What do you think of scientists?

Sutent

Thats a big challange for the future detritus to keep kids excited about science and maths. As you know some of these subjects are taught very badly in schools and made very dull. Did you know the liquid crystal screen used on apples and androids were designed not far from your hometown in Hull. Stem are a government organisation who take scientists into the classroom. They do fantastic work. I loved all the programmes that you mentioned as well Aa tomorrow's world that Annie mentioned. Lost in space, Sam Becket x files were also very good. I also loved the free folding London bus map which I studied for hours. I learnt the solution to any route via 2 places in London. Oh I do sometimes miss those days of discovery

Detritus

I was working at CalTec and the way science is taught in the states made me so jealous.

ADGS

What does Brian Cox dumb down, exactly? Compared to some of the garbage we were taught in school, which was simplified to the point of being outright untrue, I think he does as good a job as can reasonably be expected at explaining eg quantum physics (if thinking about quantum physics doesn't make you dizzy, you don't understand quantum physics, as Nils Bohr used to say).

miss annie

I think Detritus means that to him it's dumbed down because he understands most of it already. To me it's baffling even though it's presented in an accessible way.

skev303

Cox is great, I just can't get past the fact he was in D ream, unforgivable!

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Detritus

Maybe dumming down was the wrong word. Yet any programmes on art history or even world history they come at it from the standpoint of the audience knowing a little bit about the subject they are talking about. But science no they treat everyone like plebs. And quantum physics still makes my head hurt but it is the most beautiful subject its pure unlike most other sciences.

Idoru

What are your thoughts on Brian Austin Green? I've really enjoyed the couple of programmes of his I've seen and think his books are really accessible.

sophie

I was/am a scientist (once a scientist, always a scientist?!) but it didn't suit me being in a lab all day focusing on one tiny aspect of one tiny subject, I just want to know everything about everything and I felt trapped and bored. But the people I worked with were simply amazing and I wish they would get out more to show off to the rest of the world how brilliant they are.<br><br>At the moment I am working on a national competition for kids doing science and it is so encouraging to see how excited and intelligent and enthusiastic they are, though it varies a lot school by school.<br><br>There are a lot more science 'celebrities' than you realise that kids recognise and look up to, and kids being inspired in ways other than telly programmes. One major example at the moment is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience">I fucking love science</a>, which I personally don't like but it is mega mega all over facebook (10.5 million followers).<br>

miss annie

I like that fb page too. Weird Science twitter account is worth following, they tweet some funny and bizarre science facts to hook people in but are happy to explain and answer questions about anything.

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Idoru

Oh I'm an eejit. Brian Austen Green is indeed an actor. I meant Brian Greene.

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minim

Nice to see there are so many other Stroud Green scientists! I'm a molecular biologist.<div><br></div><div>As for a science on tv being dumbed down, I do think it is usually necessary to simplify things a lot if you want to keep people with no knowledge whatsoever of a particular topic interested. Maybe I'm underestimating most people's general science knowledge, but whenever I've tried to explain my research to friends I find myself having to start from the very basics, and my research topic is easy to understand (or so I think, anyway). </div><div><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I think science reporting in the media is a much more serious problem. I find myself distrusting pretty much anything I hear about new scientific discoveries, as often just reading the abstract of the papers involved shows that whoever wrote the newspaper article either misunderstood or deliberately sensationalised the results.</span></div><div><br></div>

ADGS

I find a lot of history and arts shows are just as guilty, if not more so, of starting from the absolute basics and making cringeworthy efforts to show the topic is 'accessible' and 'relevant'. 

Mirandola

Not a scientist, but have worked on some complicated-ish things that have been horribly distorted.

conformable_kate

It's a bit of a weird question ... Some of my best friends/ family etc.<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Depends what they do, and what they do with it. I don't think I'd group scientists as a classification. (Species? Genus? Taxonomies of academia could be drawn up here.)</span>