Science and media disconnect? Maybe not, says a new study  An
interesting report has wafted my way on the topic of science and
interacting with the general public, although the report was
actually more about scientists talking to journalists who then
write stuff that the general public read.  It was contradicting
a widely held view that scientists are loathe to speak to “the
public”, either directly or via the medium of journalism and it
has resurrected some thoughts of mine about the issue.  To a
degree we are moving increasingly into a world dominated by
specialists, and the old order of the gentleman scientist is
passing away as topics become so incredibly arcane that it takes
the specialist to firstly understand what is already known, then
to be able to expand on that. Which I feel is a bit of a shame,
as the old generalists were often able to leap between different
fields and hence bring wider insights into science. Obviously,
that is offset by the huge leaps forward made in the past 50
years by the spec