I was cleaning the basement some time
ago and I found this paper it’s an
artifact for my time as a member of the
scientific community I was a chemical
engineer who entered neuroscience and
then became molecular biologist I loved
science back then I still loved science
but I was always a very odd bird in
academia or to use them the words of the
Swedish poet guna ft love I am a
stranger in this land but this land is
no stranger in me I had some kind of
scientific mindset I can see it when I
study there the note you see I will use
a musical metaphor here at the time we
were studying individual instruments the
melodies here I have a vision about
studying orchestral arrangements but the
but the technology to do so was still
far away
science is a tough world and my skin was
not thick enough so I took the fire exit
and started working at the publishing
house and after that at corporate
communications in the med tech industry
and after that at an advertising agency
and when I had collected all those
different practical communication skills
I became what I wanted to be all along a
freelance writer and lecturer in the
fields of science technology and
medicine or to put it in Polish
stims Redskin possession Eve Ecuador’s
on I have a very good relationship with
science today if I should paraphrase
what I said before I no longer live in
this land but this land is a good old
friend in me and I from this very
special observation point I want to ask
a question to the scientific community
out there sometime somewhere science is
intriguing fascinating and mind-blowing
how come that it is often communicated
in such an uninspired and stiff way to
be frank in a boring way creativity and
passion are strong drivers of science
but how come that the communication
culture is still so so constrained and
conservative dear audience what do you
think about when I say communicated
complex information in a boring way I
will tell you what I think about when I
think about boring scientific
communication exhibit number one the
lectern pulpit in Polish it’s a popular
weapon of mass boredom very common at
scientific conferences you in the
audience you all know that to change the
world and to convince an audience you
must enter the scary spot right here on
the carpet exhibit number two the
overstuffed PowerPoint slide or
scientific poster a certain way to hide
your main message and to create
cognitive overload for the viewer
exhibit number three the wall of text
Journal article as if summarizing
subheaders and fact boxes and bullet
lists never were invented know it so you
may say so what if science people want
to have it this way it’s not our problem
but Russia it is our problem and I have
pressed the sorry sorry polar bear
mankind is facing huge challenges where
the political solutions fail climate
change sea pollution global health care
etc we need extended knowledge and we
need technical solutions and we need
them fast it’s especially important that
we reach young people to shape their
rational thinking and to recruit the
specialists of tomorrow but you know
that the the media competition is fierce
out there and there is so much that
gives instant gratification and our
brains they just want to have fun
sometimes when I think about all the
disinformation that’s floating around
out there I get really scared so I have
been thinking a lot about this science
is boring problem and I have come up
with a solution and I will present it to
you now
[Applause]
to how to attain this you need to think
of the letter P or other to peace P for
passion and P for professionalism first
the passion P if you want to give
maximum impact to message you should
always anchor it to your emotions about
the subject if you feel very
enthusiastic and inspired show that you
are enthusiastic and inspired do you
think I am an enthusiastic and inspired
are you enthusiastic and inspired I
think so the second P is for
professionalism science people may form
a brainy elite but they can learn a lot
from professional communicators and
there are so many tools in the toolbox
of professional communication I will
pick out a few here and now which I use
on a daily basis the first tool set is a
rhetoric the art of convincing and my
favorite model from rhetoric is ethos
pathos logos this model was suggested by
Aristotle as as you say in polish in the
fourth century BC Aristotle as he
claimed that there are three ways three
ways of persuasion
the first one is ethos you use your
trust your authority your personal
trademark the second one is pathos you
use your emotions your positive and
negative feelings and the third one is
logos you use facts and logic and here
is a very important message to science
and tech people
data and your conclusions are not enough
to convince a wider audience you must
learn how to use the pathos and ethos
strategies the next tool set I use on a
daily basis is journalism journalism
journalists are the experts of getting
facts across in the most effective way
and what they often use is the inverted
pyramid
what is the inverted pyramid well it’s
about front-loading your text putting
their answers to what when where who and
why at the beginning and the peripheral
detail at the end and then the reader
can read the beginning and skip the rest
if they’re not very interested and for
an editor it’s very easy to shorten the
text the third tool said I want to point
at today is storytelling storytelling is
packaged human experience it’s a it’s a
great way of getting people to listen
and be engaged by your stuff to tell
stories there are many other tool sets
in the big toolbox of professional
communication and they are all worth
studying but let me wake let me make one
point clear here the idea is not that
you should learn to practition all those
different communication crafts the point
is that you should study and steal what
is useful for you in your context in
your profession so
time to catch my breath time to catch
the moment do you see that the Sun is
going up behind me things are actually
improving for example platforms like Ted
and YouTube has given great science
communicators a whole new outreach and a
whole new audience my own radiant role
model is the late Hans Rosling
infographics are getting more popular in
science and here you see examples of
graphical abstracts which are visual
summaries of research articles and
finally there is even a dance movement
among early career scientists due to the
increasingly popular dance your PhD
competition it’s time that we abandon
this very simple model and we form this
cooperation instead where scientists and
science communicators and science
teachers they cooperate and interact to
serve a lot of different audiences
actually all of us I am optimistic I
think that there is a new wave of
communicators of science and when I pick
up my crystal ball what do I see I see
scientists who study rhetoric and
journalism who learn video editing and
stand-up comedy I see research groups
who run their own websites and Twitter
feeds who design interactive scientific
posters and present their open notebooks
on the Internet
I see science communicators who organize
science shows and and
boardgames and finally I see science
teachers who give life to the dry pages
of of the books and demonstrate and run
experiments and organize excursions and
my message to you tonight dear audience
is that whatever profession you have you
may be a doctor a lawyer a administrate
the business person the two peas can
help you passion and professionalism
both in your daily work and when you
face special challenges and I want to
finish with a celebration of a network
of early career contacts that I’ve had
the pleasure to work with they all
represent very different ambitions but
they all based a career on science and
they all know that excellent
communication skills will get them where
they are heading so it’s Dorota and Jana
from Poland
it’s Olivia and Pablo from Spain and
Peter without his upper head and Sarah
from Sweden Alyssa from from Italy and
many many more let’s give these
fantastic people a great hand
[Applause]
ago and I found this paper it’s an
artifact for my time as a member of the
scientific community I was a chemical
engineer who entered neuroscience and
then became molecular biologist I loved
science back then I still loved science
but I was always a very odd bird in
academia or to use them the words of the
Swedish poet guna ft love I am a
stranger in this land but this land is
no stranger in me I had some kind of
scientific mindset I can see it when I
study there the note you see I will use
a musical metaphor here at the time we
were studying individual instruments the
melodies here I have a vision about
studying orchestral arrangements but the
but the technology to do so was still
far away
science is a tough world and my skin was
not thick enough so I took the fire exit
and started working at the publishing
house and after that at corporate
communications in the med tech industry
and after that at an advertising agency
and when I had collected all those
different practical communication skills
I became what I wanted to be all along a
freelance writer and lecturer in the
fields of science technology and
medicine or to put it in Polish
stims Redskin possession Eve Ecuador’s
on I have a very good relationship with
science today if I should paraphrase
what I said before I no longer live in
this land but this land is a good old
friend in me and I from this very
special observation point I want to ask
a question to the scientific community
out there sometime somewhere science is
intriguing fascinating and mind-blowing
how come that it is often communicated
in such an uninspired and stiff way to
be frank in a boring way creativity and
passion are strong drivers of science
but how come that the communication
culture is still so so constrained and
conservative dear audience what do you
think about when I say communicated
complex information in a boring way I
will tell you what I think about when I
think about boring scientific
communication exhibit number one the
lectern pulpit in Polish it’s a popular
weapon of mass boredom very common at
scientific conferences you in the
audience you all know that to change the
world and to convince an audience you
must enter the scary spot right here on
the carpet exhibit number two the
overstuffed PowerPoint slide or
scientific poster a certain way to hide
your main message and to create
cognitive overload for the viewer
exhibit number three the wall of text
Journal article as if summarizing
subheaders and fact boxes and bullet
lists never were invented know it so you
may say so what if science people want
to have it this way it’s not our problem
but Russia it is our problem and I have
pressed the sorry sorry polar bear
mankind is facing huge challenges where
the political solutions fail climate
change sea pollution global health care
etc we need extended knowledge and we
need technical solutions and we need
them fast it’s especially important that
we reach young people to shape their
rational thinking and to recruit the
specialists of tomorrow but you know
that the the media competition is fierce
out there and there is so much that
gives instant gratification and our
brains they just want to have fun
sometimes when I think about all the
disinformation that’s floating around
out there I get really scared so I have
been thinking a lot about this science
is boring problem and I have come up
with a solution and I will present it to
you now
[Applause]
to how to attain this you need to think
of the letter P or other to peace P for
passion and P for professionalism first
the passion P if you want to give
maximum impact to message you should
always anchor it to your emotions about
the subject if you feel very
enthusiastic and inspired show that you
are enthusiastic and inspired do you
think I am an enthusiastic and inspired
are you enthusiastic and inspired I
think so the second P is for
professionalism science people may form
a brainy elite but they can learn a lot
from professional communicators and
there are so many tools in the toolbox
of professional communication I will
pick out a few here and now which I use
on a daily basis the first tool set is a
rhetoric the art of convincing and my
favorite model from rhetoric is ethos
pathos logos this model was suggested by
Aristotle as as you say in polish in the
fourth century BC Aristotle as he
claimed that there are three ways three
ways of persuasion
the first one is ethos you use your
trust your authority your personal
trademark the second one is pathos you
use your emotions your positive and
negative feelings and the third one is
logos you use facts and logic and here
is a very important message to science
and tech people
data and your conclusions are not enough
to convince a wider audience you must
learn how to use the pathos and ethos
strategies the next tool set I use on a
daily basis is journalism journalism
journalists are the experts of getting
facts across in the most effective way
and what they often use is the inverted
pyramid
what is the inverted pyramid well it’s
about front-loading your text putting
their answers to what when where who and
why at the beginning and the peripheral
detail at the end and then the reader
can read the beginning and skip the rest
if they’re not very interested and for
an editor it’s very easy to shorten the
text the third tool said I want to point
at today is storytelling storytelling is
packaged human experience it’s a it’s a
great way of getting people to listen
and be engaged by your stuff to tell
stories there are many other tool sets
in the big toolbox of professional
communication and they are all worth
studying but let me wake let me make one
point clear here the idea is not that
you should learn to practition all those
different communication crafts the point
is that you should study and steal what
is useful for you in your context in
your profession so
time to catch my breath time to catch
the moment do you see that the Sun is
going up behind me things are actually
improving for example platforms like Ted
and YouTube has given great science
communicators a whole new outreach and a
whole new audience my own radiant role
model is the late Hans Rosling
infographics are getting more popular in
science and here you see examples of
graphical abstracts which are visual
summaries of research articles and
finally there is even a dance movement
among early career scientists due to the
increasingly popular dance your PhD
competition it’s time that we abandon
this very simple model and we form this
cooperation instead where scientists and
science communicators and science
teachers they cooperate and interact to
serve a lot of different audiences
actually all of us I am optimistic I
think that there is a new wave of
communicators of science and when I pick
up my crystal ball what do I see I see
scientists who study rhetoric and
journalism who learn video editing and
stand-up comedy I see research groups
who run their own websites and Twitter
feeds who design interactive scientific
posters and present their open notebooks
on the Internet
I see science communicators who organize
science shows and and
boardgames and finally I see science
teachers who give life to the dry pages
of of the books and demonstrate and run
experiments and organize excursions and
my message to you tonight dear audience
is that whatever profession you have you
may be a doctor a lawyer a administrate
the business person the two peas can
help you passion and professionalism
both in your daily work and when you
face special challenges and I want to
finish with a celebration of a network
of early career contacts that I’ve had
the pleasure to work with they all
represent very different ambitions but
they all based a career on science and
they all know that excellent
communication skills will get them where
they are heading so it’s Dorota and Jana
from Poland
it’s Olivia and Pablo from Spain and
Peter without his upper head and Sarah
from Sweden Alyssa from from Italy and
many many more let’s give these
fantastic people a great hand
[Applause]
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