The Editor-in-Chief of the new journal “Disease Models and Mechanisms” eloquently supports outreach efforts to interest and engage non-scientists in publicly funded research.

Engaging the public is challenging. As scientists, we are trained to recognize the limitations that might undermine our own conclusions, and it often feels very uncomfortable to present a simplified message. Furthermore, many nonscientists seem uneasy when the language and concepts get too ‘scientific’ and complicated, and seem to prefer ending the conversation to asking for clarification. Movement needs to come from both directions to bridge these gaps. In the long run, we desperately need a more educated and literate public. However, because many factions of our society benefit from the ignorance of our populace, there will be both individual and systematic resistance to these attempts. I remain optimistic, in part because of the expectation the internet has created for available, reliable information.

I may have an institutional subscription; the full editorial is here.

Vivian also wrote a lovely earlier editorial about acknowledgements, reminding me a bit of yesterday’s post, Stephen’s comment thread and something I had read earlier, that is open access.

Some experiments simply require a huge amount of repetitive and tedious data collection. If we did research in isolation, the balance of thinking and doing would be unbearable, with far too little time spent on the former to warrant an advanced degree.