Out of the Lab and into the Living Room

Can you name a living scientist?  If you are reading this ‘Partners in Science’ blog, it is likely you can.  Unfortunately, a ‘Research! America’ survey conducted in 2011 says that only 34 per cent of Americans can actually name a living scientist.  As someone who works everyday with scientists who are doing some truly revolutionary work, I struggle to understand this apathy towards science. I think that scientists should concern themselves with communicating their work with the public more, and here’s some background on why:

Two fellows and prominent scientists from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Neal Lane and Peter Hotez, have recently challenged the scientific community to evaluate its public role. Lane, who is the former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has historically championed this position, and many years ago coined the term ‘Civic Scientists,’ which he describes as “(…) scientists and engineers [that]step beyond their campuses, laboratories, and institutes and into the center of their communities to engage in active dialogue with their fellow citizens.” Hotez, the founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, has been encouraging scientists as well, discussing the many consequences of a misinformed public, including poor science policy, dwindling government funding for research and a lack of interest from future candidates in the science disciplines.

Earlier this month Lane and Hotez co-authored a blog entry for the Huffington Post which asserts a call to action for researchers working in the biomedical field: “We scientists need to change our culture to make public advocacy and science policy essential activities that will be increasingly needed in order to preserve the integrity of American biomedical science.”  While this article was directed towards the biomedical research field in the US, it is much wider reaching.

So now the question is how do we accomplish this goal?  One method originating in the US has been to raise the profile of science through, what I like to call, the ‘Celebrity Scientist’ route.  At the end of February, a handful of billionaire investors announced 11 winners of the Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize – each of whom won $3 million dollars. Despite my first assumption, this astonishingly large prize was not meant to fund specific research, but to reward scientists who have already made great discoveries and to encourage others to take a second look at a career in science.  One of the well known Internet investors behind the prize, Yuri Milner, explained during a New Scientist interview, “Scientists are under-represented as heroes in our society. We intend to change that.”

A UK based organization has taken a slightly different approach. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health by supporting the brightest minds in biomedical research. Part of its mission is public engagement and they have chosen to do that through a very non-traditional medium – video games.  Just this month the Wellcome Trust announced a competition for video game developers to create a game idea that incorporates biomedical science and then pitch it to an award committee.  The winners will be granted up to £10,000 to actually go forth and create the game for distribution.  Tomas Rawlings, a video game consultant for the organisation, explains the intention: “Putting science into games not only offers inspiration but also shows how it is a part of culture. The future scientists of tomorrow may well get their lifelong passion for the subject from the games they play today.”

While one of the main goals of our Science and Innovation Network is to facilitate collaboration and scientific exchange, promoting the resulting achievements and successes to the public at large goes hand-in-hand with this work.  This blog and our quarterly newsletter are prime examples of how we do that. I recently contributed an article to our newsletter about a stem cell printing discovery in Scotland which was later voted to be the 3rd most important British innovation most likely to shape the future.  From our voices here at ‘Partners in Science’, to the monitor screens of thousands of eager gamers, the UK is spreading the message about the value of science.  The reality is that the science PR “problem” is a global one and it will not be solved by just one approach but rather a combination of methods and organizations working together to inject science back into the conversation and culture.