Communicating science: Still talking to ourselves?

With the resurrection this month of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” on ten networks, the spirit of Carl Sagan’s work (one of my heroes) has again penetrated public consciousness. We used to hear about popularizers and public intellectuals. Explaining—no, demonstrating—examples of how science works was a gallant experiment in demystification. Now, the best scientists can do is “outreach.” Neil deGrasse Tyson is, like Sagan, an exception. But times have changed in at least one significant way. The sad reality, I would assert, is that the onslaught of social media has divided us by interest, identity, and politics. Read more.