask a professional about what I did wrong. In fact, I learn better from actually thinking about it and then finding a problem in my thinking and/or math. I do agree that some people do need to learn real science before making a statement like "special relativity is wrong" but some people (like me) learn from thinking, challenging the theories and finding out why I'm wrong. Just something to think about. Overall, however, a great insight.

 

[Isaac0427]

BTW, for some reason part of the quote is not in the quote part of my post.

 

[mfb]

but some people (like me) learn from thinking, challenging the theories and finding out why I'm wrong.

That is perfectly fine, as long as challenging the theories is based on actual knowledge of those theories.

I don't see what would be wrong with the quote.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

As we've seen in the thread: https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...is-not-weird-unless-presented-as-such.850860/ most concepts can't be genuinely described using word language. Susskind also mentioned this in an interview I watched where the interviewer asked some quantum mechanics question and Susskind basically said he couldn't answer it with words, only in math. Not long ago I debated a man who claimed to understand the concepts of the Big Bang very well and didn't need to know the math. I promptly left the conversation. Fact is that the general public certainty can't handle or have the patience for reading research papers so pop sci news agencies water the research down into cookie cutter pieces with catchy headlines which in the end only vaguely resemble what it really means. This is good for the public's imagination but doesn't do justice for how complex their research is.

 

[Isaac0427]

I don't see what would be wrong with the quote

On the actual insights page it turned out differently.

 

[phinds]

So first of all, I find this insight to be very interesting. However, as a crackpot by some definitions, I must disagree with you and phinds on one point. I do study actual science and calculus with that science. I learned on this forum to stay away from popsci, but still, I come up with "theories". No, as a middle schooler I do not believe these theories will go anywhere. What I do is I make a theory based on math and what I have learned so far from other sources, and then I look for what I did wrong.

I do not find that to be at all in disagree w/ my statements or beliefs and in fact I think it's a fine way to forge ahead in science for someone your age. It keeps you interested but as long as you stay grounded in the knowledge that your theories are based, at this level of your development, more in ignorance than in knowledge, then you are using your process as a learning tool and that's great.

 

[Isaac0427]

I do not find that to be at all in disagree w/ my statements or beliefs and in fact I think it's a fine way to forge ahead in science for someone your age. It keeps you interested but as long as you stay grounded in the knowledge that your theories are based, at this level of your development, more in ignorance than in knowledge, then you are using your process as a learning tool and that's great.

Ok, I just picked up an implication (that may or may not have been there) in both your post and the insight that these theories all come from ignorance and stubbornness to accept mainstream theories, and not from an attempt to learn more about these theories by challenging them (and I am not saying people don't create theories out of ignorance and stubbornness to accept mainstream theories, because they do). Most of what I have learned about relativity has been from challenging it and finding a list of reasons why my challenge was incorrect.

 

[Isaac0427]

NOVA is an excellent source for informing the public about science, but I am guessing that for each viewer of NOVA there are more than a hundred viewers of FOX NEWS.

And we all know how great Fox News is at explaining/acknowledging proven scientific fact.

 

[Hornbein]

A substantial majority of

People believe what they want to believe.
They disregard information/misinformation that contradicts what they believe.
They absorb information/misinformation that reinforces what they believe.
What they believe is usually self-flattering.
They choose a person or organization in which to place their trust. They believe all information/misinformation that issues from this source.

Corollary:
Sources of flattering information are more likely to earn such trust.

To believe that you easily have come up with a simple insight that a thousands of hard-working geniuses have missed is very self-flattering.
To believe that you are ignorant and incompetent in some area is anti-self-flattering.

Ergo, crackpottery is a basic human tendency.

You can coerce a student into learning, but each student is free disbelieve in or subsequently forget what was learned. Once no longer a student, untrusted sources no longer have any power over their learning or beliefs.

-----

I think the educational system is obsolete, ineffective, inflicts pain on the student, and needs a complete overhaul. It has hardly changed since ancient times. Can you blame people for hating it? There is room for improvement.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

When I was a child, getting into ham radio, I was amazed at what the retail for a radio was versus what the parts cost. What I didn't realize is that the radio had a lot of marketing and engineering expenses that needed to be recouped.

This may sound crass, but we need MORE marketing. Science invokes a sense of wonder in its practitioners that is only rarely ever described well. Carl Sagan did that. We don't realize how good that was, until watching the remake of Cosmos. Even his masterful and charismatic protege Neil deGrasse Tyson is only a pale reflection of the kind of science marketing that Carl Sagan did. Don't get me wrong, Tyson is brilliant; but Sagan's presentation was the very embodiment of artistry.

If you can't be as brilliant as Sagan, you can make up for it with quantity. That's where we need to go. Relying upon public enthusiasm will get you only so far. The biggest successes in business and history in general were accompanied by masterful marketing.

We need more.

 

[JorisL]

I think we need another Feynman. However I still have to watch/read some work by Sagan to fully appreciate his efforts.
However I find it hard to believe anyone can match let alone surpass Feynman's QED.

He not only simplifies the theory but also mentions why it is difficult to do cutting edge science.
The latter is what lacks in most popular accounts but also in education. Which I understand since most teachers haven't gotten close to the "cutting edge" over here.
But that last point is for another discussion.

Ok, I just picked up an implication (that may or may not have been there) in both your post and the insight that these theories all come from ignorance and stubbornness to accept mainstream theories, and not from an attempt to learn more about these theories by challenging them (and I am not saying people don't create theories out of ignorance and stubbornness to accept mainstream theories, because they do). Most of what I have learned about relativity has been from challenging it and finding a list of reasons why my challenge was incorrect.

One could argue this is the way to study science and especially physics.
However it would take ages while the time we have (in high school) is severely limited.

Often people also have the idea that since physics is called exact science the approximate models we have are useless.
Also the interplay theory-experiment in the scientific method is not a one-way street. It's a complicated interplay of ideas and results. (A dance if you like metaphors)

I'd say keep on the good work and remain critical.

 

[Amrator]

Awesome Insight, mfb. I'm going to show it to one of my physics professors if you don't mind.

 

[Monsterboy]

One can't expect science T.V shows to tell all the intricate details ,if that is the case the public will stop watching because everyone in the public aren't scientists and most of the things will start going over their head and will scare the public away from science ,the shows are only aimed to give a brief idea to the lay public (and to motivate them to pursue science) who are completely or a large extent, disconnected from modern science, i think the problem mentioned in this article can be overcome if the science documentaries are screened for errors by the actual scientists who work on the topic (either retired or active scientists) and they should make it clear to the public that they are simplifying very complicated science in order for them to understand and that real knowledge only comes with hard study.

 

[rbelli1]

I think the biggest problem is that people find it SO much easier to watch pop science on TV than to do any actual study of science, and you know how those shows get so much wrong. I think they do sometimes inspire young people to study but overall I'm not sure but what they do more harm than good and they certainly give those adults who are not likely to further pursue actual science a very poor view of actual science of the kind you talk about. The producers of the TV shows can't be blamed for this any more than McDonalds can be blamed for serving tasty junk food. People sell what other people buy and there are lots of buyers for junk food and junk science, especially since they LOOK so tasty, what with all the nifty graphics and tomato sauce and all.

The first thing we COULD do (and won't) would be to insist that people who teach science, at any level but particularly below the college level, be required to have at least some idea what they are talking about. Teachers below the high school level in particular have no idea, generally, what science is really all about.

So first of all, I find this insight to be very interesting. However, as a crackpot by some definitions, I must disagree with you and phinds on one point. I do study actual science and calculus with that science. I learned on this forum to stay away from popsci, but still, I come up with "theories". No, as a middle schooler I do not believe these theories will go anywhere. What I do is I make a theory based on math and what I have learned so far from other sources, and then I look for what I did wrong. Sometimes I need to ask a professional about what I did wrong. In fact, I learn better from actually thinking about it and then finding a problem in my thinking and/or math. I do agree that some people do need to learn real science before making a statement like "special relativity is wrong" but some people (like me) learn from thinking, challenging the theories and finding out why I'm wrong. Just something to think about. Overall, however, a great insight.

Unfortunately you are using theory in the layman's sense. What you are coming up with are at best hypotheses. It is good to think up new ideas but calling them theories without rigorous testing does an injustice to science.

BoB

 

[mrspeedybob]

As we've seen in the thread: https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...is-not-weird-unless-presented-as-such.850860/ most concepts can't be genuinely described using word language. Susskind also mentioned this in an interview I watched where the interviewer asked some quantum mechanics question and Susskind basically said he couldn't answer it with words, only in math. Not long ago I debated a man who claimed to understand the concepts of the Big Bang very well and didn't need to know the math. I promptly left the conversation. Fact is that the general public certainty can't handle or have the patience for reading research papers so pop sci news agencies water the research down into cookie cutter pieces with catchy headlines which in the end only vaguely resemble what it really means. This is good for the public's imagination but doesn't do justice for how complex their research is.

I think Richard Feynman did a great job of accurately explaining concepts to lay people without loosing them in the math. That's a very difficult thing to do, but that does not mean that it can't be done, or that it should not be attempted. It should.

A good recent example was "The Space Doctor's Big Idea"
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-space-doctors-big-idea-einstein-general-relativity

 

[jim mcnamara]

Non-Science is a societal problem. It forwards the interest of the idiot fringe and of FUD mongers.

Idiot fringe:
In the US, there are so-called 'anti-vaxxers'. They are people who are vehemently against vaccinating children. Therein lies the issue with junk science in general. These folks made decisions based on pulp news sources and magazines that impact not only their immediate family, but others in the community.
Measles was essentially unreported by the US CDC for years, there were very, very few cases. Not anymore. Measles can result in death and lifelong medical problems. Example SSPE: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001419.htm

The same thing happens with a variety of issues that are subjected to *FUD attacks, in order to further the economic positions of very powerful companies.

Example - The US tobacco lobby's very effective attacks against anti-tobacco legislation. The stupidity did not abate until Science made discoveries that were so very plain, smack-you-in-the-face, that even the pop-science idiots could not get them wrong. FUD stills lives on with the climate "debate" - as newspapers call it. It is not a debate. You cannot legislate scientific observations and results.

*FUD - fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

 

[jerromyjon]

I think there will always be two camps, those who try to strictly adhere to the rules of science which relies mainly on the math which is enough to communicate. and the laypeople who know the world from their own perspectives, which are numerous, I'm certain. The perspective they have built in their mind to comprehend the reality they are familiar with typically fails and so they grapple for a mechanism to leave their sole understanding intact. Many don't have the neural plasticity to drop lifelong thought processes and start over, let alone the determinism to seek a deeper, more accurate understanding, and the mental ability to assemble intricate models. So pop-sci caters to their inadequacies with "fantastic" phrases like "wave-particle duality" and life goes on.

 

[epistememe]

A substantial majority of

People believe what they want to believe.
They disregard information/misinformation that contradicts what they believe.
They absorb information/misinformation that reinforces what they believe.
What they believe is usually self-flattering.
They choose a person or organization in which to place their trust. They believe all information/misinformation that issues from this source.

Corollary:
Sources of flattering information are more likely to earn such trust.

To believe that you easily have come up with a simple insight that a thousands of hard-working geniuses have missed is very self-flattering.
To believe that you are ignorant and incompetent in some area is anti-self-flattering.

Ergo, crackpottery is a basic human tendency.

You can coerce a student into learning, but each student is free disbelieve in or subsequently forget what was learned. Once no longer a student, untrusted sources no longer have any power over their learning or beliefs.

-----

I think the educational system is obsolete, ineffective, inflicts pain on the student, and needs a complete overhaul. It has hardly changed since ancient times. Can you blame people for hating it? There is room for improvement.

I agree with most of you assessment. Now how about offering solutions.

 

[toumaza]

the complexity of any science field happens at the level of our mind. same as one could say mathss is easier than any other science subject. also some people remind and understand better when you explain the subject to the minor details to them why others (which i am part of ) prefer to understand it on its own than waiting for lecturers to give them the explanations.
just trying to say complexity is at the level of individuals

 

[Isaac0427]

Unfortunately you are using theory in the layman's sense. What you are coming up with are at best hypotheses. It is good to think up new ideas but calling them theories without rigorous testing does an injustice to science.

BoB

Yes, it is more of a hypothesis than a theory.

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

Physics Forum is dedicated to advancing the standard model. This discussion doesn't seem to be part of that.

As I see it, every part of the standard model was once part of fringe science at least to the extent of not being accepted/proven. While some fringe science is clearly wrong (or not even wrong), some tiny fraction of it will someday work its way into the standard model.

A discussion like this opens up the question of what is right or wrong about fringe science. That's a problem for a website that tries to avoid fringe science.

I do think anyone attacking the standard needs to have a good understanding of it before declaring it wrong. This forum helps to provide that understanding. Hopefully the work we do here will one day allow us to replace the standard model with one closer to the truth. (Not that the standard model is off by a lot, but there are still outstanding problems.)

Historically liberal arts have always ruled science. That is because a good story has always received more funding than being right. (NSF budget: $7 billion (2012), Disney: $11 billion)

 

[Isaac0427]

Physics Forum is dedicated to advancing the standard model.

Is it? If it was, we would not have a forum for relativity, biology, chemistry, homework help, etc.

 

[jerromyjon]

Is it? If it was, we would not have a forum for relativity, biology, chemistry, homework help, etc.

I think it was intended to say the standards which physics forums holds as standard consensus of mainstream science in each category?

 

[Choppy]

"What do you think? Can science popularisation improve in that aspect, and if yes, how?"

I think one big thing that can help is for scientists themselves to talk more openly about what they do. The scientific community can't rely on the entertainment industry to popularize science, and then complain when they get it wrong. Nor can the scientific community hope that politicians won't spin their work and results to reinforce their agendas.

Small things that can help:

• More open-access academic articles. I realize there are complications that come with this. It's not free to produce these things. But when information is locked away in the ivory tower of academia all the outsiders can do is speculate.
• Authors providing non-technical summaries of their work. I've noticed a few journals in my field now requiring this.
• More non-technical summary presentations or non-technical components of technical presentations at major conferences. Mass media are more likely to cover these events and report on what's found when it's easier for the journalists to understand what's happening.
• Scientists volunteering time to go out into the community: giving public lectures, coming into classrooms, and speaking to teachers. I volunteer with a local program called "Scientists and Engineers in the Classroom" because I think programs like this are very important for helping studends and teachers learn about how science happens.
• More blogging or popular content coming from scientists about what it is they do. (And yes, that's a kudo to Insites!) While I agree that more people like Feynman and Sagan can help, I think it would help a lot more if "everyday" scientists were more vocal about what they do on social media.

 

[JorisL]

• Scientists volunteering time to go out into the community: giving public lectures, coming into classrooms, and speaking to teachers. I volunteer with a local program called "Scientists and Engineers in the Classroom" because I think programs like this are very important for helping studends and teachers learn about how science happens.

Funny you mention this, after reading this I recalled something from a course called "Historical and Social Aspects of Physics".
It was mentioned that at some time in the 20th century science was part of regular culture in Germany. (I belief it was during the Weimar Republic era)
Meaning people would go to public lectures like we go to plays or movies today.

Continuing this train of thought I figured that universities could easily arrange for such a thing in this day and age.
I don't think this is commonplace here (haven't heard about it at least).

It could be a monthly thing, I'm quite confident you'd find volunteers in every department.
A gifted presenter would include news reports of e.g. the loop-hole free Bell test which over here was basically announced as "Einstein was wrong after all".

 

[vela]

So first of all, I find this insight to be very interesting. However, as a crackpot by some definitions, I must disagree with you and phinds on one point. I do study actual science and calculus with that science. I learned on this forum to stay away from popsci, but still, I come up with "theories". No, as a middle schooler I do not believe these theories will go anywhere. What I do is I make a theory based on math and what I have learned so far from other sources, and then I look for what I did wrong. Sometimes I need to ask a professional about what I did wrong. In fact, I learn better from actually thinking about it and then finding a problem in my thinking and/or math. I do agree that some people do need to learn real science before making a statement like "special relativity is wrong" but some people (like me) learn from thinking, challenging the theories and finding out why I'm wrong. Just something to think about. Overall, however, a great insight.

Using the word theory the way you do is probably what sets off crackpot alarms if you've been accused of being a crackpot. I tend to roll my eyes when someone claims to be developing a new theory.

From what you describe, I'd say you're constructing your understanding and knowledge of a topic, not a new theory. One way you do that is to take your current understanding and test it. When you encounter non-sensical or puzzling results, you figure out where you went wrong with your reasoning or where your understanding of a topic may have been flawed and try to resolve the inconsistency. That's completely normal. That's how you learn. The hallmark of the crackpot, though, is the refusal to learn from one's mistakes. According to them, their understanding isn't wrong; everyone else's is. This is the mistake you want to avoid.

The insight touches on what allows the crackpot to even entertain the idea that they're right and everyone else is wrong. Part of that is not understanding the process of science. When you don't understand all of the work that goes into research and what the research actually says, it becomes easy to dismiss established scientific knowledge and theories as being based on someone's whims.

 

[Isaac0427]

Using the word theory the way you do is probably what sets off crackpot alarms if you've been accused of being a crackpot. I tend to roll my eyes when someone claims to be developing a new theory.

From what you describe, I'd say you're constructing your understanding and knowledge of a topic, not a new theory. One way you do that is to take your current understanding and test it. When you encounter non-sensical or puzzling results, you figure out where you went wrong with your reasoning or where your understanding of a topic may have been flawed and try to resolve the inconsistency. That's completely normal. That's how you learn. The hallmark of the crackpot, though, is the refusal to learn from one's mistakes. According to them, their understanding isn't wrong; everyone else's is. This is the mistake you want to avoid.

The insight touches on what allows the crackpot to even entertain the idea that they're right and everyone else is wrong. Part of that is not understanding the process of science. When you don't understand all of the work that goes into research and what the research actually says, it becomes easy to dismiss established scientific knowledge and theories as being based on someone's whims.

Yes, as I said, it's more of a hypothesis.

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

"What do you think? Can science popularisation improve in that aspect, and if yes, how?"

I think one big thing that can help is for scientists themselves to talk more openly about what they do. The scientific community can't rely on the entertainment industry to popularize science, and then complain when they get it wrong. Nor can the scientific community hope that politicians won't spin their work and results to reinforce their agendas.

I think we need a new economic model for an intellectual economy. Our legal and social values were developed for an industrial economy. They reward behaviors that produce real goods. Mass market art (T.V., etc.) is aimed at keeping producing workers healthy and happy. Science (and less banal art) is poorly rewarded unless it supports those now non-functional goals.

The idea that scientists should be required to volunteer to act as teachers seems odd to me. The two jobs are quite different (at least on the general public level). Would we ask a carpenter to volunteer his time to explain how the joists were laid in a new house before it could be sold?

Scientists have historically made good money when they could leverage their high IQs to manipulate the system. But otherwise they tend to lag behind other professions requiring similar levels of learning/talents. To me this indicates a flaw in the economic system that needs fixing, not that scientists should become media manipulators.

I don't have a solution, but offering more science prizes seems like a good idea. Paying scientists for learning is also an obvious step. But I'm hardly the first to decry the student loan situation.

 

[ComplexVar89]

I don't get why some people want to overturn SR. Special Relativity is one of the most intriguing things I have ever come across. It's where my love of physics began, and it led me directly down the path to GR, which is my favorite scientific subject period.

What do people have against relativity?

 

[russ_watters]

What do people have against relativity?

1. They didn't learn it in high school.
2. Some of the implications (time dilation and length contraction) contradict our everyday observations.

 

[Choppy]

I think we need a new economic model for an intellectual economy. Our legal and social values were developed for an industrial economy. They reward behaviors that produce real goods. Mass market art (T.V., etc.) is aimed at keeping producing workers healthy and happy. Science (and less banal art) is poorly rewarded unless it supports those now non-functional goals.

I'm not sure I understand this point. You can't expect an economic system to reward you unless you are contributing something that it values. Science is very well rewarded when it produces things like MRI machines, smart phones, vaccines, etc. You can't simply put people with high IQs at the top of an economic pyramid and pay them to do whatever their hearts desire.

The idea that scientists should be required to volunteer to act as teachers seems odd to me. The two jobs are quite different (at least on the general public level). Would we ask a carpenter to volunteer his time to explain how the joists were laid in a new house before it could be sold?

I didn't say it should be "required." But if you want more people to know what it is that you do, you start by making them aware of what it is that you do, and explain why it's relevant. In some fields, it's self-evident. But with science the real-world relevance can lag substantially behind the investment of money, time and resources.

Your carpenter example is not a good one. You don't have to get a skilled trade to explain a skill because the skill needs to be performed to given standard (building code for example). If it's not, the consumer has recourse. And beyond that, trades have their work inspected all the time. When I buy a house, I both inspect it thoroughly myself and I hire someone who knows the local code to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

Scientists have historically made good money when they could leverage their high IQs to manipulate the system. But otherwise they tend to lag behind other professions requiring similar levels of learning/talents. To me this indicates a flaw in the economic system that needs fixing, not that scientists should become media manipulators.

The key point here is that the other fields that require similar levels of training are professions. These are doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. If you're a doctor it's easy to convince someone or the taxpayers in general to reimburse you for exercising your skill set on you because they understand that it's likely to cure whatever is ailing them. If you're a lawyer you can expect reimbursement because your skill set will help a client to draft a contract that will protect him or her, or navigate a set of problems with very serious consequences. The professions establish colleges that act to ensure those skills meet a certain standard so that the public doesn't need to evaluate individual practitioners.

But science isn't a profession - at least not in that sense. There are no licences or professional standards. It may be embarrassing if you have to retract a journal article, but in most cases no one is going to sue a scientist for making a mistake.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I think one big thing that can help is for scientists themselves to talk more openly about what they do. The scientific community can't rely on the entertainment industry to popularize science, and then complain when they get it wrong.

Something like this. Specifically what's wrong is that most scientists seem to be suffering a very bad case of "curse of knowledge." Knowing what they know, they can't conceive of a mind that doesn't also know it, and they don't have any idea what that mind needs to hear to understand what science is actually up to.

However, it's never been considered part of the job description of a scientist to be able to communicate to lay people, so this isn't a shortcoming. If, though, scientists perceive that being misunderstood is becoming disadvantageous, then it's up to them to figure out how to explain themselves and not leave it to the popular media.

 

[phinds]

@mfb, you've certainly sparked an interesting discussion. This is the kind of thing that makes this forum great.

EDIT: You should ask @Greg Bernhardt for a raise, from nothing to about 1.3 times nothing.

 

[RJLiberator]

Without a doubt, this is an important conversation.

But, what can be expected in today's current society? Does anyone really think it will get better in this system?

Without fixing the environment, this issue will continue and likely become worse.

 

[Hornbein]

I agree with most of you assessment. Now how about offering solutions.

"I learned to be very careful about when, where, and how I presented my work to other physicists, because the reaction was invariably dismissive as soon as they detected deviation from standard practice or beliefs." -- David Hestenes, Oersted Medal Lecture 2002.

He was trying to get them to use geometric algebra a.k.a. Clifford algebra.

 

[RJLiberator]

Without a doubt, this is an important conversation.

But, what can be expected in today's current society? Does anyone really think it will get better in this system?

Without fixing the environment, this issue will continue and likely become worse.

As far as the question, can science popularisation improve in that aspect, and if yes, how?

With regards to my initial post, no. Of course by some measure it can improve, but if we are looking for real change then we will need to change the environment.

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

I'm not sure I understand this point. You can't expect an economic system to reward you unless you are contributing something that it values. Science is very well rewarded when it produces things like MRI machines, smart phones, vaccines, etc. You can't simply put people with high IQs at the top of an economic pyramid and pay them to do whatever their hearts desire.

I didn't say it should be "required." But if you want more people to know what it is that you do, you start by making them aware of what it is that you do, and explain why it's relevant. In some fields, it's self-evident. But with science the real-world relevance can lag substantially behind the investment of money, time and resources.

Your carpenter example is not a good one. You don't have to get a skilled trade to explain a skill because the skill needs to be performed to given standard (building code for example). If it's not, the consumer has recourse. And beyond that, trades have their work inspected all the time. When I buy a house, I both inspect it thoroughly myself and I hire someone who knows the local code to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

The key point here is that the other fields that require similar levels of training are professions. These are doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. If you're a doctor it's easy to convince someone or the taxpayers in general to reimburse you for exercising your skill set on you because they understand that it's likely to cure whatever is ailing them. If you're a lawyer you can expect reimbursement because your skill set will help a client to draft a contract that will protect him or her, or navigate a set of problems with very serious consequences. The professions establish colleges that act to ensure those skills meet a certain standard so that the public doesn't need to evaluate individual practitioners.

But science isn't a profession - at least not in that sense. There are no licences or professional standards. It may be embarrassing if you have to retract a journal article, but in most cases no one is going to sue a scientist for making a mistake.

Economics is about distributing goods and services. Yet the developed countries have past the point of needing more goods. Now we need to modify or laws/social structures to reward services in a fair way. While this begs the question of what is fair, I don't think most people want to be weighed down with a blizzard of paperwork. Yet this is the road we are going down. Regulatory structures encourage legal and financial services while discouraging more useful (IMO) arts and sciences.
Perhaps it's time to think about where we're headed?

I did not suggest high IQ people should be allowed to sit at the top and hand down arbitrary decision. That's the system we have now. Lawyers, financiers, and drug dealers operate unchecked. My suggestion is to try to arrange our legal system so proper behavior (like contributing to arts and sciences) is rewarded while lying, cheating, and murdering is discouraged. We are drifting by default into a system where drug dealers own banks which threaten people then hire lawyers to become untouchable.

Professions require clients (among other things). The client in science is everyone which is a poor business model and has prevented the development of science as a profession. It is likely the changes I envision would encourage or perhaps require the development of professional standards.

 

[Eltanin]

Popular science paints a false picture of how science at least as much as early education. It gives lists of facts, historical notes, and cool pictures. But it doesn't dig deep.

I'm trying to produce a show right now that would be different, and I'm running into funding difficulties doing it. I'd like to create something that is about scientific thought, not facts; we want to actually analyze our subjects, and in a way that doesn't bore people who understand the basics. Math is part of it. I don't want the topics to be so intimidating that no one watches, but today's popular science keeps all math as far away from the content as possible. So I run into a lot of people who 'love science', but hate math and have no idea how to use scientific reasoning.

To tie it back to the ongoing discussion, I believe that teaching people how to think objectively and scientifically can help with a lot of problems. Science doesn't tell us what decisions to make, necessarily, but it does tell us how to go about making those decisions. It's a bit esoteric to say that, but it's also, in my opinion, better than what we have now.

 

[Isaac0427]

Popular science paints a false picture of how science at least as much as early education. It gives lists of facts, historical notes, and cool pictures. But it doesn't dig deep.

I'd actually say the problem is that they get too deep in the material, and shows the "cool stuff" but not any of the math that is required. Many shows go deep into GR but don't use the word tensor.

 

[QuantumQuest]

In my opinion, the way "popular science" is presenting itself, is a necessity and an excuse at the same time. Anyone, not having some serious relevant scientific background, is not willing to get intimidated by math details, so if he takes what he sees on a such TV show literally, he will end up having a lot of misconceptions. And this is usually the case. Cannot get better than that. That's the necessity part. The excuse part, has to do with the motivations behind PopSci, variations of which are not the same in each case. Various purposes are served in various such cases, but I am not a experienced salesperson to have the expertise to get into the details of it, nor I condemn that, because it has its role in the economic culture. Thing is, that by its very nature, cannot get better than it is, because in order to be such, the educational level of most people will need to change substantially - it is somewhat difficult I believe, for most people, to have the skills and/or the will to be scientists, but even if this could potentially happen, then PopSci would not have any reason to exist and it would cease to do so - at least in its present form. Of course, I do think that this would be a great achievement for science, but at the present instant, what anyone with no or small scientific knowledge is good to do, is listen only to what is presented, what is its purpose and consequences and not about explanations in over - simplistic - and unfortunately in many cases naïve, terms and ways. Anyone can dig a subject deeper at his/her own leisure, using the right resources, that are really abundant on the web and learn things In a more proper way. I don't think that scientists can do many things about that, because if everything could be sufficiently explained in layman's terms, then what would be the real substance of science: we live in a complex world and proper explanation of many things in nature, require deep theoretical thoughts and a multitude of experiments. So, a deep change in some social and educational structures would be needed, in order for substantial changes to be realized. In its present form, it's more of a personal issue for anyone to be well informed about anything.

 

[StatGuy2000]

Something like this. Specifically what's wrong is that most scientists seem to be suffering a very bad case of "curse of knowledge." Knowing what they know, they can't conceive of a mind that doesn't also know it, and they don't have any idea what that mind needs to hear to understand what science is actually up to.

However, it's never been considered part of the job description of a scientist to be able to communicate to lay people, so this isn't a shortcoming. If, though, scientists perceive that being misunderstood is becoming disadvantageous, then it's up to them to figure out how to explain themselves and not leave it to the popular media.

It's not surprising to me that many scientists suffer from the "curse of knowledge", for the simple reason that many scientists often socialize with or primarily communicate with other scientists who are in general more likely to understand their work (or if not understand their work, at least understand the processes in which scientific discoveries are made), and therefore can't conceive that there are people who don't have that understanding.

I agree with Choppy that part of the way to address this, and to improve public understanding of science is for everyday scientists to more actively engage with the public, by say for example, volunteering their time to visit schools to explain the work they do and providing non-technical summaries of their work. I am also definitely in agreement in making scientific journals more accessible to the public.

 

[Hornbein]

In my opinion, the way "popular science" is presenting itself, is a necessity and an excuse at the same time. Anyone, not having some serious relevant scientific background, is not willing to get intimidated by math details, so if he takes what he sees on a such TV show literally, he will end up having a lot of misconceptions. And this is usually the case. Cannot get better than that.

That may be true, but most popular science I have seen does not approach the "best possible under the circumstances." There are some science popularizers who have done an excellent job, but others not. And some are humbugs.

I might take a whack at science popularization myself. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that I can do better than most of what I've come across. But first I'll have to learn it thoroughly.

 

[StatGuy2000]

It's not surprising to me that many scientists suffer from the "curse of knowledge", for the simple reason that many scientists often socialize with or primarily communicate with other scientists who are in general more likely to understand their work (or if not understand their work, at least understand the processes in which scientific discoveries are made), and therefore can't conceive that there are people who don't have that understanding.

I agree with Choppy that part of the way to address this, and to improve public understanding of science is for everyday scientists to more actively engage with the public, by say for example, volunteering their time to visit schools to explain the work they do (and more generally explain the actual process of doing science, as opposed to listing the discoveries as is often done in popular science books/movies/TV shows), and providing non-technical summaries of their work. I am also definitely in agreement in making scientific journals more accessible to the public.

 

[anorlunda]

NOVA is an excellent source for informing the public about science, but I am guessing that for each viewer of NOVA there are more than a hundred viewers of FOX NEWS.

Why do people who would never tolerate racial, sexist, or ethnic slurs think that it is OK to inject political slurs and put downs into any an all topics? Is that not a personal attack on classes of people depending on which TV channels they watch?

 

[phinds]

Why do people who would never tolerate racial, sexist, or ethnic slurs think that it is OK to inject political slurs and put downs into any an all topics? Is that not a personal attack on classes of people depending on which TV channels they watch?

I agree w/ your sentiment in general but I think an exception should be made for FOX "news"

 

[anorlunda]

I agree w/ your sentiment in general but I think an exception should be made for FOX "news"

Don't forget a similar exception for people who believe in God.

 

[phinds]

Don't forget a similar exception for people who believe in God.

I'm happy to go along w/ that but that one is probably against forum rules so let's don't go there.