Members Speak Out on Communicating Science with the Non-Scientist
 Rule #1: Keep the Lights On (or, "Please, no Data!")
 by Brenda Patoine

Reprinted from Talking and Writing to the Public, A Special Report, produced for the Dana Alliance Member News by the Dana Press. (revised 2005)

The room is dark. The auditorium seats are cushy. On the stage, complicated bar graphs and bulleted lists flash across a square of light. A faceless silhouette behind the podium reads the slides in a monotone. The man sitting next to you snores.

This could be a scene from a scientist's nightmare, but it may be all too real for a so-called lay person at a scientific lecture. For many scientists - even the most heavily credentialed and sought-after speakers - delivering an engaging and provocative presentation to non-scientists is challenging. Some find it downright intimidating.

When asked to describe his worst and best public-speaking experience, Jim Hudspeth, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rockefeller University says, "They are about the same. As a speaker in the range between shyness and outright cowardice, I suffer from all talks equally." Dr. Hudspeth was one of several Alliance members who responded to an informal survey about strategies for communicating science to non-scientific audiences.

Lights Up!

For Katherine Bick, Ph.D., scientific advisor to the Dana Foundation, a cardinal rule is keeping the lights up. Like others, she advises foregoing slides that require the lights to be off or dimmed for any period. "You can lose an audience very easily in the dark because you can't see the shifting and snoozing that may be going on." Harvard's Martin Samuels, M.D., is blunt: "People go into a coma," he says. "If possible, don't use any slides; they can be intimidating, confusing, or boring."

Both Drs. Bick and Samuels suggest that the right video, one that is brief, dynamic, and, of course, relevant, can be an effective visual tool. Floyd Bloom, M.D., formerly of the Scripps Research Institute and now of Neurome, Inc., favors "great artistic depictions of neurons, receptors, circuits, electron micrographs, or simple schematics." The Rockefeller University's Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., warns against slides filled with data, but finds that "attractive overview slides, with limited information on each one" can be useful. But be careful: As Dr. Hudspeth notes, "The world is awash in colorful slides that repeat, usually in a more confused way, what can be said plainly."

Straightforward but Simple

One of the most common pearls of wisdom is to be straightforward. "I have always believed that the most important scientific information," says David Drachman, M.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, "is found at the level of sixth grade textbooks." By then, he says, the language has been reduced to "relatively straightforward and rational terms."

Adds Dr. Hudspeth, "At issue is not being 'simple,' let alone 'dumbing down.' Rather, it's that science is something of a club, with its own language and way of thought, and one must focus on overcoming jargon and identifying the essentials, rather than the fancy incidentals."

That, concurs Richard Mohs, Ph.D., of Lilly Research Laboratories, means editing out the qualifications and limitations that would be de rigeur in a scientific setting. Lay persons "want to know what we know, and how it applies to them," he says. Adds Dr. Samuels: "The challenge is to simplify without being sophomoric. The risk is in making it so simple it sounds stupid." The key requisite? Knowing the science inside out, he says, which enables you to choose the right points.

Give Them What They Want

Knowing how much your audience knows is also critical. Dr. McEwen says the biggest challenge is "finding the right entry point and level of presentation." He suggests bouncing ideas off non-scientist friends and relatives to gauge their reactions and questions. "I have tried to find situations that people recognize, like job stress, then to define in simple terms the underlying biology," he says.

Dr. Bick, who often speaks to patients and their families about Alzheimer's, has another strategy. "I try to put myself in their place and think about what I'd want to know if I were confronted with a new, unfamiliar subject about which I might have a lot of fears." Dr. Bloom suggests "starting with simple everyday observations on their behavior, such as watching the sun set. Then focus on how scientists - of any kind- must be curious and skeptical, especially when it comes to understanding the brain."

Pierre Magistretti, M.D., Ph.D., professor at the Institute of Physiology of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a charter member of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, also tries to begin scientific talks with a point of fact taken from everyday (or almost everyday) life, e.g., "why do we sleep?" He also finds it helpful to focus "on just a few fundamental messages," which he expresses in different ways in the presentation.

Richard Mohs also keeps in mind "a few basic messages that I want to get across, then I think through a number of different members' experiences; recounting his own experiences; or discussing research on the topic. But, he cautions, "One has to be careful when communicating data." For fellow scientists, Dr. Mohs says, one must convey a "sense of the data, or a particular theory, by professionally and logically going through a set of data or experiments to show how a conclusion was drawn. That's not what a lay audience wants."

Data Is a Four-Letter Word, for Those Who Don't Use Such Information Every Day

For a lay audience, in fact, data is practically a four-letter word. "No data! Or very, very little," exclaims Bruce McEwen, when asked what he does differently in preparing for a lay lecture. Others agree: Floyd Bloom says, "I almost never show data when speaking to lay audiences - only the summary slides...," Martin Samuels points out that "People don't want to see the data; they want to see how you interpret it."

David Drachman applies his rule of "rational, straightforward," to explain research: "I like to let them know what the question was, how the answer was obtained, and why it is important." He suggests using analogies to "put the concepts into an intuitive framework." Zach Hall, Ph.D., former NINDS director, now of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, puts information into a personal context (e.g., he will make a statement such as "It still amazes me that you can actually see what part of the brain is working when you ask someone to think of a word.")

Use Humor - With Caution

Humor, say many speakers, can be an effective tool for breaking the ice and keeping your audience engaged, but it can also backfire if not used skillfully. "With lay people, you take a big risk with humor," says Martin Samuels. Used incorrectly, he says, humor "can subtly undermine your credibility as an expert." His advice: Use only humor that is "completely self-deprecatory," use it only if it fits the topic; avoid pat jokes; and don't prepare too much in advance. "It must be spontaneous, ad-hoc humor," he says. "Otherwise, it may fall flat."

Using humor at all, Dr. Samuels adds, depends on who your audience is. Some medical audiences expect a certain kind of raw humor, while other audiences may well be offended.

Whether or not you use humor or data, one measure of the success of your talk is how many people stay until the Q&A at the end, another is the type of questions that are asked. "If the questions are imaginative and surprising, you know you have had an effect," says Bruce McEwen. "If there are no questions...trouble!"

Know your Audience

Professional speaker Lenny Laskowski, author of No-Sweat Presentations, says, "Proper audience analysis will assure that you give the right speech to the right audience." Using the acronym, "AUDIENCE," he suggests finding out the following information about your potential audience.

Source: Lenny Laskowski, LJL Seminars (www.ljlseminars.com)

Brenda Patoine writes frequently for both The Dana Foundation and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. She also consults on public relations and special events.