We've all sat in a talk, or been listening to an interview on the radio
and thought, I know this person is speaking my language,
but I have no clue what on earth they're on about.
They may as well be speaking Dothracki.
It happens a lot, when people talk about business.
I mean, hands up if you know what negative feedback loops or multi-faceted metrics or visioneering is.
And it also happens when people talk about their favourite hobbies,
from collecting netting or super subs in football, to slipping in a Game Of Thrones reference.
A subject where you'll often get these switch-off moments happening is of course, Science.
And it's not just the specific words that are used, it can also be the way an idea is explained, or not.
This video is part of a YouTube course on how to talk about science with non-experts.
It's got a leaning towards practicing scientists, but should also be helpful
for anyone interested in doing science communication.
We've already covered how to capture your audiences attention
and we're gonna get into how to deliver that successfully on stage and screen.
But before that, we need to look at the words you use to tell your story.
I've got eight tips to share with you on this, starting with a couple of reality checks.
*If you think it's easy to explain, you're not explaining it well enough*
Just like it's taken you years of learning and experience to understand your science,
it takes a lot of learning and experience to craft and deliver, really effective science communication.
What feels obvious to you, maybe as clear as mud to people outside your world.
This is known as 'the curse of knowledge'.
It's very hard to remember what it feels like to be someone
who doesn't understand something, that you now understand.
*Try to explain everything, and you explain nothing*
If you know a heck of a lot more, about your science than your audience,
how do you choose how deep to dive into it?
The key is to be realistic and focused.
Realistic about the fact that you cant turn a non-specialist into an expert,
in the short time that you're with them, for a workshop or a video or a podcast appearance.
And focussed on the handful of core ideas you want to talk about.
The fewer, the better.
Don't just regurgitate everything you know.
No one likes to be chundered on, regardless of what's landing on them.
*Start from where your audience are*
When constructing a building, no matter how many times you do it,
no matter what structure you're going to build,
you always have to start with a solid foundation.
It's the same with constructing an understandable idea in someone's mind.
The challenge comes from the fact that, different audience members
are at different stages of foundation building.
Some will already have a solid base.
They've got knowledge, an understanding of the basic concepts.
Others haven't.
They may have placed a couple of footings, they've heard a term or a fact or two about the topic.
But they definitely haven't poured in the concrete to sure them up.
The key is to identify the common ground across all your audience.
What is the furthest they've all got into the construction?
Oh and even if you have a group of fellow scientists in front of you,
don't assume they're all at a similar level in your subject as you.
A professor of molecular biology, may not have touched astronomy or geology, since GCSE science.
So they'll need to start from there.
One way of doing that, is to briefly re-cap the ideas that everyone needs as a starting point,
with a 'you probably that'.
That can flatter your audience, it can reassure them, and help them bring to mind,
things that they may have half forgotten.
*Before you build, plan*
With a common foundation identified, it's almost time to start construction.
But, first, you need to put some hard work into planning how your going to build your science story.
When erecting a skyscraper, you cant go swinging big panels of glass around,
until you've got the outer shell to place them into,
and you cant build the shell and concrete walls, until you've got a solid frame.
But to build that, you first need to have put in the vertical support beams, then the horizontal steel girders.
Similarly, when building your science story, they'll be an assembly order which is neat and efficient.
Your job, is to find it.
For example, if your science story concerns the latest research being done at high altitude,
on how different people deal with low levels of oxygen.
you have to work out what understanding you need in place before you introduce the next idea.
The best way to do that, is to deconstruct your science, so you can build it back up layer by layer.
This, is one construction plan you could make.
To help you draw up yours, I recommend going and bagging your free course resource for this video.
Oh and some of these steps could be taken in a different order,
so you need to decide which sequence you think, works best for the particular story you're telling.
*Taking it apart isn't dumbing it down*
A quicker side.
Scientists are often concerned about having to dumb down their research,
when speaking to the general public.
A popular criticism is that they, or the people telling their story,
oversimplify the complexity to the point of inaccuracy.
Now, of course I don't think you should ever say anything incorrect,
but I don't consider this process of deconstructing the complexity, dumbing down,
I consider it translating.
Stripping it back to a place of common ground,
before building it back up again in an understandable language.
You need to explain your science at a level that's appropriate and engaging for your audience.
Dumbing down is what happens when people make a complete mess of doing that.
Oh and If you build up the explanation carefully,
you can absolutely end up somewhere way beyond, where the audience or you, thought you could get to.
*Jargon is not a credibility meter*
As well as deconstructing ideas before you build them carefully back up,
you also need to consider deconstructing the words you use to do so.
Specialist words, that not everyone knows or understands, are jargon.
And dropping the likes of phylogenetics or hypoxia, doesn't impress your audience.
They don't respect you more for using them.
In fact, if not handled carefully, they'll respect you less and switch off.
One option is to never use the jargon.
Find a way of translating it and only ever use that.
To always say a lack of oxygen, rather than hypoxia.
It's a good option, in some cases, but if one of your aims is to introduce the audience to new terms,
this won't achieve that.
You could use it and define it, every time, but that could get repetitive.
You could translate it only the first time you use it, but then whenever you say it again,
your essentially testing that your audience has remembered what it means.
It's up to you to decide where you are on this spectrum, and that will come down to your aims.
Personally, if it's a term I'd like to introduce, I'll define it the first time and repeat the translation every few uses.
No matter what you decide, one thing is for sure, beware of sounding like a scientific text book,
that's been fed through a blender.
*Beware false friends*
If I talk about a model, what do you think of?
Someone in an advert?
Or someone posing for a selfie on Instagram?
Or a wooden recreation of a car or plane?
Or a mouse, a model organism used for study?
What about heavy metal?
Depending on who you're talking with, their mental image may be more 'Motorhead' than 'Mercury',
more 'Def Leopard' than dense lead.
These are examples of a specific type of jargon called 'false friends'.
Words that can mean something very different to your audience, than to you.
You want to make sure your audience are gonna make the same mental images as you,
so have a think through your science story, and jot down any false friends you want to be sure to avoid.
There's also a power in being colloquial.
Saying the proteins and such like, can be more grounding and build your relationship with the audience,
better than the proteins and other molecules in the cell.
*Paint pictures with your words*
Talking about how stars are born.
Don't just explain atoms, pressure and the fusion of the nuclei,
describe how their energy source will outshine and outlive entire planets and civilisations.
Talking about the number of stars in the observable universe,
compare it to the number of grains of sand on our entire planet.
Creative language and comparators build powerful visuals, but the cherry on the explanatory cake,
is an analogy.
More than a metaphor, which just compares an aspect, an element of an idea with something,
analogies are almost a rational argument, that imply much deeper connections.
A classic example, is Einstein's description of space time, as a tightly pulled rubber sheet.
Put a heavy object in the centre to represent the star, and it warps space time.
Introduce a marble, a planet, and it follows a curved path, an orbit around that gravity well.
And, you can also extend the analogy, play with it, make ripples, gravitational waves.
The key, is to choose a good analogy that your audience will know and can picture clearly.
The risk, is that if your analogy isn't strong enough, they might extend it and draw incorrect conclusions.
Or, that they take a good analogy too literally, like picturing atomic structure as a mini solar system.
Audiences can get stuck on that and never let go.
Have a go coming up with and testing your own analogies.
They take work, but they can really raise your engagement game.
I want to wrap up this video by saying, as with everything in life, be humble.
Never expect a single explanation or piece of science communication,
to change the entrenched mental models in someone else's head.
That will likely take multiple explanations and forms of evidence.
Saying that though, the feeling when you see the penny drop,
when someone understands something they didn't before,
that makes the effort to craft a great explanation, totally worth it.
And there was so so much I wanted to say in this video,
but this course is an introduction to science communication, so just those eight top tips.
I'm planning to make more courses in the future though, so make sure you hit subscribe to hear about those.
And let me know in the comments below, if you've got any suggestions
for things you'd like me to explore further.
If you've been working your way through the course in order, then congratulations.
You have just completed the content development stage.
Now you're ready to deliver it.
The final set of videos, look at how you can talk about your science on stage and screen.
Feel free to jump to whichever you're most interested in, and I'll see you there.