I have in the past complained about transparency in science in light of the whole Scott Reuben disaster which I seemed to be the only person in the entire world who got really mad about. This is about something different, the accessibility of science to the public.
It seems to me that over the last 50 years scientists have done an excellent job of alienating themselves. Just over half of a century ago people like Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr were celebrities. Thomas Edison was reshaping the face of the world. Galileo was so controversial and interesting in his time that we *still* talk about his life. People put fish on their cars with Darwin’s name in them. What scientists alive now so stir the imaginations of the public?
Stephen Hawking perhaps. David Suzuki?? People aren’t as captivated by science as they once were. In my opinion there are two primary reasons for this.
1) In an age of access to access to information, access to scientific information is still lacking. Status in academia is entirely based on publishing in reputable journals and reputable journals always charge to read the papers that are published.
2) Works that are published are often incredibly boring. I’m not sure when someone mandated that scientific writing needs to be dry. Obviously some disciplines like control theory are not very interesting and not much can be done but, seriously, if you did something worthwhile then you should at *least* be able to write an interesting abstract.
Given that I believe these are the problems what can be done? First we need to open up science. With many disciplines opening up via social media and sharing information more openly science needs to follow suit. PLOSone is a good start. Lets keep it up. I’m not sue what else needs to be done. Imma ponder this for a while.
Suggestions??