Colin Blakemore has always excelled at communicating science to the public. As president and now chair of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, he has been at the forefront of scientific dialogue in the United Kingdom for years. In his 1988 BBC television series, The Mind Machine, he proved that even "the most complex piece of machinery in the universe" could be made accessible to nonscientists.
He was thrust into the spotlight more reluctantly in the 1990s, when he became the target of a violent and protracted animal rights campaign. Faced with death threats to himself and his family, Blakemore became one of only a handful of UK scientists to go public about his animal research.
But now, as the new chief executive of the Medical Research Council (MRC), he faces the biggest challenge of his career: communicating to the scientists themselves. Many are angry and distrustful following ...
