Dumbing Down Science
Perhaps the greatest sin I commit in writing the Genetics and Public Health Blog is the sin of oversimplification. I can still remember how much it stung when I was accused of it by a professor in my grad school days. But I think there’s good as well as bad oversimplification.
Good oversimplifications help people understand the key points and how they pertain to everyday life. The take home message should be no more than two or three bullet points.
Bad oversimplifications exaggerate or distort to sell an agenda. Even if there is no agenda or obvious bias, bad oversimplifications try to titillate in order to sell stories or attract attention.
Ben Goldacre writes in the Bad Science column of the Guardian Unlimited that most science stories in main stream media are worth bupkis.
Science is done by scientists, who write it up. Then a press release is written by a non-scientist, who runs it by their non-scientist boss, who then sends it to journalists without a science education who try to convey difficult new ideas to an audience of either lay people, or more likely - since they’ll be the ones interested in reading the stuff - people who know their way around a t-test a lot better than any of these intermediaries. Finally, it’s edited by a whole team of people who don’t understand it.
I’ve done my best to avoid dumbing down science here. Since I can’t cover everything related to genetics and public health, I try to pick up the most interesting tidbits that enlighten, educate, and amuse. Some of the posts I make are definite yawners and others are pure silliness. Still, I do what I can to point out what’s good and what’s bad. But if you ask me, it’s all science.
Pointer from snowdeal.org.
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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health
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2 opinions for Dumbing Down Science
Shai
Sep 10, 2005 at 8:36 am
I think sometimes it’s all a matter of knowing who you want as an audience. But, as far as I’m concerned, I like the way you do it here. :-)
Lei
Sep 10, 2005 at 8:40 am
Shai, Thanks for the vote of confidence! :D
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