How can design help communicate science?The Linnean Society Christmas LectureAnne Odling-Smee12 December 2011

Why does science need help with communication?

Build up of mis-communication

Build up of mis-communication

Build up of mis-communication

Build up of mis-communication

‘Scientists need to engage more fully with the public. The Royal Society recognises this, and is keen to ensure that such engagement is helpful and effective’Report by The Royal Society, June 2006

Scientists being asked by editors to communicate to the media

‘In response to this need in science communications, the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology has partnered with the National Science Foundation to provide resources for scientists and engineers… to help researchers communicate more broadly with the public’

1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics?

2. What are the challenges?

3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible?

4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?

1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics?

2. What are the challenges?

3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible?

4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?

Science journals

Museums and exhibitions

Text

Museums and exhibitions

Text

TV documentaries

David AttenboroughBBC interview, 2 December 2011

‘I’m a hangover from the old television days of presenting, when you had live camera, and the accompanying equipment was so clumsy that you needed someone to cover over the cracks of the coverage.’

Government

Education

Media

Art Architecture

Education

Eco action trumps: educational cards

Direct communication from scientists

1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics?

2. What are the challenges?

3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible?

4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?

‘Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution…

‘Why doesn’t America like science?’Financial Times 25 Nov 2011

‘Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution…

‘Why doesn’t America like science?’Financial Times 25 Nov 2011

‘Just three Republican candidates have declared that they believe in the scientific basis for evolution…

“When candidates for the highest office in the land appear to spurn reason, embrace anecdote over scientific evidence, and even portray scientists as the perpetrators of a massive hoax, there is reason to worry” – New Scientist magazine.’

Current challenges

Population growth

Stem cell research

Climate change

Nanotechnologies

1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics?

2. What are the challenges?

3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible?

4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?

Painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, engineer, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, botanist, geologist, cartographer, writer

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

Drawings of the flow of water

William Roscoe (1753–1831)

Lawyer, MP, agriculturalist, gardener, botanist, banker, writer, historian

‘In the long history of human kind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed’

Charles Darwin (1809–92)

How not to do it

Design is not art…

Language

1. ‘Inside’ science language

2. ‘Outside’ science language

Language

1. ‘Inside’ science language

2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for:a) research funding

Language

1. ‘Inside’ science language

2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for:a) research fundingb) enabling public response

Language

1. ‘Inside’ science language

2. ‘Outside’ science language – essential for:a) research fundingb) enabling public responsec) helping one kind of scientist communicate with another kind of scientist

‘One of the most difficult features of science communication is the unwieldy technical jargon often associated with scientific inquiry…

Language

Language

… ‘Although this jargon may be useful within a scientific field, it is often not understood by non-scientists, including the public, reporters, and policymakers…

Language

… ‘Scientists themselves often struggle with the difference in technical terms used in biology from those used in physics and chemistry, for example.’AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology

Language: visual and verbal

Charles Joseph Minard, map charting losses suffered by Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812

Information graphics: representations of evolution

Ernst Haeckel, Geneological Tree of Humanity, 1891

Barton, Briggs, Eisen, Goldstein, Patel, Evolution, CSHL Press, NY 2007

< Human’s here

Human’s around here >

Applying scientifically tested expertise in visual communication to the communication of science

Communicating probability and theory

Communicating probability and theory

‘Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is one of the most misunderstood parts of quantum theory, a doorway through which all sorts of charlatans and purveyors of tripe can force their philosophical musings.’ 

– Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw, The Quantum Universe, 2011, Allen  p. 54. Lane)

Interactive design

Tangram game

Exploiting combined science and design knowledge through technology

Netter’s Anatomy Flash Cards

Made by AppleDesigned by Jonathan Ive, RCA

1. How is science communicated to the wide variety of publics?

2. What are the challenges?

3. How can design help science to be better understood and more accessible?

4. How can future collaborations be encouraged?

Direct challenges facing science communication

1. Engaging new and diverse audiences

2. Creating a dialogue and platform for discussionand input of ideas

3. Science education

4. Addressing misunderstandings about science

5. Communicating the scientific process

Design Science Research Group (DSRG)

DSRG is a venture between practising designers from Central Saint Martins and science communicators from Imperial College London, set up in 2011 in response to the recognition by a growing number of scientists that improvements are needed in the communication of science to the public.

Design Science Research Group (DSRG)

Five areas:1. Commercial practice and consultancy2. Workshops between scientists and designers3. Regular debates4. Exhibitions5. Academic practice

www.design-science.org.uk

Parallel deficit model changes in science communication and design communication

Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’

Curiosity driven

Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’

Interactive (Jussi Ängeslevä)

Not: ‘I’m telling you some stuff’, but: ‘I’m suggesting you think about some stuff in a different way’

Beauty (Richard Feynman)

DSRG Launch event

Live debate between science communication graduates from Imperial College and MA Communication Design students from Central Saint Martins

Hunterian MuseumRoyal College of SurgeonsMonday 28 November 2011

Thank you