Is anyone listening?

Emerging industries such as the life sciences, animal health, agricultural biotechnology and environmental products offer both a potential for economic growth and improvements in quality of life, crop and stock yield, the environment, and industrial productivity. The growth and success of these industries depends on a combination of good science and good business. Biotechnology, for instance, is one emerging industry that has promised much, yet the delivery still seems to be some way off. Diffi culties convincing well-informed investors of the virtues of biotechnology may be indicative of a wider communication failure. Despite numerous initiatives to popularize and sell science, it seems the attitudes and understanding of society towards science and scientists and the importance scientists place on communicating with society remains depressingly low. One-way late-stage communication models have proven ineffective and have only further alienated the very audiences they meant to attract. Solving these problems requires the involvement of both the scientifi c community and wider society, where appropriate information is presented in a non-guarded and accessible language, and is received by open and willing ears, setting the scene for interactive, educated debates that can progress rather than hinder the science. This paper explores the various science – society interactions and identifi es a need for early-stage two-way communication models. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2007) 13, 86 – 98. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jcb.3050043

[1]  O. Sorenson,et al.  Science as a Map in Technological Search , 2000 .

[2]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Salient Value Similarity, Social Trust, and Risk/Benefit Perception , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[3]  R. Robins.  Overburdening risk: Policy frameworks and the public uptake of gene technology , 2001 .

[4]  Christopher K. Hsee,et al.  Risk as Feelings , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[5]  Michael Siegrist,et al.  A Causal Model Explaining the Perception and Acceptance of Gene Technology1 , 1999 .

[6]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Lend me your wallets: the effect of charismatic leadership on external support for an organization , 2004 .

[7]  Friedhelm Neidhardt,et al.  The public as a communication system , 1993 .

[8]  B. Looy,et al.  Combining entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia: towards a compounded and reciprocal Matthew-effect? , 2004 .

[9]  John Ziman,et al.  Public Understanding of Science , 1991 .

[10]  M. Siegrist.  The Influence of Trust and Perceptions of Risks and Benefits on the Acceptance of Gene Technology , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[11]  J. Gregory.  Understanding ‘science and the public’ , 2003 .

[12]  A. Endres,et al.  Regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms in the European Union , 2000 .

[13]  B. Wynne.  Knowledges in Context , 1991 .

[14]  Susanna Hornig Priest,et al.  The “Trust Gap” Hypothesis: Predicting Support for Biotechnology Across National Cultures as a Function of Trust in Actors , 2003, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[15]  B. Checkoway.  Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University , 2001 .

[16]  J. Corbett,et al.  Testing Public (Un)Certainty of Science , 2004 .

[17]  Svein Kyvik,et al.  Popular Science Publishing and Contributions to Public Discourse among University Faculty , 2005 .

[18]  Nora J. Bird,et al.  The Flow of Scientific Knowledge from Lab to the Lay Public , 2004 .

[19]  Steven Miller,et al.  Public understanding of science at the crossroads , 2001 .

[20]  N. Allum,et al.  Science in Society: Re-Evaluating the Deficit Model of Public Attitudes , 2004 .

[21]  A. Verkman.  Drug discovery in academia. , 2004, American journal of physiology. Cell physiology.

[22]  Felice Frankel,et al.  The power of the 'pretty picture' , 2004, Nature materials.

[23]  Bruce V. Lewenstein,et al.  Public Attitudes toward Emerging Technologies , 2005 .

[24]  J. Durant,et al.  The public understanding of science , 1989, Nature.

[25]  Damian Hine,et al.  A probabilistic switch model of information flow in social networks: application of virtual circuits to organisational design , 2006 .

[26]  Susanna Hornig Priest,et al.  Information Equity, Public Understanding of Science, and the Biotechnology Debate , 1995 .