Of course scientists can communicate

摘要

There are several canards about scientists, but one is more pernicious simply because so many scientists themselves repeat it: scientists are not good communicators. Once again, the allegation is to be the subject of discussions, this time at next month's annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC. It can be found on Nature's website, heard in research councils, it is even occasionally propagated by-the public-engagement community, and sometimes endorsed by journalists. In response, I can only say bosh, balderdash and Bronowski, and follow with other intemperate expletives such as Haldane, Hawking and Huxley, Eddington and E. O. Wilson, not to mention, as if in a state of terminal exasperation, Dawkins!