Scientists shine at explaining their research to each other. But can they describe it to their moms? Or to the folks next door? Or to public-policy makers? Or to Americans at large, who need to understand how science – in the form of genetically altered crops and the Human Genome Project, for example – affects them?

Too often the answer is no, concluded Carol Bender and Jacqueline Sharkey during the summer of 2000, when they successfully applied for RAIRE funding to help bridge the “communication chasm” between scientists and the general public. The grant funds paid for two professionals-in-residence; science writers who could teach researchers how to speak plainly to lay people and could teach journalists how to communicate with people in the scientific community.

Students had already endorsed the idea. When Sharkey – a journalism professor and head of the department – convened a seminar for student researchers on getting their message across to the press, about 40 participants packed the small classroom.

The public must understand not only what research is about but also how it fits into the university’s mission, says Bender, director of the UA’s Undergraduate Biology Research Program. Many see teaching and research as distinct, but they are “inexorably linked,” she affirms.

'Double identity'
In the RAIRE application, Bender and Sharkey proposed that journalists be “trained to cover science issues” and “scientists... [learn to] make themselves understood by nonscientists.” Accordingly, each professional-in-residence taught science-writing courses to journalism and science students, who were required to prepare news releases and stories. Many of the stories have been distributed through the journalism department’s Community News Service.

To draw top science writers, Bender and Sharkey advertised the professional-in-residence position nationally, drawing “a huge response,” says Bender. Selected for the spring 2001 semester was John Travis, a Washington, D.C., writer for Science News. Freelance science writer Stephen Hart was the fall 2001 professional-in-residence.

Their responsibilities went far beyond teaching. Travis, for example, gave an overview of professional science writing at the UA 2001 Biology Career Day in March. He and four of his students had traveled to San Francisco the previous month for the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting – “the World Series of scientific conferences,” according to Susan Burke, a physics graduate student who attended under a “double identity” as a scientist and science writer. Burke was an American Physical Society Media Fellow this past summer, producing reports for the National Public Radio affiliate in Columbus, Ohio.

Hart and several of his students went to Tempe for the Nov. 4-8 New Horizons in Science conference, organized by the Council for the Advancement of Science “to introduce science writers to hot, emerging scientific research that will soon draw much media attention,” explains Kara Nyberg, a doctoral student in molecular and cellular biology, writing in the February 2002 UBRP newsletter, the Gazette.

Both Hart and Travis brought guest speakers to the classroom and led out-of-class writing projects. Hart created a Web page with a wealth of resources and suggestions, including “what to do after taking this course.”

In 12 years as a freelancer, Hart has published more than 160 articles on topics including biology, medicine, earth science, technology and astronomy. Travis also has written about many scientific disciplines, though he specializes in biology. He has been with Science News since 1995.