How Science Communication Can Step Up Amid Federal Cuts

FLORA LICHTMAN: I’m Flora Lichtman. And you’re listening to Science Friday.

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Today on the show, bringing the public into science. Whose job is that?

FELICE FRANKEL: There’s no line item asking, well, what have you done lately with communicating to the public? It ain’t there.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I don’t have to tell you that it is a precarious time for US science. Federal funding is being slashed, career scientists laid off, and researchers are considering leaving to work abroad. On top of that, public trust in science and experts has declined. So for a lot of scientists, it’s a time of reflection. What are we doing wrong? What should we be doing differently? And to quote David Byrne, how did we get here?

Joining us with a perspective on these big questions is Felice Frankel, a science photographer and a research scientist in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. She’s also the author of the upcoming book Phenomenal Moments– Revealing the Hidden Science All Around Us, out this fall. Felice, welcome back to Science Friday.

FELICE FRANKEL: Wonderful. Wonderful to be here. Thanks, Flora.

FLORA LICHTMAN: You wrote me, and you suggested we have a conversation about how, in your opinion, the research community has failed in bringing the public into our world. I am very interested in that, too, obviously. It’s what I do for a living. So I want to start there. In your view, how has the research community failed the public?

FELICE FRANKEL: Yeah, that’s a really important question. And it’s possible some of my colleagues will not agree with me, but I’m going to give it a shot.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Well, I like that as a way to start. Yeah, let’s get into it.

FELICE FRANKEL: For the most part, when I gather young researchers on campus for a workshop in graphics, what we do is we look at the way they are visually representing their work. And then when we get into the conversation, I then asked them, well, how would you say this to the non-expert? All of us out there, including myself, by the way.

And for the most part, there’s not really an interest in that exercise. That’s what concerns me really deeply. And it has to do probably with the culture of research and how one advances, in fact, in positions in science and engineering.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Like there’s no incentive to be good at that.

FELICE FRANKEL: Exactly, that it’s not rewarded. For example, to get tenure, there’s no line item asking, well, what have you done lately with communicating to the public? It ain’t there. And in my opinion, it should be an integral part of their education and the process of advancing. But it’s not. Even the journals really consider graphics tangential.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Right. And of course, we know graphics are a gateway for people to understand.

FELICE FRANKEL: Absolutely. It’s a way of making it accessible and, frankly, less frightening. I mean, even with a picture, for example– not to say that you can say everything in that one picture, but it’s a portal to engage the non-expert and also those out of your field to ask questions. And we’re not doing that.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I’ve talked to many scientists who say, it’s not only that they aren’t rewarded for being good communicators, they’re actually penalized for engaging effectively with the public.

FELICE FRANKEL: Yeah.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I mean, I think I’ve heard this, in particular, from younger researchers, from researchers who are underrepresented in their fields, from women, who say that if they make something sound comprehensible, people think the work they’re doing is not sophisticated.

FELICE FRANKEL: I’m afraid you’re right, that there is something to that, especially, frankly, within the science community. When your graphics appear polished, some people will actually question, are you covering up for the data? Because you’re making it look pretty cool. Well, looking pretty cool is OK in my mind, as long as we’re being honest in the look, as long as we represent it. But this should be part of the researcher’s education.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Before we get there, do you think that this is changing? Do you think that younger researchers think about this differently?

FELICE FRANKEL: No question about it, and I’m delighted that you brought that up because I’ve been on campus for 30 years– count them, 30– and I absolutely have seen a change. No question that– look, I’m one of the older people on campus, so when I say older, I don’t take that as an admonishment.

What I’m suggesting is the folks that have been doing this stuff for many, many years are not necessarily open to speaking to a larger audience or to engage in graphical thinking. It’s not easy, but it is becoming clear to me that the younger generation gets it.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What are they doing differently?

FELICE FRANKEL: Yeah. Well, they want it to look communicative. That’s what we do in our workshops, is they want to discuss the fact, for example, how much information should I include. I mean, the bottom line is, all the researchers want to include every piece of data graphically or numerically because they want to show that they’ve done the work, and I get all that. But in the end, when you put so much into whatever you’re working visually on, you can’t see what in the world you want to see, you know? It’s not communicative. So–

FLORA LICHTMAN: You have to edit. Yeah.

FELICE FRANKEL: You have to edit, edit, edit. And that’s the first thing I ask them when we look– let’s say we look at their figure draft. And then the first thing I say is, what do you want me to see? And secondly, what can you edit out? And that takes thinking.

It’s not trivial. There’s is no question in my mind that it advances your thinking as a researcher. You’ve got to figure out a hierarchy of information. You have to figure out, does this go over here, or does it go over there? And in the end, the process itself clarifies the science in your own head.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yes, of course. If you can translate it into a way that anyone can understand and absorb, it means you’ve got it really clear in your own mind.

FELICE FRANKEL: I believe that. But it’s not part of their requirement.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yes. I mean, we’re seeing this change. Our team is coming across more pitches because younger scientists are on social media, explaining the research that they do themselves. Do you see that, too?

FELICE FRANKEL: Absolutely. And I mean, I’m the old class who still is not into social media too much, but when I do see something well done, it’s very exciting.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Can you explain your job a little bit? What do you do as a science photographer?

FELICE FRANKEL: Great, yes. So what happens is, the researcher will get in touch with me. They will say, we have a paper accepted. And then we sit down together to try to come up with a potential cover submission. And so the beauty of this, for me personally, is that I do have a science background.

So what I do is sit down, and invariably, which is the best part, the researcher will take out a pencil and paper and literally start drawing what they think is a way of communicating the research. And in that process, not only do I get it, but they are clarifying their own thinking about what it is that we want to say in that figure or in the cover submission.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I worked in TV and in video and doing science videos, and I found that scientists often capture these amazing visuals, things we’ve never seen before with our eyes, and that they’re underutilized. And I wondered what your perspective was on that.

FELICE FRANKEL: Well, it is true most of the researchers, the way they think is about capturing the image for their colleagues, for journal submissions. They are not thinking about how this is going to appear to the non-expert. That’s where we’re missing. It’s about communicating in an engaging way. And it’s not about changing the data. It’s just applying techniques that work. But they don’t do it.

FLORA LICHTMAN: You said when we started, maybe all your colleagues wouldn’t agree with you on this. Talk to me about the disagreements. I want to understand what scientists are thinking about this moment and how scientists are battling it out or disagreeing about the role of scientists in public engagement, what responsibility scientists have to engage the public. Talk me through that.

FELICE FRANKEL: I’m going to say I’m embarrassed by this, but I’m not seeing an encouragement at all to speak to the non-expert.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Even now?

FELICE FRANKEL: Even now. Yes, even now. And maybe– and this is not an excuse, but one of the things that I realized is that this is an issue of time. These kids– and they’re all kids to me.

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These kids spend who knows how many months or years on a particular aspect of their research and what their time involves, not only just doing the research, by the way, but also submitting to journals, because it’s also a measure of advancement. And so making a graphic becomes secondary. It actually is done the last minute.

I say to them, I will bet you that when you go to an article and read it online, you first read the title and the authors, then you probably go to the abstract, and then I bet you go to the figures. And they all agree. The figures are an essential part of how they read an article. However, it’s always the last thing that they put time into. It’s mostly the text.

And I also think that the journals do not help in this way. The journals, for the most part– again, I’m going to get into trouble, but I’m OK about that– that the editors are mostly text-driven, and the graphics people get the stuff after everything else. It’s not a collaboration. I think the visuals should be a collaboration with the text.

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FLORA LICHTMAN: After the break, dreaming big about solutions to this problem.

FELICE FRANKEL: I would love for there to be an administration that has a separate office devoted to getting the public to understand, frankly, where the money is going.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Don’t go away.

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What do you think we, as science journalists, need to be doing better?

FELICE FRANKEL: I love that question, and it’s pretty simple. I think you have to ask for more visuals.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [LAUGHS]

FELICE FRANKEL: Period.

FLORA LICHTMAN: We’re a radio show, so–

FELICE FRANKEL: Well, let me say this. I will bet you, as a journalist, to become more educated in a particular subject, would welcome a visual expression of what this story is about. The New York Times does a wonderful approach on this. Today, for example, I saw a very clear graphic explaining what kind of funding is being diminished.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yeah. I saw that, too. That was great.

FELICE FRANKEL: Yeah. Wasn’t that good? It worked.

FLORA LICHTMAN: It was good.

FELICE FRANKEL: It taught you something. As a journalist, I’m sure it added to your knowledge. If it were just plain text, you wouldn’t have imagined the numbers, the quantitative elements of how the research figures are changing. You got something from that graphic. I think journalists should engage their own minds into the graphics and the visuals.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I love that, yeah. Anything else you think that science journalists could be doing better?

FELICE FRANKEL: Well, I might be getting too personal, and you’ll tell me, but I would like science journalists to take people like me more seriously, that it’s not just making pretty pictures, that when I create a final submission, a lot of thought has gone into it and a lot of knowledge, based on my conversations with the researcher. I’m not second class. I believe that people like me are not taken seriously.

FLORA LICHTMAN: [SIGHS] I think that’s how the public feels, to be honest, that they should be taken seriously, too.

FELICE FRANKEL: Good for you. Absolutely. Amen to that.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Before we let you go, if we think about solutions to this– let’s dream big. What would move the needle? What do you think needs to happen?

FELICE FRANKEL: I do think about this. And what I would like to happen is not going to happen [LAUGHS] because of what we’re living through right now. I would love for there to be an administration that has a separate office devoted to getting the public to understand, frankly, where the money is going.

FLORA LICHTMAN: A government office, you mean?

FELICE FRANKEL: Yeah, national, federal, exactly. I had wonderful communication with one of the science advisors on the previous administration’s advisory committee. She’s a Nobel Prize winner. And I said, here’s what I’d love you to bring up in your meetings. How about creating a national effort in visual communication, et cetera, et cetera? And she said, Felice, I feel the same way. We’re not doing a good job. We’re not doing our job. But that’s not my task. That’s not why I was put on the advisory committee.

There needs to be an interest in the administration nationally to understand the value of engaging the public, and even the scientists themselves, in communicating research. But there will be some day an administration that will understand the importance of using visual tools to engage the public in science and to understand that there’s a reason why, getting back to vaccinations, there is a scientific reason why we are encouraging this. But as I said, it ain’t going to happen today.

FLORA LICHTMAN: We can– I think we can. And it’s our responsibility to think big.

FELICE FRANKEL: Boy, oh, boy. I wish you were right. [LAUGHS]

FLORA LICHTMAN: [LAUGHS] Thanks, Felice, for this conversation. I appreciate it.

FELICE FRANKEL: It’s a pleasure. Thank you so much.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Felice Frankel is a science photographer and a research scientist in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. She’s also the author of the upcoming book Phenomenal Moments– Revealing the Hidden Science Around Us, out this fall.

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Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, rate and review us wherever you listen. Or just go straight to guerilla marketing. Take a friend’s phone, and subscribe them to this podcast. Please help us get the word out about Science Friday. Today’s episode was produced by Dee Peterschmidt. I’m Flora Lichtman. Thanks for listening.

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