Communication Should Not Be Left to Scientists
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correspondence Miller revealed new ways to study the origins of life Science advances as one theory builds on another: Miller didn’t just update Löb’s work. Sir — Hubert P. Yockey in Correspondence understand the assimilation of carbon our knowledge, Löb’s work was first (Nature 415, 833; 2002) claims that Stanley dioxide and nitrogen in plants. There is no discussed within the context of prebiotic L. Miller’s classical synthesis of amino indication that he had any interest in the chemistry by Miller (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 77, acids and other organic compounds with question of how life began on Earth, or in 2351; 1955). electric discharges using possible prebiotic the synthesis of organic compounds under Jeffrey L. Bada* and Antonio Lazcano† conditions (Science 117, 528; 1953) was a possible prebiotic conditions. Neither *Scripps Institution of Oceanography, mere repetition of several previous electro- Aleksander Oparin, J. B. S. Haldane nor University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, chemical syntheses performed by Walther Urey made any mention of Löb’s work, California 92093-0212, USA Löb and others in the early twentieth which given Oparin’s extensive review of †Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM/Apdo. Postal 70- century. This is not a fair assessment of the early relevant literature suggests it was 407, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico D. F., significance of Miller’s experiment. considered unimportant. To the best of Mexico Although some of Löb’s results may have some bearing on our understanding of prebiotic syntheses, part of the signifi- Communication should of nurses and librarians was raised as cance of Miller’s experiment lies not only physicians and academics, respectively, in the production of amino acids and other not be left to scientists became increasingly specialized. This led compounds, but in their synthesis under ambitious members of the mediating what was viewed at the time as plausible Sir — The time has come for the profes- profession to occupy the role previously primitive Earth conditions. Few, if any, sionalization of science communicators. filled by the ‘general practitioner’ of the scientific ideas are the product of Not only are the number of degree senior profession: someone sufficiently spontaneous thoughts — most theories, programmes in science communication familiar both with a broad range of experiments and interpretations have been growing, but rudiments of a professional specialist knowledge and with clients’ preceded by many others, and the same is code of conduct have now been published. particular needs to make the knowledge true of Miller’s experiment. Even if one Although there is nothing new about the meaningful for them. disagrees with the assumptions underlying advice given in Guidelines on Science and If the history of the mediating the simulation by Miller and Harold Urey Health Communication, issued in professions is a guide, the idea of science of the primitive Earth, it deserves recognition November 2001 by the Social Issues communicators as general practitioners of not only because of its intrinsic merits, but Research Centre in partnership with the science may well generate conflict with also because it opened new avenues of Royal Society and the Royal Institution professional scientists. Whenever someone empirical research into the origin of life. (see www.sirc.org/publik/revised_ claims that Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Löb did indeed report the synthesis of guidelines.shtml), what is striking is that it Gene has done more for biology than most glycine by exposing wet formamide to a is directed at science communicators by front-line research in the field, we get a silent discharge (Ber. Dtsch Chem. Ges. 46, people who are not themselves full-time taste of those potential battles. 684; 1913). He suggested that because of science communicators. Nevertheless, by involving the general either the ultraviolet light or the electrical This pattern is familiar from the history public, science communication is uniquely field generated by the silent discharge, of such ‘mediating’ professions as nursing placed to make good the idea that science formamide is first converted to oxamic and librarianship. Members of a senior is truly universal knowledge. The current acid, which in turn is reduced to glycine. profession typically try to formulate the guidelines reduce communication to the He also claimed that glycine is produced aims of the newer profession in terms of one-way transmission of accurate when wet carbon monoxide and ammonia their own interests. Physicians have tried information. More ambitious professional are subjected to the silent discharge; he to set nursing codes, academics librarian guidelines would require a feedback proposed formamide as the intermediate codes, and now scientists are trying to set element in any form of science communi- in this synthesis. Löb theorized that codes for science communication. cation, whether it be as letters to the editor, glycine might also be produced from wet At the same time, however, the Internet chat rooms or the interactive carbon dioxide and ammonia in a mediating professions have often provided exhibits now routine in good museums. pathway wherein formamide was again their own visions, which in significant The current guidelines pitch the aims the intermediate, but he did not respects cut against those of the senior of science communication too low. The demonstrate this directly. professions. For example, Florence field should aspire not simply to make Although Löb apparently did produce Nightingale did not want nurses to make it people trust science but to make them glycine from formamide, this cannot be easier for doctors to administer medicine, feel part of it. This is more than considered a prebiotic reaction because but to provide a total healing environment encouraging people to become scientists. formamide would not have been present that would eventually prevent the need for Science communication will truly come on the primitive Earth in any significant doctors. Similarly, Melvil Dewey’s of age when people regard participating concentrations. It is also possible that the cataloguing system envisaged librarians, in a scientific experiment as a civic duty wet carbon monoxide and ammonia led to not as dutiful retrievers of books, but as the on par with jury duty. We are far from HCN synthesis, which would have last encyclopaedists in a world where that day, but it is not too early for full-time produced glycine on polymerization and knowledge was quickly fragmenting. science communicators to convene hydrolysis. To be sure, nursing and librarianship formally to draft some professional From a careful reading of Löb’s 1913 have not been completely successful in codes of conduct. paper (in early twentieth-century their professionalization. Nevertheless, Steve Fuller German!) it is clear that his motivation for their histories provide valuable lessons for Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, doing the experiment was to try to science communicators. The public profile Coventry CV4 7AL, UK NATURE | VOL 416 | 4 APRIL 2002 | www.nature.com © 2002 Macmillan Magazines Ltd 475.