way from print journals.
Respondent Glennda Chui, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, said newspapers also are hurting because they must compete with the web, where people get their news for free. So newspapers are decreasing their reporting staffs, and it is now more likely that science will be reported by a general reporter, not a science writer. General reporters, she said, are often terrified when they go to scientific meetings. They don't know what we're talking about, or what is important in science.
During these sessions, some of the journalists complained that the science talks were too jargon-laden. Meanwhile, many scientists didn't know if we were supposed to be preparing our talks for other scientists, as we might do at a "normal" workshop, or for the many journalists, students and educators in attendance. The happy outcome was that most speakers split the difference, giving talks that were both rich in scientific content and relatively easy to understand.
|David Grinspoon, curator of astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and author of the book, “Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life.”
My talk was on the afternoon of the second day, in a session about the diversity of solar system planets. I had been asked to speak on "The Evolution of Mars, Venus, and Titan: Lessons for the Limits of Habitability". Since most of the names on the speaker list were scientists from various fields of astrobiology, I had prepared the kind of talk I give at scientific meetings. But after the first day, I stayed up late that night to re-write my talk: deleting slides, removing details, and cutting out technical terms that might be considered jargon.
As it turned out, I ran out of time and had to skip the "Titan" part of my talk, largely because I explained things in a more general way than I would for an audience of scientists. Cutting the jargon meant I had to drastically reduce the content.
This experience actually gave me an increased appreciation of the much-maligned "jargon". Specialized language helps us cover more ground so that we can get to the scientific punch line in the time allotted. Its true that scientists are often guilty of crimes against language. But when addressing an audience of scientists, technical terms help us communicate more efficiently. Jargon has its place.
The greatest challenge of the Pale Blue Dot III workshop, at least for the scientists, was that we were expected to be clear for a non-specialist audience, but also be technically rigorous and groundbreaking.
Such a hybrid talk is hard to give, but a joy to listen to and for the most part the speakers were up to the task. The result was astrobiology bliss. I learned more at this workshop, both about science and communication, than at any meeting in recent memory. I even learned the meanings of terms that I don't normally ask about because I assume all scientists except for me already know them!
|A view of Earth from Voyager 1, at a distance of more than 4 billion miles. Earth is the dot in the middle of the bright streak.
Image credit: NASA/JPL
Another unusual feature of the conference was that we were held captive the whole time. At other meetings, you attend some sessions and then take breaks to rest your brain or get other work done. Talks are often held at the hotel where you are staying, so it's easy to duck out. But in this case there was no escape. We were picked up from our downtown Chicago hotel every morning at 7:30 AM and taken to the Adler Planetarium, where we were fed breakfast, lunch and dinner, with long morning and afternoon sessions in between. By the time we returned to our hotel, it was dark outside. This forced immersion was the subject of many jokes and some grumbling.
The Adler is a not a bad place to be trapped - it is a museum of astronomical delights built in an impressive location, on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan. During our lunch breaks I would look longingly out at the stunning views of the city skyline across the sparkling water, or at the trees surrounding the Field Mus