We Need to Talk: Why Science Communication Is Vital to the American Future

This is a crowd-sourced blog post, created at the 4/18/12 #nsfmessenger conference in New Mexico, to explain the importance of scientists engaging in public communication.

These days, it is fair to say that science communication has a lot of advocates. This workshop—Science: Becoming the Messenger—has now crisscrossed America and trained over 1,000 scientists in communication so far, and our effort is just one out of many. University courses on science communication are proliferating, as are panels on the subject at scientific meetings. Most prominently, a cadre of science communication leaders—top among them Neil deGrasse Tyson—are growing in popularity. This science celebrity-hood itself reflects a culture that is coming to view science as considerably more than mere nerdiness.

Why is this happening? Scientists are activating as communicators because they think what they do is fascinating, and want to share that passion. But it’s more than that. They’re interested in policy and the future. They’re convinced that more public communication efforts about science have such beneficial consequences that they could be considered vital to the future well-being of the U.S.