gentle bren

hey guys thank you for your replies i figured that there would be people here interested in this and my last post was intended only to spark someone in to replying (i hope i didn't offend anybody) my main aim is to in some way work with scientists and maybe people involved with scientific institutions - in order to look at and identify problems and issues surrounding the communication of AND public understanding of science and/or scientific concepts and breakthroughs from what i can work out so far, it seems that scientists are very good at being scientists, but not so good at being communicators for instance, scientists in general seem not to regard typography as being very important, which seems bizarre considering that the printed word is probably one of the most important inventions there has ever been. Without it the widespread dissemination of information would have been impossible in my experience scientists also have a difficulty grasping semiotic and semantic relationships as they are often much more abstract concepts scientists by their very nature have to present everything as accurately as possible - which will often confound the layperson when dealing with very complex subjects. However a designer may well communicate a scientific concepts completely inacurately if left to research a topic alone. what i'm looking for is to begin an open dialogue between scientists and designers to work on effective, accurate and ultimately attractive ways of communicating science i really don't have any answers at this stage which is why i would like to discuss the topic further i hope this is clear!? i'm also aware that there are many scientists with excellent communication skills - people like Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, *ahem* Richard Dawkins and Brian Cox i consider to be excellent at communicating science to the public, although i dare say many scientists would accuse them of being populists thanks bren

hello folks, i have just graduated as a mature student with a Graphic Design degree and one particular area of study which i am interested in is the communication of science/scientific concepts to the public. although my main interests lie within music and graphics i have always had a fascination with science and philosophy. The only problem being i really don't have a very technical brain! However, i am constantly astounded by what i read about cosmology and science. Even though i don't really understand the fundamental workings surrounding theories and laws, they never fail to trigger profound thoughts and spark my imagination. my own scientific knowledge is limited. Its mainly from reading the New Scientist magazine, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan and not really understanding Stephen Hawking books! For this reason i understand that my role is to act as a messenger, i am in no position to start answering questions. I wish merely to understand the questions, and then to attempt to make them communicable to ordinary people my self elected final project started out as a quest to describe an atom accurately to the layperson - and ended up highlighting a need for increased dialogue between the the Arts and the Sciences - they are after all, as Stephen Wilson states "the twin engines of creativity in any dynamic culture" i was wondering therefore, if there were any people within the scientific community who be interested in any collaborative projects? thanks bren Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedis there really no-one on this forum who is interested in the communication of science to the public? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedi guess you guys are kinda stuck with poorly constructed illustrations and bad typography then does anybody know of any science forums which are more geared towards academics? thanks bren