Science Images And Popular Images Of The Sciences

What is a popular image of science and where does it come from? Little is known about the formation of science images and their transformation into popular images of science. In this anthology, contributions from two areas of expertise: image theory and history and the sociology of the sciences, explore techniques of constructing science images and transforming them into highly ambivalent images that represent the sciences. The essays, most of them with illustrations, present evidence that popular images of the sciences are based upon abstract theories rather than facts, and, equally, images of scientists are stimulated by imagination rather than historical knowledge.

* What ideas about science do school students form as a result of their experiences in and out of school? * How might science teaching in schools develop a more scientifically-literate society? * How do school students understand disputes about scientific issues including those which have social significance, such as the irradiation of food? There have been calls in the UK and elsewhere for a greater public understanding of science underpinned by, amongst other things, school science education. However, the relationship between school science, scientific literacy and the public understanding of science remains controversial. In this book, the authors argue that an understanding of science goes beyond learning the facts, laws and theories of science and that it involves understanding the nature of scientific knowledge itself and the relationships between science and society. Results of a major study into the understanding of these issues by school students aged 9 to 16 are described. These results suggest that the success of the school science curriculum in promoting this kind of understanding is at best limited. The book concludes by discussing ways in which the school science curriculum could be adapted to better equip students as future citizens in our modern scientific and technological society. It will be particularly relevant to science teachers, advisers and inspectors, teacher educators and curriculum planners.

Nineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these scientists were the first to move beyond high-level philosophical speculations regarding the unseen. In Image and Reality, Alan Rocke focuses on the community of organic chemists in Germany to provide the basis for a fuller understanding of the nature of scientific creativity. Arguing that visual mental images regularly assisted many of these scientists in thinking through old problems and new possibilities, Rocke uses a variety of sources, including private correspondence, diagrams and illustrations, scientific papers, and public statements, to investigate their ability to not only imagine the invisibly tiny atoms and molecules upon which they operated daily, but to build detailed and empirically based pictures of how all of the atoms in complicated molecules were interconnected. These portrayals of “chemical structures,” both as mental images and as paper tools, gradually became an accepted part of science during these years and are now regarded as one of the central defining features of chemistry. In telling this fascinating story in a manner accessible to the lay reader, Rocke also suggests that imagistic thinking is often at the heart of creative thinking in all fields. Image and Reality is the first book in the Synthesis series, a series in the history of chemistry, broadly construed, edited by Angela N. H. Creager, John E. Lesch, Stuart W. Leslie, Lawrence M. Principe, Alan Rocke, E.C. Spary, and Audra J. Wolfe, in partnership with the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

The catalog of a photography exhibition held at Rochester Institute of Technology in the fall of 2002, featuring photographs and explanatory captions from photographers in all scientific disciplines.

Scientists deserve public recognition. The ways that they are depicted, however, are severely limited in physical and personal traits, helping to establish and enhance stereotypes under the general title of ‘scientist’. These stereotypes range from the arrogant researcher who wants to rule the world, to the lab coat wearing ‘nerdy’ genius, but all generally fall to an extreme view of an existing perception of what a scientist should look and be like. For example, the popular image of ‘a scientist’ overlooks the presence of women almost entirely unless attributed to specific subjects and/or with narrow character depictions. The implications can be far-reaching. Young people, being heavily swayed by what they see and hear in the media, may avoid scientific careers because of these limited or unflattering portrayals of the scientific community, regardless of whether they reflect real life. Based on findings from the Light’13 project, this book examines such stereotypes and questions whether it is possible to adjust people’s perception of scientists and to increase interest in science and scientific careers through a series of specific actions and events.

Engages with the impact of modern technology on experimental physicists. This study reveals how the increasing scale and complexity of apparatus has distanced physicists from the very science which drew them into experimenting, and has fragmented microphysics into different technical traditions.

Description based on content as of March 15, 2006.