“Lies-to-Children” in Science Communication
Ernesto Lozano Tellechea Physics editor of Investigación y Ciencia Spanish edition of Scientific American EuroPLEX partner
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 What are lies to children?
= BAD
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 What are lies to children?
NOT THAT BAD AFTER ALL…
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 What are lies-to-children?
• Concept in science education. • Simplified versions of a subject. • The purpose is NOT to fool, rather – give the main idea, – give the tools to move beyond.
This is actually what I just did with the Calvin strip
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 What are lies-to-children?
• Examples in physics: – Ideal gases, – Newtonian gravity, – Geometrical optics, – Bohr atomic model, – …
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Outlook of this talk
• Why lies-to-children is also a very useful analytical tool in science communication.
• Lies-to-children pros & cons.
• Why QCD needs lies.
• Take it as a challenge: QuarkBits.
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Origins of the concept
• First popularized in the sci-fi novel The Science of Discworld (1999)
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Origins of the concept
• First popularized in the sci-fi novel The Science of Discworld (1999)
"A lie-to-children is a statement that is false, but which nevertheless leads the child's mind towards a more accurate explanation, one that the child will only be able to appreciate if it has been primed with the lie"
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 In science communication
• Sci-comm: Popular accounts of a complex scientific subject aimed to a lay audience. • How it works: metaphors.
How do (many) scientists react to this?
“This metaphor is basically OK”
“This metaphor is TOTALLY wrong!”
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 In science communication
• Take-home message of this talk: – This level of analysis is insufficient for sci-comm. – LTC provide a very easy, useful tool to go beyond.
How do (many) scientists react to this?
“This metaphor is basically OK”
“This metaphor is TOTALLY wrong!”
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Simple example: Entropy
• Usual metaphor: Disorder.
S = kB lnΩ
Lower entropy Higher entropy
“Really the idea that entropy measures disorder is TOTALLY not helpful. What about oil and water? Entropy measures likelihood, not disorder” [real example]
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Simple example: Entropy
• Really? Lets dissect this criticism. – It is true (after all, S ~ lnΩ), but: – Think of a layperson: “likelihood” vs. “disorder”? – “Systems evolve spontaneously into a state with higher probability” is basically a tautology. – The nuance it introduces can only be fully appreciated if you first believed that S measures disorder. “Really the idea that entropy measures disorder is TOTALLY not helpful. What about oil and water? Entropy measures likelihood, not disorder” [real example]
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Disclaimers & Remarks
• I’m not claiming there is a correct way to explain entropy — It’s audience-dependent. • I’m not advocating an “everything goes” approach: most lies are just lies.
• Tricky part: Crafting the lie minimizing damage. • The problem doesn't arise when X is a lie-to- children, but when X is: – An unnecessary lie. – A lie-to-children that people never move beyond.
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Lies-to-children in theoretical physics
• They are unavoidable. – It’s all about communicating math without math. – The math can be fairly simple, but with words you’ll always have to make a trade off. – Example: superposition principle in QM. An unobserved electron… • “… is in two places at once”? • “… doesn’t have a definite position”? • “… it’s a smeared cloud of negative charge”?
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Examples • Higgs boson
People in a party (old) Viscous fluid (post 2012)
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Examples • Higgs boson
— Very easy to understand. — Helps distinguish: Higgs field (fluid) Higgs boson (ripples) Viscous fluid (post 2012)
“Inertia is resistance to acceleration, not to velocity! A good metaphor would be superconductivity. It's a difficult one, but at least it’s correct.” [another real example]
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Examples • Gravitational waves as “sounds of spacetime”. It helps distinguish GWs from light, explaining why GWs are “a new kind of astronomy”
• Black hole singularity “being at its center”. “The singularity of a BH is not pointlike, as is evident from the Penrose diagram, and it’s not at the center, but in the future” [another real example]
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Lessons • All these criticisms are right.
• However: pay attention to your audience. – In sci-comm you want to communicate. – A right metaphor that cannot be understood will have a frightening effect. – Good metaphors are the ones that: do not frighten, leave room for improvement.
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Take it as a challenge • Many issues in QCD are in need of lie-to-children: – Confinement & asymptotic freedom. – Chiral symmetry breaking. – QCD vacuum. – Strong CP problem. – …
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Take it as a challenge • EuroPLEx has a blog: QuarkBits.
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 QuarkBits • It is hosted in our webpage and we are committed to its promotion.
430.000 followers
150.000 followers
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 QuarkBits • Blogposts:
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 QuarkBits • Blogposts:
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 QuarkBits • Blogposts:
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 QuarkBits • Posts are written by members of EuroPLEx and translated into Spanish by Carlos Pena (IFT).
• Find new lies-to-children for QCD!
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Thank you
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020 Recommended reading
• The “Lies to Children” Model of Science Communication, and The “Amplitudes Are Weird” Model of Amplitudes Matthew Von Hippel
• 10 physics facts you should have learned in school but probably didn’t Sabine Hossenfelder
• Excellent Approximations and Lying to Children Chad Orzel
• What Is a Particle? Natalie Wolchover
• Truth Doesn’t Have to Break the (Word) Budget Matthew Von Hippel
Dublin 2020 – EuroPLEx Progress Workshop Nov 30 – Dec 3, 2020