Crommunist
  • Blog
  • Music
    • Video
    • Audio
  • Media
    • Audio
    • Video
  • Events
  • Twitter
  • Ian Cromwell Music
  • Soundcloud

Movie Friday: Fear of Numbers

  • July 22, 2011
  • by Crommunist
  • · blog · bmusic · science

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Here’s why:

When Carl Sagan died, there was a hole left for a science educator that could engage with average people and get them excited by new scientific concepts. I feel like that role has gone to Dr. Tyson, though I’m sure he would forswear the comparison. I had a conversation with a couple of friends and raised the point that like basic math skills and basic language skills (although still not in many cases), it should be a prerequisite of having a career as a scientist that you can communicate your research with ordinary people (i.e., non-scientists). If the scientific community can’t manage to bring the fire of the gods to the people (I am making a Prometheus allusion), then what are they (we) doing this for?

Like this article? Follow me on Twitter!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

  • « Prev
  • Next »
Leave A Comment   ↓

Comments

  1. Joseph Caine July 22, 2011 · Reply

    Well, it should be the rule, not the exception, but I think that having it be a basic prerequisite would be a bit stifling… I think that there’s a reason Science Journalism is a specific subset of Journalism, though.
    The public should also be better educated on scientific concepts in general. Of course, that’s much easier said than done…

    • Crommunist July 22, 2011 · Reply

      Science journalists in major media outlets are seldom accurate when it comes to describing science. There’s also the fact to consider that media isn’t the only way people interact with science, and scientists need to be part of that conversation. Communication is a two-way street as well, and many scientists need to be able to understand what things are relevant to society in general.

      I am not a mathematician, but without math competency I wouldn’t be able to be a scientist. I could be an absolute wizard in the lab, or when it comes to research design, but if I can’t do math I can’t be a scientist. I don’t find that ‘stifling’, I think it’s relevant to my role as a scientist. In the same way, I think some basic competency in speaking, presenting, writing for laypeople – I think these are important and oft-neglected skills that should be part of training for a career in science.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

No incoming links found yet.


  • SoundCloud
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Follow Following
    • Crommunist
    • Join 82 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Crommunist
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: