The Making Science Public blog: An introduction

I have now said farewell several times to my old university blogging platform, but I haven’t really started building up a new readership here. Newbies to the blog might wonder what the old Making Science Public blog was all about; what topics it covered before venturing to press the subscribe button…..

As a gentle introduction to what the blog was/is all about, I’ll run through some of the major themes I have covered over the years and provide two or three examples of posts that relate to each theme. But there are of course many more out there.

Language and metaphors in science communication

This is a theme that runs through all the other themes. It covers theoretical reflections on metaphor as well the use of metaphors in science, the media and science communication.

Metaphors in science and society

Metaphors, metaphors, metaphors

Related to this overall theme is the exploration of language and metaphors in various fields of study from biology to AI.

Biotechnology and the life sciences

Many posts deal with metaphors used in genetics, genomics, synthetic biology, genetic engineering, gene drive, epigenetics, microbiomics, CRISPR, designer babies, bacteria, organoid research and, more recently, research into biohybrid robots and organoid intelligence.

The book of life: Reading, writing, editing

Blueprint: A broken metaphor

Brains, organoids and cultural narratives

As I have written a lot of posts about synthetic biology, I’ll add two more examples:

Synthetic biology; or the Modern Prometheus

The language of life meets large language models

Climate change

In many of my posts, I explore how climate science and climate change are communicated and the challenges that involves. These posts have focused increasingly on issues relating to extreme weather events, like floods, droughts and wildfires, including metaphors and extreme weather communication.

Abseiling down the climate cliff metaphor

Heat dome: Atmosphere, architecture and agency

Health and illness

In the past I have written numerous academic articles about the use of war metaphors in the context of studying infectious disease such as foot and mouth disease, SARS, avian flu and much more. So, just at the beginning of the covid pandemic, I wrote one overview blog summarises this research.

Warnings, war metaphors and infectious disease: A little lit review

Over the years I also covered many issues related to heath and disease including immunity and vaccination, antibiotic resistance, as well as particular outbreaks of disease such as Mpox and scientific advances and treatments, such as sickle cell anaemia and gene editing, mitochondrial donation and much more.

Mpox again

Milk, reservoirs and spillovers: Bird flu in cows

Pandemic communication

A significant portion of content during 2020-2022 focused on COVID-19 communication, examining how the pandemic was discussed metaphorically and how science was communicated during this global crisis.

Metaphors in the time of coronavirus

Covid metaphors: Three chapters and a special issue

Science communication

I regularly reflect on the nature, purpose, and effectiveness of science communication itself, questioning what it was, what it is, and what it should be. As science communication is such a big topic, I have chosen three instead of two examples…..

Science communication: Bridging theory and practice

What is science communication?

Science communication: What was it, what is it, and what should it be? – Making Science Public

Responsible innovation

When I was still working on the Leverhulme funded Making Science Public programme and on a synthetic biology programme, I wrote several posts exploring the concept of responsible research and innovation. In some of them I focused on one aspect that was often overlooked, and that is responsible language use.

Responsible innovation: Great expectations and great responsibilities

Why we should care about the language we use in science?

Artificial intelligence communication

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 I have paid increasing attention to AI communication challenges, including public engagement with AI and the obstacles and paradoxes involved. I explored how chatbots view themselves through the lens of metaphor and I have had conversations with Claude about the use of metaphors in biotechnology, climate change and more. More recently, I examined in a bit more depth the emergence of more negative metaphors, such as the pollution of knowledge.

Talking with Claude about machine metaphors in biology

From contamination to collapse: On the trail of a new AI metaphor

Science, politics and more

The intersection of science and politics is a recurring theme, studying how scientific knowledge interacts with political processes and decision-making, as well as trust and responsibility.

Science communication, politics and power

Public trust in science: Myths and realities

Smaller numbers of posts have covered issues related to nanotechnology and space exploration; historical perspectives on science communication, cultural and literary topics, as well as science communication and visualisations, science communication and hype and much more

John Herschel: A snapshot of his adventures in photography

Triangulating the history of science communication: Faraday, Marcet and Smart

Cassini, space probes, history and women

I hope you have fun exploring some of these old blog posts while I am writing a new one to be published soon – stay tuned.