WATCH: How science communicators make complicated ideas more accessible

From PBS NewsHour.

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How do science communicators strike a balance between getting the science right and breaking it down for the general public?

“I think we can do both. I really do,” says Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy and distinguished professor and endowed chair at Texas Tech University.

Take climate change, she suggested. It’s a very complex topic with thousands of research papers, but scientists can use “simple metaphors” to make the conversation digestible for average people.
One example: comparing warming greenhouse gases to wrapping an extra blanket around someone at night.

“It’s not hard to explain what this problem is, why it matters, and especially what each of us can do about it by having a conversation about why it matters,” Hayhoe said.
Hayhoe took part in a special livestreamed Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) event called “Tipping Point – Turning Science Into Solutions,” hosted by science correspondent Miles O’Brien and digital anchor and correspondent Deema Zein.

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