Ask a science communicator how old their field is. They might say a few decades, or even centuries, because they’re thinking about the Western science communication tradition associated with a scientist-public gap.
These days, we almost exclusively associate science communication with Western science. Yet humans have always communicated knowledge about the world within their own societies and to others. There’s evidence of this going back tens of thousands of years.
Society today should recognise past and ongoing science communication approaches that diverge from the West’s relatively recent ones.
Also, as we have explored in a paper and webinar, we should include this knowledge in science communication histories. Here are three reasons why.
EMILY DAWSON, AIA, LEED BD+C
PHENOM Partner and principal architect at Kaiser + Path
Emily Dawson was born and raised in Alaska and was drawn to architecture by her desire to improve the way communities impact the natural environment.
In 2015, Dawson, who earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture at Cornell University, received a travel research fellowship to study mass timber applications in Europe. Her 20 years of experience includes designing the first cross-laminated timber structure built in Oregon as part of an expansion at the Oregon Zoo, and she’s now a sought-after speaker at industry conferences on mass timber products.
As if that wasn’t enough, the media want to hit celebrity replay: In “Losing Your Virginity,” John Stamos (“Full House”) interviewed celebrities about their “first time.” While he wants to avoid graphic content in his Yahoo! webseries, Stamos confessed, We re going to do re-enactments (of celebrity first sexual experiences) with puppets, Barbies, animation. Stamos explained, “Everybody wants to say, ‘Hey, I’m just like you.’ So losing your virginity how much more can you relate to somebody?”
4. … Into Incredibly Happy Butterflies And the stars love the recognition. According to Girls’ Lena Dunham, losing virginity is as simple as voting: “Your first time shouldn t be with just anybody. You wanna do it with a great guy. It should be with a guy with beautiful someone who really cares and understands women. A guy who cares whether you get health insurance, specifically whether you get birth control.”