Author: Larry Hand
Date: March 29, 1999
They're common complaints among scientists: News reports oversimplify scientific data, and movies and television stereotype scientists. Although these complaints may be well founded, the remedy may be more in the hands of scientists than the media. The essence of the adage, "If you want the job done right, do it yourself," keeps popping up wherever science and the media are discussed.
Increasingly, scientists are being urged to do more communicating and less whining, and people are being urged to go directly to the source for solid information on science. Both Michael Crichton and Bill Nye prodded scientists to speak up at the annual meeting in January of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Anaheim, Calif. And in New York in February, a former National Cancer Institute division director told a group of investors and investment advisers that scientists are the ...
