Alan Alda and the popularization of science

"How to woo an audience, with help from Alan Alda"

In late October, 30 scientists spent two days in a communication workshop, learning that successful communication is both simpler and riskier than they realized.

by

Lori Ann White

November 1st, 2012

Symmetry

About 30 scientists from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University threw caution—and, sometimes, their dignity—to the wind last week during a two-day science communication workshop sponsored by the Kavli Foundation. The workshop, conducted by faculty of the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, sought to provide better communication skills to scientists, who can then use their new skills to convey the essence of their research to lay audiences. Award-winning actor and writer and long-time science advocate Alan Alda gave the workshop's keynote address.

During the hands-on portion of the workshop, participants stepped out of their comfort zones, practicing interviewing skills and delivering their messages to different types of audiences—messages they also practiced distilling to the most relatable, most understandable essence.

But, as the old saying goes, you can't find the derivatives of covariant tensors before you learn to handle vector fields. Before anyone, scientist or not, has a hope of getting an idea across, the lines of communication with the audience must be open, and making that connection requires effort.

Which explains why these 30 researchers at all different stages in their careers gathered in conference rooms and introduced themselves with funny gestures, played the mirror-mirror game made infamous by mimes, and tossed imaginary balls of energy to each other. "TeV or GeV?" quipped one of the participants.

The instructor, Valerie Lantz-Gefroh, laughed at the joke along with the rest, after a bit of explanation from the scientists in the room. Then she gently corrected them. The balls floated on the energy of affection, wobbled with misunderstanding, drilled forward in anger, she said. They represented human energies used to forge human connections.

The workshop's focus on human connections addresses a concern laid out by Alda during his keynote address to the group. A founding member of the Center for Communicating Science's advisory board, Alda said he fears the United States is on a perpetual blind date with science, with all the awkwardness, misunderstandings and occasional outright distaste that implies. And since science is the metaphorical suitor on the doorstep, roses and wine bottle in hand, the scientists trying to explain their research have the onus placed on them to make that good first impression and, if that doesn't work, to keep trying.

But the Center and Alda are there to help. Alda's own passion for science—and scientists—is evident. He hosted the PBS show "Scientific American Frontiers" for more than a decade, and often participates in the workshops. "When I work with them in a workshop like this I see so much exuberance," he said. "It's a lovely thing to see."

Alda himself might have pursued a scientific career, except, as he explained, "I came of age in the time of the Two Cultures," referring to British scientist and writer C.P. Snow's influential essay positing a gulf between the two intellectual cultures of the humanities and the sciences. "I knew I wanted to be an actor and a writer, so I thought science was closed to me." A case of bad communication in a poorly taught trigonometry class sealed the deal.

But though his joy in scientific discovery might be vicarious, it remains profound. "They start with the tiniest bit of data," he said, speaking in this case of cosmologists and astrophysicists in the group, "and because they're rigorous and exacting and logical they can discover some of the most fundamental properties of the universe. It's breathtaking."

Alda himself is an example of the blind date blossoming into a deep love affair. Sounds like the perfect qualification for matchmaker.

As part of the workshop, Alda also gave a public lecture, "Helping the public get beyond a blind date with science." Watch Alda's talk, presented by the Center for Communicating Science with underwriting by the Kavli Foundation, below.

Alan Alda: Helping the Public Get Beyond a Blind Date with Science

SLAC vs government intentions

The question is WHY. Why is the U.S. Department of Energy fussing over this?

"Stanford physics lab embroiled in naming spat"

by

David Perlman

July 28th, 2008

San Francisco Chronicle

Stanford's famed high-energy physics laboratory is in a tussle with the U.S. Department of Energy over naming rights to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, better known as SLAC.

The Energy Department, which pays SLAC's annual $300 million bill, wants to rename the lab to reflect changes in the direction of research since the facility opened 46 years ago.

On top of that, Energy Department officials have filed an application to trademark whatever new name the lab is finally given so no one else can use it.

University officials oppose any copyright plan with the Stanford name in it, and many SLAC scientists oppose any name change at all. Protest petitions at the lab have been circulating for weeks.

One eminent physicist, who asked to remain anonymous because he didn't want his name entangled in a political brouhaha, called the renaming issue "bizarre, petty and even stupid."

Stanford officials who insist the government can't copyright the venerable university's name have countered with an offer that would give federal officials a royalty-free "perpetual" license to use the Stanford and SLAC names.

"SLAC's record is pretty distinguished, and with the university's offer of a license to use the Stanford name, what more do they need?" said Burton Richter, SLAC's former director and one of the Nobelists who won his prize there. "I'm really bewildered."

Devon Streit, associate director of the Energy Department's science office, said SLAC is a national laboratory and the federal agency has renamed many of its 16 other national labs to reflect their new research directions. It also has trademarked their names to protect them from commercial exploitation, and the same will be true of any new name that's chosen for SLAC, Streit said.

A new name for SLAC, she said, should reflect the new missions and research efforts that scientists there are now undertaking.

Over the past five decades, the atom-smashing work of SLAC's 2-mile-long linear accelerator has revealed countless secrets of the subnuclear particles that make up all matter, and three Nobel prizes have gone to scientists working there. Particle physics has long been SLAC's prime focus.

Now the lab has at least two new major research missions, including a focus on photon science that deals with the fundamental particles of light, and particle astrophysics that explores the riddles of everything from supernovas and black holes to the origin of the universe.

"We're unbelievably excited about these new missions for the lab," Streit said.

For photon science, SLAC engineers and scientists are building a huge new device called the Linac Coherent Light Source, a free-electron laser to produce hard X-rays - 10 billion times brighter than any X-ray beam on Earth. The laser will probe the arrangement of atoms in materials of all kinds, including the atomic properties of living molecules.

"That machine will be really cool," Streit said.

SLAC's director, Persis Drell, is on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment, but a university spokesman said Drell has accepted that the laboratory's name will be changed and has asked SLAC staff members to propose new ones. A short list of suggested names will be forwarded to Stanford President John L. Hennessy, but Energy Department officials will have the final say. No deadline has been set.

Opponents believe any name change will hurt the lab's ability to draw scientific talent.

"The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is manifestly identified with Stanford University, and this connection is critical for recruiting the best scientists and engineers," said Martin Breidenbach, a particle physicist at SLAC and a Stanford professor. "Changing the name will weaken that link."

Drell agrees, according to the Stanford News Service. "SLAC has a long, illustrious history and the name evokes that history," Drell is quoted as saying.

Construction of the linear accelerator on the Stanford campus began in 1962, and when it was finished under the leadership of the now-deceased Wolfgang K.H. Panofsky, it was hailed not only as a feat of engineering and science, but also because it was completed on time and below its budget of $114 million - something no big scientific machine of the time had ever equaled.

Side note in response to first comment.

Persis S. Drell

Persis S. Drell is Professor and Director at SLAC. She received her B.A. in mathematics and physics from Wellesley College in 1977. She received her Ph.D. in atomic physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983. She then switched to high-energy experimental physics and worked as a postdoctoral scientist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She joined the faculty of the Physics Department at Cornell University in 1988. In 2000, she became head of the Cornell high-energy group; in 2001, she was named deputy director of Cornell’s Laboratory of Nuclear Studies. In 2002, Dr. Drell accepted a position as Professor and Director of Research at SLAC. Her current research activities are in particle astrophysics. She has recently been working with the GLAST project as Deputy Project Manager.

Dr. Drell has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and she is a fellow of the American Physical Society.