Abstract
Ceccarelli, L. (2013). On the frontier of science: An American rhetoric of exploration and exploitation. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. 210 pp. ISBN 978-1-61186-100-6. $44.95. E-book version also available.
In this book Ceccarelli explores the “entailments” of the frontier metaphor so commonly used to describe scientific advancement. Yet this ubiquitous metaphor necessarily conjures up visions of competitive men conquering new territory no one else has claimed, meaning territory lying open for exploration and exploitation. Prominent modern use of this metaphor is traced to Vannevar Bush’s famous 1945 report on Science—The Endless Frontier, but Ceccarelli traces it further back as far as 1605 when Francis Bacon referred to scientific “pioneers,” at a time when the word “pioneer” had a military connotation. Subsequent chapters explore the metaphor’s appearances more recently in scientists’ speeches and in the work of especially prominent scientific figures such as Edward O. Wilson and Francis Collins, as well as its use by politicians ranging from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. Ceccarelli concludes by arguing that thoughtfully analyzing these rhetorical uses of the “frontier” metaphor might help reduce antagonism between the culture of science and the cultures to which the rest of us belong.
Greene, A. E. (2013). Writing science in plain English. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 124 pp. ISBN-13 978-0-226-02637-4. $13.00. E-book version also available.
A career in science is, in part, a career in writing. This slim, modestly priced volume should be of practical use for anyone who writes about science and struggles to do so better—or who teaches others who are similarly struggling. Better writing may not do a lot to resolve problems with science literacy, although this author argues that it will help. And it certainly cannot hurt. Clear and simple writing is something to be admired and enjoyed, and being able to produce it is undoubtedly a very useful skill for scientists to possess (just as it is for the rest of us). This book is chock full of concrete examples using scientific material that illustrate issues in identifying the right audience, level of formality (or “register”), and tone; telling a story and using active voice; word choice and the elimination of excess words; and organizing sentences, lists, paragraphs, and entire pieces effectively.
Montgomery, S. L. (2013). Does science need a global language: English and the future of research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 226 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-53503-6 (hardcover). $22.50. E-book version also available.
The need for scholars in many fields to publish in English, whatever their first language, is a nontrivial one. In this book, Montgomery, clearly fascinated with both language and science, visits the history, the costs, and the benefits of having a “lingua franca” for scientific discourse—which today, of course, is English rather than Latin or Arabic—or, say, Chinese. The global spread of English, rooted in colonialism, comes at some cost in terms of increasing the likelihood other languages may be lost, and its use for science arguably increases the challenges of becoming a successful scientist (to the extent this requires people to work and write in a language not originally their own). But Montgomery also argues that having a shared language for science, despite this making for an inequitable distribution of opportunity, is enormously advantageous. Perhaps his most interesting conclusion is that scientific English is emerging as a distinct form of the language, not tied exclusively to the English spoken in any one country.
Philo, G., & Happer, C. (2013). Communicating climate change and energy security: New methods in understanding audiences. New York, NY: Routledge. 172 pp. ISBN 978-0-83509-1 (hardback). $125.00. E-book version also available.
The authors begin by noting that climate change and what they call energy security have become decoupled as issues in popular debate. Following an extended review of the literature on related public opinion and how it is formed, including a chapter on media theory, the authors report results from their U.K. focus group study of opinion formation, involving exposure to news reports created by the research team and featuring these two issues. Their focus groups were unique in two respects: They lasted for nearly a full day, allowing extended discussion of both issues, and the researchers conducted follow-up interviews to check for change over time. Although many findings confirm what we already knew or suspected (e.g., many people are concerned but do not know what action to take, immediate economic concerns tend to take priority, and information and discussion may be more likely to confirm opinions than to change them), the authors argue for the position that the media have substantial influence even so.
Southwell, B. G. (2013). Social networks and popular understanding of science and health: Sharing disparities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press/RTI Press. 137 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-1324-2 (paper). $24.95. E-book version also available.
In setting out to explore the relationship between human social networks and how information on science and health is transmitted through society, Southwell traces a clear link between what social scientists have known for quite some time about our social nature, on the one hand, and the contemporary texture of social experience as new media technologies continue to proliferate, on the other. He relies here on foundational research on topics such as opinion leadership, knowledge gaps, and social network structures, as well as dozens of more recent studies. The approach is refreshing in a world in which new media are often thought of as radically transformative, somehow disconnected from anything we have studied and experienced before. This book, also written in a pleasantly readable and engaging style, describes how a range of factors, from individual to group and network characteristics, influence the diffusion of science and health knowledge through society, resulting in persistently unequal and inequitable access—something, Southwell concludes, that today’s social media revolution seems unlikely to overcome.