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Following the advice of popular-science authors might help you to explain your research more effectively in interviews.<\/span>Credit: Kenneth Scicluna<\/span><\/p>\n The theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was renowned for his ability to explain complex concepts to a non-expert audience. He was at times, however, less adept when communicating with writers, as the science historian Robert Crease found out when he interviewed the Nobel laureate in the mid-1980s. Feynman, apparently offended by Crease\u2019s \u201cdumb\u201d questioning, stormed out of the room and down the hallways of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, shouting \u201cyou\u2019re trying to make something difficult and complicated out of something that\u2019s simple and beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n Thankfully, most interactions between scientists and writers are much more convivial, according to those who regularly interview researchers for books or articles. However, Crease\u2019s experience illustrates how the priorities of a science writer, who is looking to tell an engaging story, can clash with a scientist\u2019s allegiance to undiluted truth. There is also a knowledge gap to navigate \u2014 especially if the interviewer does not have a background in science. This requires the researcher to explain their work in terms that are accurate but comprehensible, and to have patience if they\u2019re not immediately understood.<\/p>\n To learn about some of the challenges, insights and dynamics that arise during science-writing interviews, Nature\u2019s Careers team spoke to five authors of popular-science books. They share their thoughts on speaking to researchers, explain how scientists differ from other experts and offer advice on how to be a valuable interviewee.<\/p>\n Author of The Secret Lives of Colour, The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History and The Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been lucky enough to interview scientists in various fields during my writing career and I consider it a real perk of my job. For The Secret Lives of Colour, I spoke to researchers who were developing new pigments, for The Golden Thread, I talked to arachnid experts and for The Race to the Future, I asked scientists about how disease spread through cities in the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t talk science, play science: translate your data into music to improve its reach<\/p>\n<\/p>\n First and foremost, a good interviewee is passionate about their work and wants to communicate it to a wider audience. Then, I think it helps if the scientist can imagine that they\u2019re explaining their work to a stranger at a wedding; in other words, understanding that the person they\u2019re speaking to is interested but not a fellow expert. This requires them to be patient and use reasonably simple terms. Be mindful of appearing patronizing, although I\u2019ve never been patronized by any scientist, unlike some of the artists who I\u2019ve interviewed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s always helpful if researchers are able to answer follow-up questions after our interview, just so I can make sure that I\u2019ve got the right facts and any specific terminology correct. However, I always make it clear that I\u2019m independent and so, ultimately, I have the final say. It\u2019s about mutual respect: I wouldn\u2019t try to tell them how to do their research and they shouldn\u2019t expect to dictate how I convey meaning to readers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to remember that you\u2019re both working towards the same thing: reflecting the scientist and their research in a way that is accurate and informative, but that is also going to appeal to as many people as possible. That might mean not giving the most finely grained description or explanation, which, frankly, might end up being dry. For the audience that I\u2019m trying to reach, it\u2019s crucial that what I write is readable, entertaining and gripping.<\/p>\n Author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art and Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves.<\/p>\n James Nestor advises researchers against using complex language to describe their work.<\/span>Credit: Photo by Mark Mahaney<\/span><\/p>\n I begin the research process by talking to leaders in the field. I\u2019ll pick three or four experts from opposite ends of a spectrum and ask them the same general questions. For example, when I was writing Breath, I interviewed several doctors who argued that simple breathing exercises could significantly reduce and sometimes completely resolve asthma symptoms, whereas others assured me that how we breathed didn\u2019t matter. The truth was in the middle; it almost always is.<\/p>\n When two years of academic work vanished with a single click<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I consider myself a translator more than a writer. I translate multisyllabic jargon into English. I\u2019ve found that researchers will often try to demonstrate their expertise by using unnecessarily complex words when they could be stating things much more simply. So my main advice to interviewees is to keep it clear and simple. Scientists can benefit from it, too, because if they can\u2019t concisely explain what they\u2019re working on and how it might affect other people\u2019s lives, then I don\u2019t think they truly understand it.<\/p>\n I also want scientists to help me understand where the knowledge gaps in a subject are, so I appreciate it when they admit they aren\u2019t sure of something. Saying \u201cwe haven\u2019t done enough research\u201d or \u201cthat\u2019s a point that we\u2019re going to pursue in the next few years\u201d isn\u2019t a weakness, it\u2019s a way of building trust with the interviewer and the general audience. You already know enough, which is why you were sought out to be interviewed. Be honest with yourself and your audience, and you\u2019ll appear wiser than your words.<\/p>\n Author of The Meteorites: Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time and Notes from Deep Time: A Journey Through Our Past and Future Worlds.<\/p>\n Helen Gordon has written about deep time.<\/span>Credit: Jonathan D. Paul<\/span><\/p>\n I try to create scientists as characters on the page, almost like a novel, which I find much easier when I interview someone in person, rather than online. I want to see the researcher, but I also want to see where they work. And that\u2019s not only if they\u2019ve got a fancy laboratory \u2014 their office can also be really interesting. What books do they have? Is it tidy? Is it messy? I\u2019m always fascinated by details of the process, the nuts and bolts.<\/p>\n For my book The Meteorites, I visited a scientist who spoke about how beautiful it was to look at rust through a scanning electron microscope and how she could get lost staring at it. That experience made her more compelling to write about because it was, for me, an unexpectedly aesthetic, almost dreamy response, which I wouldn\u2019t typically associate with scientists. It was a personal detail, too, and something specific rather than generic, so it helped me think about the person behind the scientist, as well as the research.<\/p>\n It\u2019s great if interviewees are prepared to share a little bit of their personal world. Not necessarily their personal life, but their feelings or memories. Stories are particularly helpful for my sort of writing. So, why you became a scientist or why you were interested in your particular field. You don\u2019t have to have an elaborate origin story, any little insights can be fascinating.<\/p>\n Scientists aren\u2019t always aware just how interesting non-scientists will find their work, as well as their day-to-day experience. It can be easy to underestimate how mysterious \u2014 in a positive way \u2014 the world of research can seem to people who last did science at school.<\/p>\n The interviews that I\u2019ve found most difficult are those that have felt rigid, in which people feel as if they\u2019re sticking to a script, or they\u2019ve got their talking points and they don\u2019t really want to go beyond that. I end up thinking, \u201cWell, I probably could have got that material from just reading.\u201d<\/p>\n Cognitive psychologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and author of This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession and I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music as Medicine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following the advice of popular-science authors might help you to explain your research more effectively in interviews.Credit: Kenneth Scicluna The theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was renowned for his ability to explain complex concepts to a non-expert audience. He was at times, however, less adept when communicating with writers, as the science historian Robert Crease found<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[5009,23138,3141,8923,9405],"class_list":{"0":"post-44655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-expertise","9":"tag-popularscience","10":"tag-research","11":"tag-wow","12":"tag-writer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}KASSIA ST CLAIR: Answer follow-up questions<\/h2>\n
JAMES NESTOR: Keep it simple<\/h2>\n
HELEN GORDON: In-person meetings are gold <\/h2>\n
DANIEL LEVITIN: Stay in your lane and use analogies<\/h2>\n