How can design help communicate science? The Linnean Society Christmas Lecture Anne Odling-Smee 12 December 2011
Why does science need help with communication?
Build up of mis-communication
Build up of mis-communication
Build up of mis-communication
Build up of mis-communication
‘Scientists need to engage more fully with the public. The Royal Society recognises this, and is keen to ensure that such engagement is helpful and effective’ Report by The Royal Society, June 2006
Scientists being asked by editors to communicate to the media
‘In response to this need in science communications, the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology has partnered with the National Science Foundation to provide resources for scientists and engineers… to help researchers communicate more broadly with the public’
1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics? 2. What are the challenges? 3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible? 4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?
1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics? 2. What are the challenges? 3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible? 4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?
Science journals
Museums and exhibitions
Text
Museums and exhibitions
Text
TV documentaries
David Attenborough BBC interview, 2 December 2011
‘I’m a hangover from the old television days of presenting, when you had live camera, and the accompanying equipment was so clumsy that you needed someone to cover over the cracks of the coverage.’
Government
Education
Media
Art
Architecture
Education
Eco action trumps: educational cards
Direct communication from scientists
1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics? 2. What are the challenges? 3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible? 4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?
‘Why doesn’t America like science?’ Financial Times 25 Nov 2011 ‘Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution…
‘Why doesn’t America like science?’ Financial Times 25 Nov 2011 ‘Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution… “When candidates for the highest office in the land appear to spurn reason, embrace anecdote over scientific evidence, and even portray scientists as the perpetrators of a massive hoax, there is reason to worry” – New Scientist magazine.’
Current challenges
Nanotechnologies
Stem cell research
Climate change
Population growth
1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics? 2. What are the challenges? 3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible? 4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, engineer, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, botanist, geologist, cartographer, writer
Drawings of the flow of water
William Roscoe (1753–1831)
Lawyer, MP, agriculturalist, gardener, botanist, banker, writer, historian
Charles Darwin (1809–92)
‘In the long history of human kind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed’
How not to do it
Design is not art‌
Language
1. ‘Inside’ science language 2. ‘Outside’ science language
Language
1. ‘Inside’ science language 2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for: a) research funding
Language
1. ‘Inside’ science language 2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for: a) research funding b) enabling public response
Language
1. ‘Inside’ science language 2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for: a) research funding b) enabling public response c) helping one kind of scientist communicate with another kind of scientist
Language
‘One of the most difficult features of science communication is the unwieldy technical jargon often associated with scientific inquiry‌
Language
窶ｦ 窶連lthough this jargon may be useful within a scientific field, it is often not understood by nonscientists, including the public, reporters, and policymakers窶ｦ
Language
… ‘Scientists themselves often struggle with the difference in technical terms used in biology from those used in physics and chemistry, for example.’ AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology
Language: visual and verbal
Charles Joseph Minard, map charting losses suffered by Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812
Information graphics: representations of evolution < Human s here
Human s around here >
Barton, Briggs, Eisen, Goldstein, Patel, Evolution, CSHL Press, NY 2007 Ernst Haeckel, Geneological Tree of Humanity, 1891
Applying scientifically tested expertise in visual communication to the communication of science
Communicating probability and theory
Communicating probability and theory
‘Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is one of the most misunderstood parts of quantum theory, a doorway through which all sorts of charlatans and purveyors of tripe can force their philosophical musings.’ – Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw, The Quantum Universe, 2011, Allen p. 54. Lane)
Interactive design
Tangram game
Exploiting combined science and design knowledge through technology
Netterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anatomy Flash Cards
Made by Apple Designed by Jonathan Ive, RCA
1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics? 2. What are the challenges? 3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible? 4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?
Direct challenges facing science communication
1. Engaging new and diverse audiences 2. Creating a dialogue and platform for discussion and input of ideas 3. Science education 4. Addressing misunderstandings about science 5. Communicating the scientific process
Design Science Research Group (DSRG)
DSRG is a venture between practising designers from Central Saint Martins and science communicators from Imperial College London, set up in 2011 in response to the recognition by a growing number of scientists that improvements are needed in the communication of science to the public.
Design Science Research Group (DSRG)
Five areas: 1. Commercial practice and consultancy 2. Workshops between scientists and designers 3. Regular debates 4. Exhibitions 5. Academic practice
www.design-science.org.uk
Parallel deficit model changes in science communication and design communication
Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’
Curiosity driven
Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’
Interactive (Jussi Ängeslevä)
Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’
Beauty (Richard Feynman)
DSRG Launch event Live debate between science communication graduates from Imperial College and MA Communication Design students from Central Saint Martins Hunterian Museum Royal College of Surgeons Monday 28 November 2011
Thank you