Matteo Cantiello edited There_is_a_growing_tendency__.tex  almost 9 years ago

Commit id: 9856e6462a190068e9d37ae39acea83921e252b4

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%There is a growing tendency for the media and the political class to misunderstand and in some case even manipulate results and views of the scientific community.  In the 21st century the number of scientists is rapidly increasing and science and society are becoming more and more intertwined. Also, science is becoming growing  more technical and complex, as we’re gazing we gaze  further and further while standing on the shoulders of many generations of giants. The public has often a hard time understanding research and its relevance to society. One of the reasons for this is that scientists do not spend enough time communicating their findings outside their own scientific community. Obviously there are some exceptions, but \textbf{the rule is that scientists write content for scientists}.   Academia is often perceived as an ivory tower, and when new findings are shared with the outside world world,  this is not done by scientists, but by the media or even the political class. The problem is that these external agents do not have the necessary background to digest and properly communicate this knowledge with the rest of society. They often misunderstand, over-hype and in some case even distort the results and views of the scientific community. It's ironic and somewhat frightening that the discoveries and recommendations for which society invest substantial money and human capital are not directly disseminated by the people who really understand them. At the same time transparency and reproducibility are at stake in the increasingly complex world of research, which is still using old-fashioned tools. tools when packaging and sharing content.  This is not only a big problem for research itself, but can give science a bad name in front of the public opinion, which increasingly does not understand and trust the work of scientists. Science remains behind a jargon-wall and a pay-wall, To the average tax-payer science is usually unreachable,  with most recently published papers unaccessible to behind a pay-wall and  the average tax-payer. majority of research virtually inscrutable.  In this scenario it is hard for the public to access and capture the relevance of scientists' work. I strongly believe that a society that do does  not trust his scientists is set for a dangerous course. To improve the situation 21st century scientists need to:  \begin{enumerate}