Why is science communication important?
Normality as we think of it is not real!
Normal life, normal ways of thinking are based on assumptions.
Take a look deeper into the physical universe and the normal illusion dissolves. Detail inside detail inside detail – zoom in and solids become tangled networks of molecules, molecules become arrays of atoms, atoms turn into vast tracts of vibrating spinning space punctuated by tiny specks of dense nuclei. Zoom in further and the nuclei themselves turn into space and energy. All semblance of normality has gone. Where are we? Right here! We could be inside any of the objects around us – the desk, the computer keys, the walls, the trees…
What are we made of? Energy? Particles? Potential?
Not what we thought anyway.
See this seamless image of reality we see around us – in the bus, in advertisements, on the news, fashion, shops, landscapes, walls, computers….
Science digs into it. It makes the strange unseen worlds, patterns, energy and structures visible.
I think we forget how bizarre it all is – how precarious, subtle, moving, balanced, uncertain. We exist in and through this uncertain, pulsing vibrating landscape. But we forget it. We get tricked into an illusion of normality.
Science Communication is about bringing this to people’s attention – about breaking through the comfort and boredom of certainty and normality – A scientist explorer comes back from a strange new land and we don’t listen because they speak a different language – jargon – we recognize some of the words but the meaning isn’t there.
Science Communication is travelling to the frontiers of science and communicating just how bizarre it all is – it’s about making those connections.
BUT! The whole purpose is to crack through the blank expression – to create little explosions that destroy normality.
That’s the purpose.
And to encourage exploration.
Shatter assumptions. Don’t bother building new structures – more beautiful broken. More open. We have more fun. We meet more. Break through the blank, the seamless image of the world – and we can step out and meet each other.
No real conflict. Only small views and blank expressions.