Abstract
1. BACKGROUND Scientists are financially dependent on the general public. Salaries and research expenses come (directly or indirectly) from taxpayers. The public’s understanding and appreciation of research is a motivational force for scientists. This is possibly one reason that scientists like their work to be covered by the media. However, scientists have shown very little success in more directly communicating with the public about their findings. Despite the fact that scientists have been very successful in solving many seemingly unsolvable problems, (Fermat Last Theorem, stepping onto the moon, sequencing genomes for many species, unraveling the complexity of different types of cancers, discovering the importance and applications of the stem cells, to name a few), they have shown little success in telling the public about the value and significance of these achievements nor have they made the public aware about existing challenges, leaving a big gap between scientific communities and the public. Given the ever-increasing popularity of socialnetwork-based communications, scientists should ask themselves if they could use the potential of public Social Networks (SNs) for reducing this gap?
Highlights
Scientists are financially dependent on the general public
In what follows, we focus on the latter type of Social Networks (SNs), mainly Twitter, and first, try to illustrate their effectiveness and efficiency in communicating key issues to the public and suggest a few ways of using Twitter with the ultimate aim of reducing the gap between scientists and the public
PUBLICIZING SCIENCE WITH SNS During the past three months, two unplanned events initiated a great wave in SNs, giving rise to millions of pounds to be donated to cancer and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) charities
Summary
Scientists are financially dependent on the general public. Salaries and research expenses come (directly or indirectly) from taxpayers. The public’s understanding and appreciation of research is a motivational force for scientists. This is possibly one reason that scientists like their work to be covered by the media. Scientists have shown very little success in more directly communicating with the public about their findings. Despite the fact that scientists have been very successful in solving many seemingly unsolvable problems, (Fermat Last Theorem, stepping onto the moon, sequencing genomes for many species, unraveling the complexity of different types of cancers, discovering the importance and applications of the stem cells, to name a few), they have shown little success in telling the public about the value and significance of these achievements nor have they made the public aware about existing challenges, leaving a big gap between scientific communities and the public. Given the ever-increasing popularity of socialnetwork-based communications, scientists should ask themselves if they could use the potential of public Social Networks (SNs) for reducing this gap?
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