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Environment
Communicating Science … Or Not
January 16, 2012
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 90, Issue 3
I’ve always enjoyed Alan Alda’s presentations on PBS—some have been quite insightful (C&EN, Nov. 7, 2011, page 30). Alda’s complaint about the general population not being interested in science and related fields is not new, however; the marked indifference goes way back, centuries at least, according to some of the shows on PBS. There is no help for it, I think. The best you can do is present convincing arguments and entertaining presentations, and the “jury” will have to make its own choice.
As for the general population not “getting it,” well, that might be an example of evolution in the process of evolving. As getting it would seem to be a practical everyday example of survival, or not.
By Jim Parsons
Rapid City, SD
The power is now in your (nitrile gloved) hands
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