Julian is ‘on the money’, as usual and this is no surprise. He comes out of ‘the real world’ i.e. having worked as a working journalist. Many science communicators, as scientists first and communicators/writers/journalists second lack a fundamental understanding of how the media really works. Although much of science is about proving theories, simply putting practical knowledge into practice is very often the best way to win the media war. And it is a war. Science news fights for space and it’s not always a fair fight. But, nonetheless, it’s a fight and every ‘weapon’ that can be employed should be.
Regards, Brendon Cant
Brendon Cant & Associates Public Relations & Marketing Suite 5 4 Gugeri St Claremont WA 6010 Tel 08 9384 1122 The information in this email is privileged and confidential and intended for the use of the individual named.
Please excuse the lateness of this reply, and also that it goes on a tangent.
I can’t agree that “much of science is about proving theories”.
I believe that science is more about trying to disprove theories. If the theory isn’t disproved by a particular experiment, that theory is said to have been ‘confirmed’. In this sense ‘confirmed’ doesn’t mean proven, only that it wasn’t shown to be incorrect in this instance.
A quote by the 18th century scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg is relevant here: “In physics, instead of saying, I have explained such and such a phenomenon, one might say, I have determined causes for it the absurdity of which cannot be conclusively proved.”
This is the approach of Karl Popper. I don’t know if Popper’s philosophy of science is still fully in favour, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
It also bothers me when people say “after all, it’s only a theory” (e.g. about Relativity Theory, Evolution or Continental Drift). ‘Theory’ doesn’t have the same meaning as ‘hypothesis’, which simply means a plausible explanation. A theory started as a hypothesis, but has been confirmed so often that is has become the orthodox scientific position (or the current paradigm).
Yet many scientists and, I suspect, science communicators are apparently unaware of these basic concepts.
Chris Forbes-Ewan
19 Hedley St Scottsdale Tas 7260