…what I really learned during the pandemic year is that science needs better marketing—refined and persistent—so that no one will ever again take its discoveries for granted.
According to Neil deGrasse Tyson one of the major lessons that 2020 and the pandemic has revealed is that Science itself needs marketing in this day and age. We are struggling with anti-vax sentiments, widespread disinformation amidst a global medical emergency, and even flagging public trust and desire for the much needed medicines of the future.
Imagine the ad campaigns: We fly through the air at 500 mph, seated in a cushioned chair, inside a 100-ton metal tube, 30,000 feet above the ground—because of science. We communicate with practically anyone we’ve ever met, in an instant, no matter where they are in the world—because of science. We obtain immediate access to all the compiled knowledge of the world, at our fingertips—because of science. Neither you nor your mother died in childbirth—because of science. Most people used to die at 65 or 45 or younger, but we don’t anymore—because of science. And we are able to glean accurate insights about Earth’s past, present and future, especially its climate, our ecosystem and the forces we exert upon them—because of science.
Read more or listen to the audio version of the article at the WSJ.
