Comments on: Why to talk to the media: Turtle edition

By: Ethan White

Ethan White — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:34:26 +0000

Thanks Christine. I see it’s already taken care of and it’s a nice addition to the blog.

By: Christine Buckley

Christine Buckley — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:55:45 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion, Ethan. I’ll look into getting RSS feeds for individual posts or for the whole blog…

By: Ethan White

Ethan White — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:42:10 +0000

To the moderators – It might help facilitate this kind of dialogue if you could make RSS feeds for the comments on individual posts available. I just happened to stop back today and see Fred’s comment, but that isn’t something I’d normally get around to doing. Having even whole blog comment RSS feeds would be a real step forward in encouraging conversation.

By: Ethan White

Ethan White — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:36:10 +0000

@Fred – It’s good to see this blog actually generating some discussion. Thanks for responding.

I don’t disagree with you that it is possible for talented folks to wear a variety of hats successfully and to in fact have this breadth result in positive feedbacks amongst the various activities. But I think we can agree that there are limits. Time is a zero-sum game and as a result at some point dedicating time and effort to one enterprise must take away from one’s ability to put energy into another. Where those sacrifices are made will vary from person to person. Some will spend less time with their graduate students, others less time with their families.

I’ll also concede to the “loaded” accusation because I think that all of this discussion at the moment is loaded. The question is almost always phrased (as it is in the original post) so as to imply (intentionally or not) that scientists are some how lazy or self-centered if they don’t want to dedicate time to activities such as these (e.g., “or is it a bother that takes time away from the important things, like research?”). That’s certainly a legitimate opinion, just not one I happen to agree with.

By: Fred Powledge

Fred Powledge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:52:09 +0000

Ethan White wrote: “Would it be worth the cost if in order to engage in this more broadly as a group we allowed the quality of classroom education to decline, the rate of scientific progress to slow and the thoroughness of peer review to lapse? That seems like a much more complicated question.” That also sounds like what a good reporter would call a “loaded question.” Good scientists seem able to do all that they do, deal with queries (both learned and inane) from the press, and still make valuable contributions to the advancement of the human species, even to speed “the rate of scientific progress.”

By: Ethan White

Ethan White — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:33:44 +0000

I think that this is really a question of trade-offs rather than of whether or not this is a “worthwhile endeavor” or a “bother”. Scientists are already engaged in a large number of activities. Those of us employed as faculty are teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, advising our own graduate students as well as those in other labs, training and mentoring postdocs, writing grant proposals, serving on committees, reading the literature, conducting peer review for journals and granting agencies, and conducting research. I think that recommendations such as this one always need to be considered from the point of view that in order to be better at talking to the media we are going to have to take time away from something else. Is it a laudable goal? Yes. Would it be valuable if some researchers chose to invest more time in this area? Yes. Would it be worth the cost if in order to engage in this more broadly as a group we allowed the quality of classroom education to decline, the rate of scientific progress to slow and the thoroughness of peer review to lapse? That seems like a much more complicated question.