I’m giving talks about Unscientific America twice in the next two weeks–and that’s before SciOnline2011 even hits.
First, I’m speaking at Bard College in the Citizen Science program on January 8. Details here. It’s up on the Hudson. I’m sure it’s beautiful when snowy–and I’m kinda afraid I’ll get stuck there. January travel in New York state has never been a good odds bet for me.
Second, I’m speaking at the NIH on January 10. Details here. This one is billed as “Do Scientists Understand the Public” but that will probably be a part of the broader Unscientific America lecture.
Tim Birkhead is professor of behavioural ecology, University of Sheffield. He is reading Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum’s Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future (Basic Books, 2009). “Not only America’s future, but the UK’s, and elsewhere too. This is essential reading for all science undergraduates (and teachers); superb history that puts our current predicament into perspective. This highly readable book tells you why science matters. On communicating science for example: ‘Institutional structures … fail to award successes in communication and thus create little incentive for scientists to engage in it.’”
Don’t want a nation under the new media, And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mindf* America
I just love that Green Day’s American Idiot introduces a short talk I did in July at the Cactus Cafe as part of Science In The Pub. (And the Google Earth zoom in is Tre Cool!) These are informal happy hour events so it’s more of an abridged and casual version of what I do on the road. Great venue and I’m looking forward to joining SITP next February to give another talk on The Science of Kissing!
I’ve got a piece at Huffington Post today about scientific illiteracy and public disengagement–and some possible answers. An excerpt:
Take clean energy, the industry of the future. Globally, the clean energy economy is booming–and China is now its clear leader. The U.S. fell into a distant second place last year in clean energy investment and finance, as China spent $ 34.6 billion to our $18.6 billion.
A similar story emerges in the biomedical arena, where our research investments haven’t kept pace with national health priorities. For instance, Alzheimer’s disease is now the seventh leading cause of death in the US, and accounts for 34 percent of total Medicare spending. Yet in terms of research, it’s a stepchild: Funding through the National Institutes of Health is currently less than $ 500 million per year.
How do you make Americans more focused on the centrality of science to our future? It isn’t easy given the nature of our national conversation–with serious science news vanishing from the media–and our already limited attention constantly directed elsewhere, including debating whether to elect global warming denying candidates to Congress this November 2. (more…)
Readers know well that here at the Intersection we care a great deal about increasing the public visibility of science, and trying to ensure that our researchers are recognized as the national heroes they are. That’s what Unscientific America was all about.
And that’s why I’ve decided to team up with an initiative that has dramatic potential to make Americans far more aware of science, and it’s importance to our future.
Geoffrey Beene is a designer men’s clothing brand; its foundation funds philanthropic causes–many of them relating to the advancement of biomedical research and the search for cures for devastating diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.
For instance, in 2006 it founded the Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and has given over $ 110 million in value from Geoffrey Beene combined entities to innovative translational cancer research.
Rock Stars of Science™ is another Geoffrey Beene initiative, designed to raise the visibility of our leading researchers by pairing them with musicians–and showing that scientists rock and are themselves celebrities and superstars. (more…)
Anthony Leiserowitz at Yale has new data out on the public and its bizarre and troubling relationship with climate science. To quote some of the findings:
* 57 % know that the greenhouse effect refers to gases in the atmosphere that trap heat;
* 50 % of Americans understand that global warming is caused mostly by human activities;
* 45 % understand that carbon dioxide traps heat from the Earth’s surface;
* 25 % have ever heard of coral bleaching or ocean acidification.
Meanwhile, large majorities incorrectly think that the hole in the ozone layer and aerosol spray cans contribute to global warming, leading many to incorrectly conclude that banning aerosol spray cans or stopping rockets from punching holes in the ozone layer are viable solutions.
I’ve actually heard this ozone hole misconception with some frequency when talking with people about global warming.
Leiserowitz goes on to grade our countrymen and -women on their climate science scores: “only 8 percent of Americans have knowledge equivalent to an A or B, 40 percent would receive a C or D, and 52 percent would get an F.”
Think of it this way: Maybe in 20 years those scores will be a bit higher (or maybe not)–but the planet may be cooked by then.
Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of Waiting For Superman. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.
Stop, wherever you are. Quick, grab your phone or closest camera and take a picture of what’s in front of you. Send it to hbenson at researchamerica.org to enter the Mystery Lab contest.
What is the Mystery Lab contest? A chance to show off your research. Monday through Thursday next week the most creative four images submitted will be posted in the order they were received. New Voices readers will be asked to guess what field of research is being represented in the photo (biology, chemistry, marine science, physics, mathematics, etc.)
How to participate: Send an image of your work with the general field you work in as the subject to hbenson at researchamerica.org or via Twitter @NV4Research. Then encourage your friends to guess each day next week.
How to win: The winning entry will be determined using the following formula:
Number of guesses x total daily visitors
A month or more ago, some folks from the American Geophysical Union interviewed me by flip cam about climate science communication, and the short, edited video has just gone up. Here it is:
