3M conducted a study that found infographics are over 60,000 times faster than text. There's overwhelming evidence that they are extremely effective at catching people's attention, and that sticking ability isn't going away.  Let me dive into the biological reason behind this. Our eyes are neurally networked to take in to take in a visual scene in under 1 second while it takes 250 seconds to recognize, then assign meaning to symbols (think of each word in a sentence as a symbol).

I named a few, but the simple fact is that ur brain craves infographics because we suffer from information overload: the average attention span has dropped to 8 seconds since 1980. People only read 28% of what they see.  However, 80% of people are more willing to read an infographic--and they learn and retain information 32% better. Rather than spew statistics, I'll save you time and let you read in our infographic below,

First, let me lay some cold, hard facts:

- More scientists apply every year to grants.

- Grant funding is declining

- More PhDs graduate ever year

- More postdocs don't get tenure every year (6% in Europe)

Then, let me ask a question:

It's become quite clear that writing papers and getting grants won't cut it anymore.  Many tenure-track professors, especially in more basic (rather than applied) science areas, argue that layperson outreach and science communication are superfluous extensions of "cold, hard science" (see Reddit thread). To such skeptics, let me point out a correlation, and to that, attach a hypothesis:

Here's the cycle of science: Policymakers create grants for science -> Scientists conduct and publish research using grants -> This research molds public opinion on science -> Public opinion influences policy makers. This explains why climate change researchers recently saw a cut in their funding, with low layperson education on climate change. Many scientists have realized this: the burst in scientist's using social media and academic networks to build a personal, scientific brand is a testament to this.