With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility—A Personal Philosophy for Communicating Science in Society
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This Accepted Manuscript has not been copyedited and formatted. The final version may differ from this version. Commentary | History, Teaching, and Public Awareness With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility—A Personal Philosophy for Communicating Science in Society E. Paul Zehr1,2,3,4,5,6 1Rehabilitation Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada 2Human Discovery Science, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), Vancouver, BC, Canada 3Centre for Biomedical Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada 4Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria, BC, Canada 5School of Exercise Science, Physical, and Health Education 6Zanshin Consulting Inc., Victoria, BC, Canada DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0200-16.2016 Received: 6 July 2016 Accepted: 21 August 2016 Published: 1 September 2016 Cite as: eNeuro 2016; 10.1523/ENEURO.0200-16.2016 Alerts: Sign up at eneuro.org/alerts to receive customized email alerts when the fully formatted version of this article is published. Accepted manuscripts are peer-reviewed but have not been through the copyediting, formatting, or proofreading process. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. Copyright © 2016 the authors 1 With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility— 2 A Personal Philosophy for Communicating 3 Science in Society 4 5 6 7 8 E. Paul Zehr1-6 9 1Rehabilitation Neuroscience Laboratory, Univ. Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada 10 2 Human Discovery Science, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), 11 Vancouver, BC, Canada 12 3Centre for Biomedical Research, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. 13 4Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria, BC, Canada 14 5School of Exercise Science, Physical, and Health Education 15 6Zanshin Consulting, Inc., Victoria BC, Canada 16 17 18 19 20 Acknowledgments 21 With thanks to the Society for Neuroscience for recognizing my efforts and honoring me 22 with the 2015 Science Educator Award. Also thanks to the University of Victoria who 23 have steadfastly supported my science communication activities over the years and for 24 my trainees for engaging in my message and doing their own outreach activities. 25 Additional thanks to Hilary Cullen, Steve Noble, Yao Sun, Greg Pearcey, Trevor Barss, 26 and Lee Bauer who provided very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. 27 Lastly, I acknowledge the influence of Stan Lee from whom I have learned to always 28 help others if you have the chance. Doing so expresses a superpower we all possess. 29 30 31 32 1 33 Abstract 34 Many think that communicating science is a necessary and rewarding activity, but 35 finding compelling, relevant and timely points of linkage between challenging scientific 36 concepts and the experiences and interests of the general public can be difficult. 37 Despite those challenges, since science continues to influence more and more aspects 38 of daily life and knowledge, there is a parallel need for communication about science in 39 our society. Here I discuss the “middle-ground hypothesis” using popular culture for 40 science communication and applying the “FUNnel model” where popular culture is used 41 as a lead in and wrap up when discussing science. The scientific knowledge we find in 42 our hands does not belong to us—we just had it first. We can honor that knowledge best 43 by sharing it as widely as possible using the most creative means at our disposal. 44 45 46 47 Significance 48 Using popular culture in science communication can allow sharing knowledge to the 49 largest audience. 50 2 51 "Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be 52 expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone." 53 -Albert Einstein 54 “…With great power there must also come—great responsibility!” 55 -Stan Lee 56 57 There and Back Again: A Neuroscientist’s Epiphany 58 59 Back in 2005 I began to question the broader societal impact of my work as a 60 neuroscientist. At that time my most heavily cited paper had about 150 citations and, 61 although I realized this was a harsh interpretation, I asked myself, what if that number 62 meant that only 150 people read my paper? Was 150 readers an acceptable impact for 63 me in the “traditional” academic sense? My answer then and now—that same paper has 64 almost 400 citations and my body of work ~4000 total citations—was “no”. I decided to 65 make conversations with the general public, in addition to the community already 66 engaged in academic literature, a stronger emphasis in my activities. 67 68 Since that time I have been involved in many “outreach” activities focused on a general 69 public audience—writing books, blogs, media and talks for science promotion. I have 70 also worked to encourage my students and colleagues to get more involved in science 71 communication. When I compare other attempts to quantify impact in my 72 communication activities, they contrast sharply in numbers. For example, my blog at 73 Psychology Today magazine has over 250 000 page views. 74 75 Many think that communicating science to the public is a necessary and rewarding 76 activity; however, finding compelling, relevant and timely points of linkage between 77 challenging scientific concepts and the experiences and interests of the general public 78 can be difficult. Despite these challenges, science continues to influence more and 79 more aspects of daily life as knowledge and communication about science continues to 80 increase in necessity and importance in our society. In his amazing book “The Demon 81 Haunted World—Science as a Candle in the Dark”, the late Carl Sagan wrote about the 82 lack of understanding of science and described it as “…a prescription for 83 disaster…sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to 84 blow up in our faces” (Sagan 1995). 85 86 There are many problematic possible consequences of a society at large that remains 87 without scientific knowledge, has little understanding of the scientific process or feels 88 segregated from the concepts. For example, elected officials may not fight for and lobby 89 for providing funding for research and may be elected on platforms based on gross 90 inaccuracies and flawed logic. Others include the anti-vaccine movement and 91 concussion in children’s activities and their long term impact. 92 93 This brief personal commentary is based largely on my own experiences using icons in 94 popular culture to serve as vehicles for communicating science. For example, I used the 3 95 Walking Dead to illustrate human motor control in a zombie context (Zehr and Norman 96 2015) and Darth Vader to consider phantom limbs, embodiment and neural prosthetics 97 (Zehr 2015a). The bulk of my work in this area, though has been to use superheroes. 98 These efforts have also led to advances in my own approach to undergraduate 99 education. At the University of Victoria I now teach a 100 level course “The Science of 100 Batman” open to students from all faculties and departments with an interest in science 101 and superheroes. 102 103 I explored themes of plasticity in biological systems in “Becoming Batman: The 104 Possibility of a Superhero” (Zehr 2008) and enhancement of biological function with 105 technology in “Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine” (Zehr 2011b). 106 Here, I won’t talk much about the need for this activity—please see David Eagleman’s 107 essay on the importance (Eagleman 2013). Instead, the focus is largely on examples of 108 science communication using pre-existing elements in society—popular culture. 109 110 Previously I outlined some of my early efforts (Zehr 2011a) and advanced the “middle- 111 ground hypothesis” using popular culture for science communication (Zehr 2014a). 112 Here, I will extend that concept and describe some strategies that form the central core 113 of my philosophy of science communication. To resonate with this colloquial approach, 114 the structure of this commentary is deliberately written in a journalistic style using the 115 first person voice. 116 117 118 Understanding the Needs of Your Audience is the Key to Effective Science 119 Communication 120 121 Science often makes audiences uncomfortable because it forces them outside their 122 base of knowledge. So, I try to make things as pleasant—and as fun—as I can. This 123 maximizes the likelihood of my audience engaging with the science concepts I’ve 124 chosen because they want to do so. To facilitate this engagement, I use popular culture 125 as the link between science and the general public. Taking something the audience is 126 familiar with (e.g. superheroes) and linking it with something they are not (e.g. 127 neuroplasticity) allows them to enter a conversation without putting up barriers. 128 129 Although there can be many other approaches, I strongly encourage using popular 130 culture because it is, as the name says, already popular. Superhero movies and 131 television shows continue to have extreme popularity and represent excellent 132 opportunities for exploring scientific concepts in a middle-ground mental “landscape” 133 that is comfortable and familiar. 134 135 Communications guru Marshall Mcluhan said that “the medium is the message” 136 (McLuhan 1964) to highlight the importance of both knowledge and the manner in which 137 it is presented. We must combine the medium and our message to truly communicate 138 with our audiences. I strongly urge the use of ready-made vehicles such as popular 139 culture icons because they represent the most seamless access to the interests of the 4 140 general public.