twisties

speaking of reagan, i did catch ron jr.’s speech at the dems convention on tv the other day. i thought he did an admirable job making the science accessible and its medical implications tantalizing.

it’s probably fair to say that for most people medical research is a mysterious thing. it's like, they kinda know it's a good thing even if they don't quite know what it is. but like everything else in the IT age, rapid scientific progress over the last century resulted in an accelerated accumulation of information. so, it’s not uncommon these days for leading experts in one area to be ignorant of other, perhaps even related fields. with the professionals still grappling with this information overload, the lay public is waaay lost.

not that the researchers are helping. it seems very few scientists are good communicators, especially when it comes to the lay audience. as oratorical experience goes, your typical research presentation is just a notch above a grocery list recital. throw in the brain-numbing jargons and it’s a toss-up.

numerous sci-fi writers, from bradbury to dick, have spoken to this paranoia-inducing knowledge gap. luckily, there are also a few positive cultural markers for science, like flaming lips’ lush and quirky “race for the prize,” or the dna swing of mose allison's “your molecular structure,” where scientific knowledge is nothing less than the most profound intimacy.

Posted by cellpharmer at August 17, 2004 08:04 AM