• Question: Do you think that science is becoming less understandable for the average person because of all the scientific developments?

    Asked by kiloby to Chris, Dave, David, Fiona, Jack on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Jack Miller

      Jack Miller answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Hi Kiloby,

      Great question! I think it’s part of our job to effectively communicate our discoveries. Sometimes, this is easy. More often than not, it’s incredibly hard. However, really big discoveries often have been impacts on the world, and it’s really important to try and get them out there.

      I don’t think that the number of scientific developments necessarily affects how understandable each development is, however — virtually everything can only be discovered after something else was, but the ideas that lead to its discovery aren’t always necessary for understanding it. For example, people came to realise that the atom has a nucleus with protons and neutrons in it after another model, called the ‘plum pudding’ model was proven to be false by Rutherford. Yet when you’re taught about the world, you’re introduced to the idea of atoms containing electrons orbiting a nucleus, and get on with it fine, without bothering about the plum pudding model.

      On the other hand, there are some developments which only really make sense with an awful lot of background information behind them. It’s up to us to try and make it as, in the words of one A. Einstein, “simple as possible, but no simpler”!

      Hope this helps,

      — Jack

    • Photo: Fiona Coomer

      Fiona Coomer answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      I think that the knowledge that the ‘average person’ has of scientific developments is really pretty amazing. Although it may seem that developments in science mean that there is more to know about, often the steps forward build on or alter previous knowledge rather than starting afresh.

      In recent years, scientists have realised how important it is to communicate their research to the general public, and huge steps have been made in this, though there’s still a long way to go. As scientists, we have a responsibility for communicating what we do in ways that can be easily understood by everyone, without changing the facts. If I can explain what I’m doing at work to my mum (who never studied chemistry or physics, even at school), then I’m happy with that, and I’ve managed it so far!

    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Hi Kiloby-

      Good question. I think science is becoming more and more complex, and yes, in some ways that is making it harder for the average person to understand.

      In fact, I think it’s becoming harder for other scientists too. Even a century ago, it was much easier for there to be “polymaths”- people who are experts in many different fields. Henri Poincaré, who lived a century ago, was a leading researcher in astronomy, relativity, chaos theory, engineering, electromagnetism, abstract mathematics and a whole host of other things. There are still a few polymaths today, but it’s rarer. Most scientists are very, very specialised today, and it can be hard to follow the cutting edge research in other fields.

      The good news is, I think scientists are getting much, much better at communicating their research. The other good news is that the public are much better educated. I think the internet has really improved the public’s ability to access scientific knowledge, and there’s also a lot of good science programmes on TV. So, even though science is getting more complex, I think the average person is getting better and better at understanding science. That’s a really good thing!

Comments