It’s frustrating to see twice-convicted felon Kevin Trudeau make money off the unsuspecting public from books like “Weight Loss Cures They Don’t want You to Know About.” Clearly, he’s a good communicator.

If the best-in-class model is the one regarding global warming, why do so many journalists still believe in it?

Better science education in high school would help, too.

-Steve

I have a PhD myself, so I believe I can speak from first hand experience. There are a lot of people with advanced degrees who believe they know all there is know and that it is not their purpose to bring others to their level. They claim too high a ground, but forget that the real test of true knowledge is when you can share it with others in simple terms. They hide their imperfections behind fancy, technical jargon hoping that most people will be too intimidated to challenge them.

Having said that, it is also true that communicating sophisticated scientific knowledge in simple terms is not easy. It is also something that most scientists are not trained for, and are able to achieve only by experience and when they are really at the top of their field.

A simple idea to reverse this trend would be to have a group of “common folks” review every proposal submitted to the NIH or NSF (Government funding agencies) in addition to the current peer review system. That will be a quick way for the scientists to learn how to communicate with not-so-technical people. After all, if they cannot convince the benefit of their proposed research to common public, why should it be funded?