Why We Need to Share Science Stories
Our ASM Vice President (communications) Rebecca LeBard, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW shares some insights on science communication.
This article is republished from Medium.
Photo by Juan Carlos Trujillo on Unsplash
Why did a scientist paint large eyes on the backsides of cows?
To train lions.
It isn’t a joke that you have missed the punchline on, but a solution to the problem of lions killing the livestock of subsistence farmers in rural Botswana.
This problem results in lost livelihoods for farmers unless they act by hunting the lions — which causes a decline in the animals already vulnerable populations.
Painting eyes on the backsides of cows results in fewer being killed by lions.
Like the eye patterns on butterfly wings that deter birds from eating them, a scientist hypothesised that eyes drawn on the backs of cows would put off their predators.
Why should a story about eyes on cow backsides be in the news?
The eyes on the backs of the cows did more than just communicate a message to the lions. The story of this research carried out by a university, a zoo and a conservation trust became a popular news story that “went viral”.
But is it a story worth sharing?
This story shouldn’t be shared to save cows or to draw attention to the research itself.
Photo by Jeff Lemond on Unsplash
We need to tell more stories about science and scientists.
It is important to share the story as we need to tell more stories about science and scientists. Our stories do not all need to have a call to action. They do not all need to educate and inform. They can simply be interesting and funny.
Scientists often only speak up or appear in the regular person’s news feed when they are speaking on disasters. After an oil spill, about climate change or during a pandemic. They are perceived to pop up as prophets of doom with messages many would rather ignore.
When scientists speak only as experts it creates an “us and them” relationship that hampers communication and collaboration between groups.
Stories about science and scientists help to develop scientific literacy in those they share them with. Scientific literacy allows people to engage with science-related issues, to discuss and reflect on scientific ideas and technologies, and research facts.
We need to tell all the stories about science. The stories that are interesting, the stories that are funny and the stories that are both — like the eyes drawn on the bums of cows.
We need to tell all the stories of science and scientists so that people can see science as part of their lives and not a mysterious other.