Empowering with Evidence: Some Communication Highlights of the 2022 AAAS Meeting

Abstract

In keeping with its theme, “Empower with Evidence,” the 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, held online February 17–20, addressed topics in both science and its communication. Subjects of sessions on the latter ranged from peer review of journal submissions, to use of humor in popularizing science, to design of posters presenting research. The following are some highlights. A Fireside Chat with Alan Alda By Christina B Sumners In conjunction with the AAAS annual meeting, AAAS Section Y (General Interest in Science and Engineering) held a business meeting, at which newly elected AAAS fellows associated with the section were recognized. These fellows included actor Alan Alda. Alda, who is also a visiting professor at the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, answered questions in a “fireside chat” at the end of the business meeting. When asked how he became interested in science communication, Alda said he was always interested in science, even if he didn’t know it at the time. Not until his 20s, though, did he begin to read science avidly. Later, when he became host of the television show Scientific American Frontiers, he had the chance to speak to scientists one on one. “The scientists and I in each segment were having a genuine conversation,” he said. “They wouldn’t launch into lecture mode. … What I realized is that we were improvising together.” Alda would later use improvisation to formally train scientists to better communicate. When he began these training […]