It was interesting the read the four articles from Science magazine. Although, written by different authors, their messages are aligned – they all talk about importance of how science is communicated to the masses. It is not surprising that it is an important topic for scientists – there are so many urgent issues in our society that need scientific solution; however, since scientific research requires funding, it is very important to have public support for one or another scientific endeavor at a time when funding is cut in so many other important areas all across our country. It was interesting to read that low travel budgets (must be a result of a desire to spend the majority of given funds on the research itself) are a factor scientists need to account for when they plan conferences to discuss results of their research. Another reason communication about the scientific research to the public is very important is the growing abundance of information sources – the Internet is huge, how can scientists make sure that the population is reading information from the trusted sources and how can they make those sources trusted and understandable for a wide public. Scientific communication needs to adapt to a new technological age.

Any communication consists of three components: the idea the initiator of the communication is communicating, the way he or she communicates it and the way the intended recipient of the communication perceives it. Since the scientists are interested in the public’s proper perception of their research, it is obvious that the ways their ideas are communicated are crucial to the public’s perception. It was not surprising to read that political and religious beliefs of individuals have direct effect on the way they perceive communication about scientific research, especially in such highly contended areas like stem cell research or cloning. I was amused to read that sociological sciences help with their research to scientists in other fields to determine how to shape communication about their research. It is great that these sciences are now developing fast, so scientists in other areas can rely on vast pool of useful information in the area of scientific communication, leading to improvement of scientific communication in the near future.