Who is your favorite "bringer of science to the masses?"

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What about Tesla? Would he fit the bill?

I don't think Tesla was of the sort outreaching mind that the people I'm talking about in this thread are, remarkable a person as he certainly was.

 

[Kyriakos]

Science 'celebrities' are a very bad phenomenon, though :/

Art-celebrities too, i would add (i don't mean actors, obviously, cause they rarely are creators of art). The notion that we need to have "masses" and then some "celebrities" is part of the spiral we are in.

 

[Synobun]

The concept of having a role model is pretty much genetic. If your argument is that our role models should be those with great moral fibre and scientific pursuits then yeah, sure. The argument that there should be no role model whatsoever seems to me to be a case of the outlier trying to push their exception as the norm for the rest.

 

[Kyriakos]

^You are funny

Who are you supposed to be answering there, though..

 

[Synobun]

^You are funny

Who are you supposed to be answering there, though..

Please enlighten me on how to educate a toddler without there being a role model. Or, if that's a bit too difficult, let's just go with a teenager. I am deeply interested in your insight. And by interested, I mean that I'm right and you're wrong.

 

[Kyriakos]

Please enlighten me on how to educate a toddler without there being a role model. Or, if that's a bit too difficult, let's just go with a teenager. I am deeply interested in your insight. And by interested, I mean that I'm right and you're wrong.

^You have the chance to be right but i was never inside the argument you wish to be right in regards to

 

[Synobun]

^You have the chance to be right but i was never inside the argument you wish to be right in regards to

The people being talked about in this thread are considered celebrities because of them being public role models for their particular sciences (and even sometimes unrelated ones!). Go to any seminar, book reading, meeting, whatever with any of these people and you will undoubtedly notice that the majority of people there say "it is because of you that I went on to _____."

Not only that, but celebrities are common enough as role models that it requires clear boundaries from the parental perspective.

How else will you inspire large numbers of people to enter the sciences than by being a very public figure in support of that science? Do you think every child should be born with the natural inclination to find themselves in a college lecture room of a random science subject with a good teacher that instills passion within their students?

 

[Kyriakos]

^I have to suspect that it is at least equally common that so young children are by themselves drawn to math (etc). For example i loved math since early elementary, and was happy to read the following chapters months prior to the school teaching them, cause they interested me.
I have to suppose that many people who actually went on to be mathematicians were likely even more interested as youths.

 

[Goodfella]

Science 'celebrities' are a very bad phenomenon, though :/

Art-celebrities too, i would add (i don't mean actors, obviously, cause they rarely are creators of art). The notion that we need to have "masses" and then some "celebrities" is part of the spiral we are in.

Could you please give a detailed explanation of why you think science popularizers are bad? I'm not arguing or anything, I just want to understand your reasoning.

 

[Silurian]

With Brian Cox things can only get better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpDssaf2uI

 

[classical_hero]

He certainly is the best thing.


Link to video.

 

[Kyriakos]

Could you please give a detailed explanation of why you think science popularizers are bad? I'm not arguing or anything, I just want to understand your reasoning.

I specified that the celebrity part is deemed by myself as negative. Obviously there is nothing wrong with presenting science anywhere as long as there is an audience that is interested in it and you have a reasonable grasp of what you are talking about.

Sadly celebrities who try to present themselves as proponents of science (sic; as if the rest are enemies of science) often become jokes, or (ironically) memes

 

[Synobun]

Are you really calling Richard Dawkins a joke?

 

[Goodfella]

I specified that the celebrity part is deemed by myself as negative. Obviously there is nothing wrong with presenting science anywhere as long as there is an audience that is interested in it and you have a reasonable grasp of what you are talking about.

Sadly celebrities who try to present themselves as proponents of science (sic; as if the rest are enemies of science) often become jokes, or (ironically) memes;

So you have two problems with science popularizers, right?

1. They sometimes act as if they're experts on things outside of their field ("as long as...you have a reasonable grasp of what you're talking about.")

2. They sometimes behave as if non-scientists are enemies of science. For example, Richard Dawkins.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I'm surprised by how popular Tyson is: I didn't know he was so well-known!

 

[Kyriakos]

@Synsensa: Dawkins, meme, does compute (iirc Higgs, the latest nobel winner in physics, also has spoken against Dawkins).

So you have two problems with science popularizers, right?

1. They sometimes act as if they're experts on things outside of their field ("as long as...you have a reasonable grasp of what you're talking about.")

2. They sometimes behave as if non-scientists are enemies of science. For example, Richard Dawkins.

Those two express me to a large extent in this antipathy of such celebrities, yes.

Another reason is that they tend to be "legends in their own mind", ie they get blown-out of all proportion, and are consciously part of this too...

 

[KMRblue1027]

I'm surprised by how popular Tyson is: I didn't know he was so well-known!

That's The Daily Show's fault, at least for most Americans.

 

[Tahuti]

@Synsensa: Dawkins, meme, does compute (iirc Higgs, the latest nobel winner in physics, also has spoken against Dawkins).

Dawkins is a very decent evolutionary biologist. And The Selfish Gene is a masterpiece.

His viewpoints on religion suck, since these promote a mentality of "what cannot be observed doesn't exist" which is problem all militant atheists have in common and is generally corrosive to science. However, his anti-religious viewpoints are however a minor aspect of his life and it is a shame that he is primarily known for that and not for his work in biology.

 

[Kyriakos]

Dawkins is a very decent evolutionary biologist. And The Selfish Gene is a masterpiece.

His viewpoints on religion suck, since these promote a mentality of "what cannot be observed doesn't exist" which is problem all militant atheists have in common and is generally corrosive to science. However, his anti-religious viewpoints are however a minor aspect of his life and it is a shame that he is primarily known for that and not for his work in biology.

That book did make an impression in its time, i even recall someone from my science class in the end of highschool being very into it (later on became a physicist in the US). But Dawkins brought all this hostility towards him by his own words and actions. He tries to be not just what he is (a biologist) but also anything from philosopher to theologian. He does not manage to do those things in any good way, and so comes across often as arrogant and pretty much 'full of himself'. It may be a shame, but this sort of attitude always created problems, and in the internet age it creates them larger and faster... It is highly likely that most will know or recall him as a figure of polarity and a hindrance to a better level of debate on theological matters or other issues of this variety, including the implications of biology on them.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Dawkins isn't nearly as bad as some would like you to believe. As opposed to a certain book I know which calls anyone that doesn't believe it's stories fools.

He can be an arse, no question about it.

But I have seen him keep his cool and staying polite in interviews where I would have lashed out. If you're going to criticize him for his behaviour, you also have to give him credit when it's due.