Living without a mobile phone is unthinkable. Science and technology of communication have phenomenally developed and transformed our daily lives. Paradoxically, communication of science and technology has not proportionately developed or transformed our daily lives….
Science and society are abominably out of joint. A brave new communication revolution within knowledge revolution is indispensable. The future of society and the society of the future we are aspiring to create will be critically dependent on the present inspired generation of science communicators. Scientific discoveries, inventions, innovations and information explosion have made science communication a critical variable of knowledge economy.
Science communication is the fine art and practice of informing, informating, educating and raising awareness of science and technology related topics among all its stakeholders. 52 years ago when I was serving as the country head of science and technology communication at the Indian pavilion at Expo-70 Osaka, Japan, I had interacted with my Japanese counterparts who used an expression Johoko Shakai. My translator friend, Keiko Tashiro, introduced me to with the less familiar word informate which carried meaning and significance contextually. A lovely semantic vector dear to scicomers!
Science is a too serious a matter and science communication is more grave a matter to be left to scientists or even failed scientists. Innovation and technology originating from science are the sinews of societal strength. The harm that scientists do by communicating and not communicating can be disastrous. India has three robustly drafted policies on Science, Science and Technology and Science, Technology and Innovation. Of course the country also has the overarching paradigm of scientific temper built into the very fabric of its constitution. That is the Scientific India.
Two models, at once historical and historic, spring to my mind. The Russell Model. Sir Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a distinguished mathematician-philosopher-pacifist, who also won the 1957 UNESCO-Kalinga award for science communication. His conceptual clarity of complex phenomena and his charming linguistic mastery make him a peerless scicomer model. His classic description that science enables us to know and do things is scicomer’s master class room delight.
The second one is the MP model. This was designed, developed, demonstrated and deployed by Dr. M.P. Parameswaran. He is an electric engineer of the first batch of AEET Training School who later did his doctoral work in Russia. He was fascinated by the sputnik spirit and the massive science popularization efforts in Russian language. He promised his Russian peers that he would nucleate science communication endeavors in regional languages Marathi and Malayalam.
With the slogan ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’ he got one hundred scientists and engineers who speak Malayalam and alphabetized scicom language and transmitted it to the home state. Today, with the slogan Science for Social Revolution, a massive People’s Science Movement is a historical reality in Kerala with 62,000 science activists including 25,000 women. Across the globe, waves of scicom renaissance are visible.
With a view to augmenting a multiplier strategy for rapid expansion, NCSC is holding hands with institutions of higher learning, back to colleges tactically operationalizing scicom as subspecialty of mass and Media communication. Of course we have many a kilometer to go….
–Dr.A.P.Jayaraman
Nuclear Scientist
Principal Scientific Advisor, HSNC University
Chairperson, NCSC
President, STEAM Academy
