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Writer's pictureSaurav Singh

Lost in Translation

Picture this. Your family is sitting around the table at dinner and enjoying a nice wholesome meal together. Your grandmother turns to you and asks about your studies in school. You, a chemistry major, tell her all about the labs you are doing and she smiles seeing how happy you are doing what you love. Then the unthinkable happens. Grandma says, "could you pass the salt deary?" All your chemistry training kicks in as you tell her its NaCl, soduim chloride, and begin listing off elements of the periodic table, explaining organic chemistry, and s and p orbitals for an hour. Your grandmother looks at you, eyes wide open and says, "I just wanted you to pass me the salt." While this scenario is something out of a horror comedy movie, it highlights a fundmental gap between two groups of society. The scientific community and the lay public.

When you look at television, youtube, or any political campaign, what you will find are celebrities. For example, on shows like Real Time with Bill Maher instead of a panel of experts discussing foreign policy or healthcare, you will see a panel of actors and comedians. The same can be said of The Daily Show or similar programs. But why is it that people turn to the likes of Ben Affleck and Cardi B to tell us about these important issues? To put it bluntly, scientists are just not interesting to the lay public. Now scientists before you get mad at me, it is not your job to be an entertainer, but it is your job to let the public know about your findings. How can we change that?

Science communication is the key. What scientists need to remember is that most people do not have the vocabulary that they do when explaining their finding. It is not enough to explain as if reading a scientific article and saying the uneducated public must fall in line. When explaining to a general audience, one must use words that all can easly understand.

Explaining in simple terms is also not enough. From early childhood, there must be a foundation set to start at least a basic understanding of the principles of science. Understanding the basic scientific method, interaction with scientists, and science classes that all help to establish a trust in the methodology of science. If there is no basic trust, then even when you understand what a scientists is saying there is no benefit.

It is up to both the scientific community and the lay public to train themselves to interact with each other. While it may seem like they are from two separate worlds at times, just small efforts to understand one anothers ways of life and languages can help "bridge the gap" as we like to say.

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