Popular science

Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience, rather than for other experts or students. Popular science differs from science journalism in that the latter generally focuses on recent scientific developments, while popular science is more broad-ranging and is often written by scientists rather than journalists. It is presented in many formats, including books, television documentaries, and magazine articles.

As a bridge between scientific literature (the professional medium of scientific research) and the realm of popular political and cultural discourse, popular science shares some of the purposes of both but is in many ways distinct from either. Popular science generally attempts to wield the authority of science, sometimes even on social and political issues, but scientific content—the facts and arguments of professional science—changes considerably in translation, with some aspects lost and others gained. For this reason, many science-related controversies play out in the public realm, where political, philosophical and ideological contexts can mix more freely with the formal elements of science—for example, the long-running debates over biological determinism and the biological (especially racial) components of intelligence, spurred by popular books such as The Mismeasure of Man and The Bell Curve.

One important difference between popular and professional science is in purpose. The purpose of scientific literature is to persuade other specialists of the validity of observations and conclusions and the efficacy of methods— in terms Aristotle's classification of rhetoric, it is forensic. Popular science attempts to convince scientific outsiders (including scientists in other fields) of the significance of data and conclusions and to celebrate the results, with their validity taken for granted—epideictic rhetoric. Statements in scientific literature are often qualified and tentative, emphasizing that new observations and results are consistent with and similar to established knowledge; other qualified scientists are assumed to recognize the relevance. By contrast, popular science emphasizes uniqueness and generality, taking a tone of factual authority absent from the scientific literature. Comparisons between original scientific reports and derivative science journalism and popular science typically reveals at least some level of distortion and oversimplification, often quite dramatic, even with politically neutral scientific topics.

Some common traits of popular science productions include:

• Foremost providing entertainment value or personal relevance to the audience
• Providing generalized, simplified science concepts
• Omitting qualifications, limitations, and uncertainty in scientific results
• Generally forgoing mathematical formulas or complicating details
• Emphasizing uniqueness and radicalness
• Bridging the is-ought gap
• Assuming the audience has no science background, therefore explaining concepts more thoroughly
• Exploring ideas that have been overlooked by specialists or that fall outside of established disciplines
• Synthesis of new ideas that cross multiple fields and offer novel implications for various academic specialisms

Some popular science can be very misleading. Some is produced by people with limited understanding of the subject they are interpreting. Some is produced by people who are extremely biased. Unfortunately, it can be hard for the non-expert to identify misleading popular science. In the case of medical research, results are often presented in the press without adequate context. Popular science may also blur the boundaries between formal science and pseudoscience.

Notable popularizers of science

• Isaac Asimov
• David Attenborough
• David Bellamy
• Bill Bryson
• Robert Bud
• Jack Cohen
• Paul Davies
• Richard Dawkins
• Jared Diamond
• Sir Arthur Eddington
• Peter Fairley
• Richard Feynman
• George Gamow
• Martin Gardner
• Stephen Jay Gould
• Brian Greene
• John Gribbin
• Mary Gribbin
• Heinz Haber
• Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard)
• Michio Kaku
• Stephen Hawking
• Douglas Hofstadter
• Karl Kruszelnicki, aka "Dr Karl"
• Robert Matthews
• Sir Patrick Moore
• Tor Nørretranders
• Bill Nye
• Steven Pinker
• Fred Pearce
• Magnus Pyke
• Matt Ridley
• Oliver Sacks
• Carl Sagan
• Simon Singh
• Ian Stewart
• Julius Sumner Miller
• David Suzuki
• Colin Tudge
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Robert Winston
• Kirsten Sanford
• Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman--the Mythbusters

Some sources of popular science

• BBC Horizon- TV series
• Cosmos Magazine - Australian magazine
• Diffusion Science Radio Show - Science Radio Program and Podcast
• Discover (magazine)
• Discovery Channel - TV network
• Explorations in Science (Michio Kaku radio program)
• Exploratorium - Museum
• Frontiers of Science - Comic Ctrip
• HowStuffWorks - website
• Mr Science Show - Radio show from China Radio International and Podcast
• New Scientist - Magazine
• Nova - Television Show
• Popular Science - Magazine
• Popular Science Historic Film Series - Film Shorts
• Reasoned Cognition - Web Comic
• Scientific American - Magazine
• Smithsonian - Museum and Magazine
• Talk of the Nation: Science Friday - US radio show
• This Week in Science - US Radio Show and Podcast

Notes and references

• McRae, Murdo William (editor). The Literature of Science: Perspectives on Popular Scientific Writing. The University of Georgia Press: Athens, 1993. ISBN 0-8203-1506-0