Just Look Science-y: A True Story

[realthog]

Over on the Culture of Science blog, the estimable Sheril Kirshenbaum tells a tale that's both very funny and frighteningly illustrative of why the public knowledge of science is so poor.

A TV crew arrived to interview her about something in her specialist area of science, because it related to a topical news story. She expected -- perhaps naively -- that what they wanted of her was an explanation of the science.

No way. The director already had his own -- barmy -- pet theory for what was going on, and wanted her to explain that.

Her tale ends thus:

Reporter: ‘Stop, let’s reshoot. We need you to say something about the sun being a factor. And let’s get you wading into the water. Pretend you’re catching something.‘

Me: ‘Uh, the sun didn’t cause the bloom . . . and you do realize I’m wearing a dress, right?‘

Reporter: ‘You can say your reason too, but name the sun as another ‘theory’. And just look science-y.'

Unfortunately, she doesn't name names; it would be a public service if she did. Even so, go read the whole piece, share it and, the next time someone assures you that some piece of pseudoscientific garbage must be true because they heard it on the evening news, share Kirshenbaum's story with them.

Comments

[al_zorra]

Interviewers do this all the time. They know what is what and they expect you to repeat what they know. They can get huffy when you don't.

I heard this going on Monday, when Laurent Dubois was on Lenny Lopate's show. Laurent's book, Haiti: Aftershocks of History, has just been published. Lenny had all these ideas of what was what, which weren't what at all, and he kept saying what was what and expecting Laurent to chime in with the what and amplify the what. But Laurent deftly would so, "Well, not exactly, which is one of the reasons I wrote the book so people would know that what isn't what at all, but really that.

Love, C.

[realthog]

Interviewers do this all the time.

Perhaps so. But when they do it in the sciences they contribute to the mountain of misinformation and misunderstanding that exists about the sciences in the US public mind.

[al_zorra]

Wherever they do it they are contributing the fog of bs that blankets the minds of the public.

Love, C.

[realthog]

On the other hand, they're not offering "balance" by having someone else come on to say Haiti doesn't exist.