Stranger Fruit

Persoanlly, I think he made some good points. It's true you cannot really get into the meat of the scientific argument with such a glib approach, but the idea here is to highlight the facts. If the reader (or viewer I suppose) is interested, they can always investigate deeper.

Posted by: Dave S. | February 17, 2006 01:44 PM

I'm with Dave S - I think that it should be possible to produce presentations, graphics and films that can explain the underlying concepts of evolution an order of magnitude better than an unassisted teacher.

I'd agree, of course, that glib explanations on their own are completely insufficient.

Posted by: Corkscrew | February 17, 2006 01:56 PM

I am not a scientist but I am a professional and I don't try t do everything myself, I hire other professionals to do things outside of my circle of competence. My answer is to start (or use an existing)professional association that biolgists belong to (or better yet, start a new one that all scientists, from any field, can join). The dues don't have to be high and may be tax deductible. The purpose is to promote and provide good PR for science. I am not talking about them publishing the latest scientific papers but funding and encouraging professional and powerful presentations to reach different audiences. All science would benefit from this, not just evolutionary science.

Posted by: CanuckRob | February 17, 2006 03:38 PM

I'm afraid that I have to disagree with you, on two fronts. First, I think that you're mischaracterizing Olsen's position (and thereby arguing against a strawman?) I read Olson's stance as wanting to improve communications with non-scientists. It's possible that that may require the "dumbed-down glossiness" of ID, but that isn't an absolute requirement.

Second, I get the feeling that you don't regard communication with laymen as being worthwhile. In fact, as I read your post, I get the impression that you feel that that sort of activity is demeaning to science or to the scientist.

It's true that ommunicating science is difficult, and I think that Olsen acknowleges that -- his point is that, difficult or not, it needs to be done. It's also true that detail and accuracy (which is how I read your 'complexity') are lost when trying to explain science to the unscientific. But -- is that always a bad thing?

In a better world, decisions about science would be made by people who understand it. In an ideal world, science would be understandable by everyone. We don't live in either of those worlds. Decisions about science are made, daily, by people who not only don't understand it, but are actively afraid of it. Yes, they are stupid and ignorant -- often willfully. But, refusing to communicate with them in a way that they can understand, or condescending to them (an implied "you're so stupid, I have to gloss this up for you") isn't going to get them to understand.

I work in a highly technical field (software development.) Unfortunately, the people who make decisions about my work (as in, does my project get funded) are not always technical. If I were to refuse to communicate in words and forms that they understand, I would be out of a job very quickly. Design diagrams and code don't look good in animated PowerPoint, but that's what I'll use if it gets my message across. When I'm talking to my technical colleagues, the communication is much different.

In 35 years of this business, I've seen many worthwile, even vital projects die because the technical advocates couldn't communicate the right information to the non-technical decision makers. There's often been an attitude of "It's obvious to me, so it should be obvious to you" that I hear sometimes from scientists as well.

So, I agree with Olsen -- scientists must get better at communicating with the non-scientists, whether it's about biology, physics or anything else. Lame "we support evolution" statements on websites frequented primarily by scientists won't cut it.

Posted by: Art Kaufmann | February 17, 2006 04:57 PM

I'm not against using a little "Hollywood" in the high school classroom.

There are actually a few really good evolution videos out there that really captured the attention of my high school students. One of their favorites was one that talked about the changes in mammals as they adapted to the ocean, by pbs:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/index.html

Posted by: nelumbo | February 17, 2006 05:04 PM