Hi, my name is Jason Singley and I'm the Dean of the College of Science.
My name is Dr. Jean Moran. I'm a professor in the Department of Earth
and Environmental Sciences. I'm Negin Toosi.
I'm an assistant professor of psychology at Cal State University East Bay.
The communication of science is important because science at its very heart is a collaborative
endeavor and you're always working with other people. It's really important for
you being able to communicate your ideas, whether it's working in a lab with a
group of people, to be able to discuss ideas or working with collaborators that
perhaps live in a different city or in a different country even. So constantly you
are under pressure to be able to express and share your ideas in a way that
others can really understand what you're thinking. I think there's a few reasons
why communication of science is important. One is that much science is
funded by the taxpayer, and it really belongs to the taxpayer the results, and
the interpretation belong to the taxpayer, and the taxpayers deserve to
understand that the outcome and be able to use it. We live at a time when there
are there are forces, there are people who are actively profiting from people's
ignorance, and we have evidence of oil companies, gas companies, drug companies,
alcohol tobacco companies, who have made a profit off products that harm people
and harm the environment in which we live. And not only have they continued to
push those products, but they've out actually kind of systematically made an
effort to obfuscate the science. We always want to be able to share what
we're doing with others. Science is not done alone. So to be able to write
effectively, to be able to speak effectively, these are really important
things to be able to do. As a scientist, I spend probably at least half my time
writing papers, writing grants, working on oral presentations. So that time that
you think about being a scientist in a lab with white coat on doing experiments,
that's really, that's only part of it, and communication is really a big part of
everything that has to do with science. Another reason that I think is important
is that our policies and our laws should ideally be based on sound science, so
educating legislators and policymakers is a very important component of science
communication. Lastly, I would say that citizens can benefit from science
communication because well, for one thing they're going to vote and they're going
to vote on issues that really sometimes have a lot to do with science and
technology, so the more information that we can get across the better informed
voters we will have. And we don't have to go too much farther than recent issues
with say Flat Earth, and climate change as a hoax, and anti-vaccination issues to
understand that science communication could really help to assuage the
problems that come about when people are misinformed about science. It's ever,
ever more important in this day and age that we raise up a generation people who
are aware of the science, who are scientifically minded, and who know how
to communicate, and who are driven by the desire to help human civilization
continue and, and, to avoid some of these really dreadful, dreadful things that are
happening right under our noses.
