Archive: Science Communication and Education

Features

08-12-09 | A Temporary Last Column

By Chris Mooney
Redressing the imbalance between research and outreach, between the creation of knowledge and its sharing.

08-05-09 | What’s Wrong with U.S. Science Education?

By Chris Mooney
U.S. science education occurs in the context of an American culture that has very deep problems with science—problems that are manifested in many spheres other than the educational system, but are certainly reflected there, too.

08-03-09 | Uncle Sam Wants YOU For American Science

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, Vivian Cheng
Science matters, and so does science communication, argue the coauthors. And while advocacy and science are not always easy bedfellows, groups with antiscientific agendas put on awfully good briefings on Capitol Hill.

07-22-09 | Got Science?

By Chris Mooney
How to understand how America has changed since the days of the Space Race.

06-11-09 | Nerd Busters

By Chris Mooney
GQ’s new “Rock Stars of Science” campaign should give not just disease sufferers, but America’s scientists, hope.

05-27-09 | Great Scott

By Chris Mooney
It’s about time everyone is celebrating Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education—she is, after all, perhaps the leading day-to-day defender of science in America.

05-20-09 | Science-less in Seattle

By Chris Mooney
Tom Paulson, formerly of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, now a freelance writer, carpenter, and building contractor, epitomizes the story of the science writer in our time.

05-11-09 | Saving Scientific Integrity

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt, interviewer
The eight years of the Bush administration were a bad time for scientific integrity in government research. Grifo, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says we must focus on protecting government researchers, making science-based policymaking more transparent, and monitoring potential abuses.

04-22-09 | The Science Lover and the Snob

By Chris Mooney
Nearly 50 years after C.P. Snow’s famous “Two Cultures” lecture, what can we learn from its polemical aftermath, and its author’s savage battles with literary critic F.R. Leavis?

04-08-09 | What Does This Generation Think it Means to be a “Scientist”?

By Chris Mooney
Many students don’t see a life of academic specialization as the best way to employ their scientific talents. They want to do something more, to bring science to the rest of America.

03-25-09 | Science Writers and Science Bloggers

By Chris Mooney
Having just moved his blog from one mainstream outlet to another, our Contributing Editor considers the many hats science bloggers now wear in an era of struggling science journalism.Ch

03-11-09 | Time for Science to Reclaim Its Progressive Roots

By Jonathan D. Moreno and Rick Weiss
Public knowledge and understanding of science as an engine of progress will reveal solutions to today’s most pressing problems, including climate change, energy independence, and national security.

03-10-09 | Scientific Housecleaning

By Chris Mooney
President Obama puts John Holdren in charge of a government-wide scientific integrity project—if he can ever assume his post at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, that is.

02-12-09 | Is Holdren Cabinet-Bound?

By Amy Hoang-Wrona
The science community wants John Holdren’s expected confirmation to the Office of Science and Technology Policy to be followed by his elevation into Obama’s cabinet.

02-12-09 | Darwin Day: A Celebration of Science, Not Conflict

By D. Graham Burnett and Chris Mooney
Historical research on the relationship between science and religion reveals a story very different from common tales of discord.

02-05-09 | The Authenticity Filter

By Debra Aronson
Over time, various technologies have altered our perceptions of what is essential and original. So how is moving a few pixels around in a photo like altering biological systems?

02-03-09 | Curiosity Makes a Comeback

By William Hoffman
Curiosity has waxed and waned among our chief executives. Our 44th President plans to restore its preeminence.

01-29-09 | Colbert Retorts

By Chris Mooney
All the things I didn’t get to say to Stephen Colbert, and other thoughts on the comedics of science.

01-21-09 | One Last Whack

By Chris Mooney
Despite the inauguration of a new administration, conservatives have left a damaged scientific system and an archaic way of thinking about science policy. The outgoing policymakers cannot rewrite history for their own purposes.

01-19-09 | Quiet Heroes

By Rick Weiss
The United States boasts a huge corps of public-servant scientists devoted to going where the evidence takes them and who, as of Wednesday, will for the first time in years be respected by the highest officials in the land for what they do.

10-29-08 | The Science Writer’s Lament

By Chris Mooney
As the media’s interest in covering science declines, the lack of strong advocates for such coverage also comes to light.

10-08-08 | A Year’s Worth of Thinking About Science Policy

By Chris Mooney
It’s entirely possible for research to thrive even as the influence and relevance of science, in policy and to the average citizen, decline. Reflections on a dramatic conversation to elevate science in America.

10-07-08 | A Year of Science Progress

By Jonathan D. Moreno
Just over a year ago, we launched Science Progress. Our goal was to provide a forum for progressive science policy, a venue in which those concerned about the future of the country could assess the current state of science in America.

10-01-08 | All the President’s Scientists

By Chris Mooney
For eight years running, the National Academy of Sciences has offered public advice on scientific appointments for the next administration and seen its advice largely ignored. This year, the tone is different, and it’s time to pay attention.

09-24-08 | Cultural Collisions

By Chris Mooney
When the public hasn’t been monitoring developments in science, people can fall back on Hollywood images of big strange projects that go badly awry. If scientists monitored public perceptions, they could engage before misinformation spreads.

09-22-08 | Kicking the Doorstop on Open Access

By Rick Weiss
Since April, researchers publishing work done with NIH support must submit manuscripts for access in a free database. The experiment is working, but large journal publishers aren’t satisfied with the results.

09-17-08 | Science Evaded

By Chris Mooney
Both presidential candidates have now answered 14 questions about science policy—but it’s not enough.

08-27-08 | The Standing of Science in America

By Chris Mooney
Americans are confident in the leaders of the scientific community. But are they interested in those leaders’ policy recommendations?

08-20-08 | Of Scares and Scarcity

By Chris Mooney
Is the U.S. really producing fewer and fewer scientists—and is the answer to simply crank out more?

08-05-08 | Open Up

By Molly E. Morgan
The processes of decision making in science policy requires public engagement, participation, and broad-based deliberations. Multicriteria Mapping is a way to ensure the reasoning behind choices made are transparent and well understood.

07-23-08 | Fishing for Answers

By Darlene Cavalier
The old Office of Technology Assessment had answers to Pennsylvania’s shad problem today. That’s only one reason why efforts to revive the congressional office are gaining traction.

07-15-08 | Hot Stuff

By Chris Mooney
Randy Olson’s new global warming mockumentary, Sizzle, burns into your mind a lesson about how to reach broader audiences with science.

07-07-08 | Harnessing Citizen Scientists

By Darlene Cavalier
Congress should bring back the OTA, but this time with a prominent role for the public, especially the burgeoning numbers of citizen scientists.

07-03-08 | Voters Care About Science!

By Michael Stebbins, Ph.D.
Science has gotten short shrift in political campaigns for years, but new data shows that voters care more about it than politicians think.

07-02-08 | Paradigm Sheep

By Chris Mooney
Young scientists today have a hunger for outreach training. Here are some concepts, conceits, and lessons learned from an attempt to help them deal with the media.

06-26-08 | Plight of the Postdoc

By Sheril Kirshenbaum
Colleges and universities are graduating more science and engineering Ph.D.s, but diminishing opportunities are derailing young scientists from future careers as scientific leaders.

06-26-08 | The Latest Wedge Document

By Rick Weiss
Creationist groups are turning to the Louisiana legislature with a new approach to challenge the teaching of evolutionary theory in schools.

06-18-08 | Is Our Representatives Learning?

By Chris Mooney
Sure, it would be nice if we could better educate members of Congress about science. But why not go further by electing more scientists in the first place—and training unelected Ph.D.s in the politics of influence?

06-13-08 | New Challenges, New Ideas, New Policies

By Ed Paisley
Above all, we have come together at Science Progress in search of new ideas and new policies that ensure scientific innovation offers all Americans the opportunity to contribute to the common good.

06-13-08 | A Nation of Science From The Very Beginning

By Jonathan Moreno
The impetus for Science Progress is the sense within the scientific community that, at many levels, American science policy has lost its way.

06-04-08 | Media Matters

By Chris Mooney
The World Science Festival in New York City was a huge success—and that’s because it garnered attention that ranged far beyond coverage in traditional science media outlets. But to communicate science broadly, there’s still a long way to go.

05-21-08 | A Science of Literature?

By Chris Mooney
New proposals to revive literary scholarship with scientific methods could build a bridge between two long-separated academic worlds. The result could be a better understanding of both science and literature.

05-14-08 | Yes, Virginia, There is a War on Science

By Chris Mooney
Two writers claim there is no assault on the scientific information that informs public policy and don’t even bother engaging the facts of the case.

05-07-08 | It’s Just Like That, Except Different

By W. Patrick McCray
Advocates and critics of nanoscience research often compare the technology to the creation of genetically-modified organisms, yet the more apt analogy is to the space program. But there are limits to the analogies used in shaping emerging technology policy.

04-23-08 | Hearts and Minds

By Chris Mooney
The successful rightwing documentary demonstrates that science needs a loud, accessible, entertaining, mass media response to creationist nonsense.

04-21-08 | Engaging the Scientific Community With the Public

By Rick Borchelt and Kathy Hudson
Public engagement is not about getting the policy you want; it’s about getting the public input you need to craft sustainable policy that enjoys public confidence.

04-18-08 | What Money Can Buy

By Jonathan Pfeiffer, interviewer
David Goldston wants to ask the big questions about federal science policy. Can the research establishment become unsustainably large? Are scientists always an asset to Congress? And what are the problems with current methods of creating science policy?

04-16-08 | So Far, Yet So Close

By Chris Mooney
The chief lessons learned from ScienceDebate2008: ignore naysayers, and never give up.

04-11-08 | Manufactroversy

By Leah Ceccarelli
Contemporary rhetorical tactics designed to confuse politicians and the public about scientific issues are as old as antiquity. The methods are just as disingenuous 2,500 years after their invention.

04-10-08 | Marketing Ideas

By K.A. Wallace ©2008
The “markets” for scholarly works are changing, and scholars in the humanities and social sciences – and the institutions where they work – need to both take control of how their works are published and distributed and become much more actively involved in setting the terms for the digital publishing world.

03-11-08 | 21st Century Government: The Next Big Thing

By Jim Turner and Maryann Feldman
Applying the tools of 21st century technology and innovation to the science of governing offers a wealth of opportunities to promote the common good.

03-03-08 | Science Progress Supports Science Debate 2008

By Science Progress
Members of the Science Progress advisory board and editorial staff express their support for the Science Debate 2008 initiative and encourage the presidential candidates of both major political parties to devote one nationally televised debate specifically to issues related to science, technology, and innovation.

03-03-08 | Maintaining U.S. Scientific Leadership

By Richard O. Lempert
Preserving the U.S. competitive edge in science requires many things to happen, but most immediately we must maintain English as the lingua franca of science, and open the doors to all who want to study science in our country.

02-14-08 | More Tests, Please

By Henry Kelly, PhD
The techniques of computer gaming could reform our classrooms and our education system and test 21st century skills.

02-11-08 | Wikipedia and the New Curriculum

By David Parry
Students and teachers alike must understand how systems of knowledge creation and archivization are changing. Encyclopedias are no longer static collections of facts and figures; they are living entities. Just check the entry on Global Warming.

02-06-08 | Science on the Campaign Trail (Or, the Lack Thereof)

By Chris Mooney
How are Americans supposed to figure out the candidates’ stances on matters of science and technology policy? Answer: They won’t unless they strongly care to know in the first place—and even then, they can’t learn much of anything directly from the candidates themselves.

01-28-08 | A Few Words from the President on Science and Technology

By Science Progress
Tonight, President Bush offers the final State of the Union address of his presidency. Saying that science has gotten short shrift during the Bush years is nothing new. Science Progress takes a look at some of the key terms in science and tech policy that have, and have not, appeared in the previous six State of the Union addresses.

01-28-08 | Public Science

By Gavin Baker
Free public archiving of Institute-funded research will accelerate scientific communication, control costs in higher education, and more effectively share information.

01-24-08 | One Culture, Two Culture, Three Culture, Four…

By Chris Mooney
We need more popular intersections of scientific thinking with the other lenses through which we see the world.

01-09-08 | Science, Delayed

By Chris Mooney
The quest to restore dedicated science advice for Congress through a reborn Office of Technology Assessment has proven more difficult than one might have supposed.

12-12-07 | Science + 1

By Chris Mooney
The latest scientific workforce debate underscores the importance of science graduates learning about something other than science.

11-28-07 | A National Innovation Agenda

By Thomas Kalil and John S. Irons
The Center for American Progress today releases the first pieces of Progressive Growth, its Economic Plan for the Next Administration, which includes a chapter on expanding growth and opportunity through science and technology.

11-14-07 | Out of Balance

By Chris Mooney
How U.S. media coverage of global warming finally moved past “he said, she said, we’re clueless.”

11-13-07 | Reporting the Story

By Ruth Levy Guyer
Journalists who cover scientific and medical “breakthroughs” need to do a better job explaining the complexities of medical research and scientific inquiry.

10-17-07 | Watch That Message

By Chris Mooney
Scientific integrity and scientific innovation aren’t necessarily—or always—the same thing. There are important distinctions that must be made if we are to marry sound scientific research with sound science and technology policymaking.

10-09-07 | Science and Technology Is the Answer

By Robert D. Atkinson
More private- and public-sector investment, collaboration and talent creation are essential for broadly shared future economic prosperity.

10-09-07 | Marrying Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy

By Richard O. Lempert
The American public’s limited interest in science news and troubling grasp of basic scientific knowledge would seem to threaten sound and ethical policymaking whenever policy turns on science. But go beyond the immediate polling data and there are reasons not to despair.

10-04-07 | On the Offense for Science and Technology Education

By Marc Pearl
Fifty years after Sputnik’s launch, America must once again be spurred to focus on prioritizing policy initiatives in funding science and technology education in the pursuit of inspired scientific inquiry and a high standard of excellence.

10-04-07 | Diversity Should Power Science

By Scott Page
Scientific inquiry proceeds most fruitfully when sufficient funding is spread across a complexity of disciplines to a diversity of researchers.

10-04-07 | New Paradigm for Science Communication

By Chris Mooney
Scientific facts no longer speak for themselves. In the age of the Internet, facts need to be framed for diverse audiences spread across fragmented media outlets.

10-04-07 | Sputnik, Cold War Nostalgia, and 9/11

By Susan Lindee
The U.S. reaction to Sputnik and to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington couldn’t be more different. That’s very unfortunate.

10-04-07 | A New Scientific Resolve

By Vinton Cerf
The shock of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch 50 years ago today reminds us at Science Progress that the United States can deploy its scientific prowess swiftly to meet sudden challenges. A new resolve is needed again today, this time from the entire global community, not just the United States, to meet very different but equally dire threats to humanity.