Category: science communication
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From symbolist poets to science communication: Exploring an invisible thread in my academic life
Years and years ago, I had an Academia profile in which I mentioned that when I began studying French literature in the mid-1970s I fell in love with Baudelaire and Rimbaud. I no longer have access to Academia, but somebody must have seen that sentence and recently sent me an email asking how I got…
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‘Science in Action’ is ending. Here is why that matters
The year is coming to an end and with it a radio programme that was a staple of science communication around the world: the BBC World Service’s ‘Science in Action’. This is rather symbolic, as science itself is going out of action in some parts of the world, especially the United States where science funding…
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The dark genome: A gothic tale with a happy ending
On 29 September Roger Highfield published an article for the Francis Crick Institute entitled “A message from the dark genome: The genetic ghosts that haunt and help us” (based on a chat with George Kassiotis and Samra Turajlic). This set my metaphor-whiskers twitching, as the article overflows with metaphors circling around the central one of…
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Metaphor, alchemy and lessons from the 17th century
Philip Ball has just published a magnificent book on the history of alchemy: Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science. This made me think about metaphor, of course, given how central metaphorical language was to alchemical practice. In a sense, metaphor is alchemy, metaphorically speaking, as it transmutes two…
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From dissemination to firefighting: The new reality of science communication?
Three things happened recently in my Bluesky timeline which made me think about the fate of science communication. In this post I’ll use these brief glimpses into science communication activities, science communication research and government science communication to reflect on how science communication might change, especially in the United States. Three snapshots of science communication…
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Beauty and the snail
Since around 2016, the year I retired, I have followed the blossoming career of another University of Nottingham academic, Angus Davison, a professor of evolutionary genetics and expert on snails and a science communicator. He became famous in 2016 when he began to write and broadcast about ‘Jeremy the lonely lefty snail’, a snail with…
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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…
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Making Science Public in a chaotic world
As you know, I am now gradually moving from my old ‘Making Science Public’ blog home at the University of Nottingham to my new personal blog home here. This wasn’t easy and lots of people supported me directly or indirectly in this move (by listening to my whining). You know who you are, and I…
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Space, hype and science communication
I recently wrote a post with Kate Roach about some hyped-up claims regarding de-extinct dire wolves. In the middle of writing about this, another claim came along, and, again, I thought “hmmm, is that really true or is it hype?”. This time it was not about de-extinct life but about extraterrestrial life. At the same…
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Metaphors in science communication: Hits and misses
At the beginning of August, various scientific announcements whizzed past me on Twitter. First, a new room-temperature super-conductor (LK-99 for short), which I just dismissed in my head as hype*, then a new pill that cured cancer, which sounded a bit more plausible. In news coverage of both announcements, the phrase ‘holy grail’ came up,…
Making Science Public 