Liz Tynan
Public awareness of science makes for a more democratic society.
There are many reasons why science communication is important, but perhaps the bottom line is delineated by a remark made by Emeritus Professor Chris Bryant, the Convenor of the ANU's Graduate Program in Scientific Communication.
In his report on the Program last year, he said 'Ours is a superstitious society which often chooses to ignore science'. Superstition is anathema to a truly democratic society. Making science comprehensible by the majority of people inevitably leads to a better-informed population and a stronger democracy. Often, fear of science is simply fear of the unknown.
Making science comprehensible helps to overcome this fear and obviates the need for comforting mythologies. ANU has made an important commitment to the cause with the creation of the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science within the Faculty of Science and in conjunction with Questacon,The National Science Centre. Now located in the former Faculties Teaching Centre, the Centre represents a major expansion from the previous Graduate Program, and is the first of its kind in Australia.
Dr Sue Stocklmayer has started work as full-time lecturer and already has been involved in various expansion activities, including linking up with complementary programs in the Department of Industry, Science and Technology (DIST), specifically the Science Awareness Program.
The ANU's Graduate Program in Scientific Communication has run, in one form or another, since 1988 and has turned out 100 graduates, mainly from the very successful 'Shell Questacon Science Circus', in which participants tour Australia with an interactive, hands-on science show. Masters and PhD students also are enrolled, and the theoretical underpinning of science communication will benefit enormously from their research.
'I think what is lacking worldwide is some sense of cohesion in science communication,' said Dr Stocklmayer. 'People are emerging who call themselves science communicators but up to the present time not too many people really have a good handle on what that means.'
There is a well-established discipline of communication, but science communication is specialised and needs its own solid theoretical base. That will be one of the many aims of the new ANU Centre. The Centre is affiliated with the Communication Research Institute of Australia (CRIA), whose director is Professor David Sless. Professor Sless, a prominent theorist in communication, contributes to the ANU courses.
According to Professor Bryant, 'history suggests that there is a large and very rapidly developing industry in science communication. The vast majority of our 100 graduates have found employment in the science communication industry, in many diverse roles in science centres, museums, science festivals and public relations.
'I think that this will increase and at a far greater rate than the present capacity of the university sector to supply highly qualified science communicators,' he said.
According to Dr Stocklmayer, 'there is a very complex interaction between the increase in public interest through the media and interactive science centres, and awareness on the part of government that they really need to communicate better to allow the public to make informed decisions about scientific research.
'Also, I think there is a growing understanding that science cannot work in isolation and that scientists themselves need to communicate better what they do,' she said.
'All these things are coming together and everyone is recognising the need for better communication. It is no longer possible to treat the scientist as that person in the white coat on television,' she said.
According to Professor Bryant, 'we are cracking open an hermetically-sealed box, demystifying science. After all, people are entitled to know what science is doing and to be told in the clearest possible way so that they can understand it without all the usual scientific obfuscation.'
The recent Wolfendale Report in the UK called for a vast expansion of science communication activity, and even recommended the major step of making the study of science communication a compulsory part of all university science courses. With this trend in mind, the ANU is positioning itself very well to provide the theoretical and practical educational resources, as well as turning out well-trained science communicators.
Currently, the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science has 15 Graduate Diploma ('Science Circus') students, 14 Masters students and two PhD students. According to Professor Bryant, there is no shortage of potential applicants for all courses. The Science Circus in particular appeals to many new science graduates who may choose not to go straight into research but rather explore the many career possibilities that science communication now offers.
Dr Stocklmayer has come to the new position after many years as, initially, a physics teacher and later a researcher of science communication. Also, she has been active for some time in gender issues in physics, examining ways of getting more young girls into the field. She worked for 15 years in Western Australia at the National Key Centre at Curtin University and also at the University of Western Australia.
This story originally appeared in the 13 March 1996 issue of ANU Reporter and is used with permission.