"scientists often do a simply terrible job of explaining and pitching their work and its excitement to the lay public"

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/06/scientific-illiteracy-disinterest-our-problem-as-scientists.html

Public Disinterest: Our Problem as Scientists

Posted by Tom Hartsfield at Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:00:00

"In a thought-provoking piece published in Wired last week, writer and physicist Michael Brooks discusses public disinterest in science from the angle of mistrust of scientists.

"We are not consciously aware of it, but we have a deeply-rooted suspicion of scientists. They are not like us. They are not fun, they are not well turned-out human beings, and if pushed, we will admit we think they are dangerous."

He argues that scientists need to directly work with the general public, and children in particular, to overcome this image problem.

I agree with Brooks. As he points out, we often discourage outsiders by being withdrawn and dismissive. His argument, though, only nibbles at the edge of a bigger problem: scientists often do a simply terrible job of explaining and pitching their work and its excitement to the lay public. For every fiery Neil deGrasse Tyson there is a professor who waves laser pointers at Power Point slides or sneers at the inability of the public to grasp his work instead of trying harder to explain."