Next week on Thursday at noon I will be in Edmonton, Canada delivering the annual Picard Lecture at the University of Alberta’s Health Law Institute. More information on the presentation […]
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The struggles of the science beat at local newspapers have little or nothing to do with scientific illiteracy or public respect for science and much more to do with the […]
When pundits like Richard Dawkins use the trust and authority granted them as scientists to denigrate religious publics, is it unethical?On issues such as climate change, nanotechnology, and evolution, research […]
I’m back in the office after a great event last night at the American Museum of Natural History. Close to 100 attendees came out to the magnificent venue for a […]
For more than a decade, Rick Weiss covered science (and its politics) for the Washington Post. When he left the paper last year, the news organization lost one of the […]
The Obama administration had a rough start to its communication strategy on the stimulus plan, going from no message to a catastrophe frame, only at the last minute shifting to […]
Sometimes I just don’t get it. Whether it is climate change, evolution, or vaccination, the more literal minded among science bloggers and pundits typically blame science journalists for breakdowns in […]
There’s a must read Shorenstein Center white paper out by Time magazine contributor Eric Pooley, who spent Fall 2008 at Harvard researching how the news media covered the run up […]
Just how important is public communication? Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren believes that scientists should devote 10% of their time to talking to the public about matters of science and […]
A new study at the journal Risk Analysis examines the factors shaping public perceptions of nuclear energy and provides important clues about how to effectively mobilize public support for expanded […]
Not surprisingly, Carl Safina’s Feb. 10 essay at the NY Times calling for an end to Darwin worship generated a fair amount of criticism.Safina’s suggestion to frame information in terms […]
Shankar Vendantam’s story headlined “Climate Fears Are Driving ‘Ecomigration’ Across the Globe” runs on the front page at the Washington Post today. It’s not often that climate change is a […]
Back in January, Desmog blog noted what they dubbed a “troubling” trend online, plotting a rise in mentions of “global warming + hoax.” The graph was construed as evidence of […]
At The Yale Climate Forum, Lisa Palmer contributes a very useful feature reviewing various strategies for how scientists can write effective newspaper op-eds on climate change. Most of the first […]
Turns out that GOP message guru Frank Luntz doesn’t think much of the Bush administration’s communication strategy across the past eight years. In an interview with NPR’s On the Media […]
In announcements and press efforts this past month, the Vatican is promoting Galileo as a symbol of collaboration between science and religion. The initiative is part of a larger campaign […]
A reminder about the outstanding panel to be held tomorrow at NSF headquarters.
Kudos to the Obama administration for approaching one of America’s top science communicators for the position of Surgeon General. Not only could CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta be a visible and […]
Sigh. More of the same self-defeating sophomoric rants against religion coming to a theater soon.It’s an embarrassing time to be an atheist in America.
Economic troubles and what to do about them are not unlike climate change or biomedical research. Both economic policy and science policy can be deeply complex and uncertain and can […]
Yesterday I turned in a short essay to the BA’s Science & Public Affairs magazine about science communication in the Obama era. In the essay, among recommendations,I floated a proposal […]
Tonight I board a plane for Venice, Italy where I will be presenting as part of an expert workshop on science communication, sponsored by the EU, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, […]
I am in Venice, Italy this week to participate in an expert workshop on research in science communication held at the historic Venice Institute of Science & the Arts (above). […]
What’s a vision of the future of science journalism? Consider Yale Environment 360. The university and foundation-sponsored online magazine and social media site is updated daily and weekly, publishing feature […]
There was a clear consensus focus to presentations and comments at the first day of the Venice workshop on science communication and public engagement: The biggest future challenge will be […]
Day two of the expert workshop on science communication at the Venice Institute of Science & Arts focused more narrowly on the question of defining and evaluating forms of science […]
Call it a case of extreme optimistic bias: Many climate advocates point to polls that show when the public is asked directly, a majority say they are “concerned” about global […]
A model for government agencies and science organizations to replicate. From a Politico article on Obama’s campaign pledge to use technology to enhance transparency, responsiveness, and citizen engagement: The transition […]
On Thursday, Feb. 5, I will be at Virginia Commonwealth University giving a talk as part of the university’s Science, Technology, and Society lecture series (details). It will be an […]
As I wrote last month, in the Year of Darwin, the loudest voice associated with science threatens to be Richard Dawkins and other New Atheist pundits who will argue their […]