Science celebrities are our de facto science laureates
Declan Fahy, American University A bill to create a US science laureate is pending in Congress. Climate skeptics reportedly derailed a previous proposal in 2013, fearing President Obama would appoint a scientist who shared his policy goal to curb greenhouse gases. Akin to the poet laureate position, the honorary one-year laureate appointment would give a…
Inside America’s science lobby: What motivates AAAS members to engage the public?
Workshops that teach scientists about public communication and advocacy are growing in popularity. Career ambition rather than politics appears to be a main motivation behind scientists’ desire to engage the public. SISSA, CC BY-NC At their annual meetings last month, leaders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) urged their members to…
Historians of Science Struggle to Define Their Relevance and New Directions in the Field
This week at the Chronicle of Higher Education, science writer Paul Voosen takes a look at debates within the history of science field about its continued relevance to the scientific community and society at large. With rapidly depreciating prominence on college campuses and a squeeze on sources of funding, some leaders in the field have…
Twenty Years of Evolving Models of Science Communication
Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson have come to symbolize the dominant “popularization” approach to science communication, a model that has been embraced with renewed enthusiasm among young scientists as they have experimented with and developed a variety of digital and social media tools. Yet this dominant approach to science communication is not without several…
