Recall the ad campaign over 25 years ago called, “Got Milk?” If not, or even if you’re feeling nostalgic, here’s a link to a story by FastCompany (FC) of what got people drinking from cows and wearing white mustaches. To cut to the chase, it was perhaps the most successful ad campaign ever, according to FC: “Any given day, an estimated 80% of all U.S. consumers came into contact with that innocent little question: Got Milk? The campaign won multiple top industry awards.”
We need a new, mainstream advertising campaign called “Got Science?” What if 80% of Americans and 80% of the World’s population (80% of the people: 7 Billion 731 Million 381 Thousand and 600 individuals as of today at 4:46 am Mountain Time that is growing by about 155 people per minute, based on my quick unscientific calculation, is 6,185,105,280 people) Got Science? Perhaps we cannot reach all age groups such as 20% in the world who are young children so we still have over 5 billion people to reach with our Got Science? ad campaign.
Imagine what it would take to reach many of the world’s population to inform us about science. The graphic, with a brain thinking “Hmm” or some instrumental music might reach everyone but if you needed words to communicate Got Science? there would be so many translations including over 1 Billion speakers each of Mandarin Chinese, Hindustan/Bengali and English, over half a billion speakers each of Spanish and Arabic, and about a quarter of a billion speakers each of Malay, Russian, Portuguese, and French, as well as less than a 100 million speakers each of Hausa, Telugu, Thai, Japanese, and many more languages. So why would it be so important if over 5 billion people really Got Science?
Should we talk about all the attributes and accomplishments of scientific discoveries? Would you mention the innovations in technology from the first fires to capturing and sharing electricity, modern medicine, creating cell phones for the masses, to exploring the land and oceans on Earth and voyages to outer space? Perhaps we want to get more fundamental and talk about the Laws of Physics that affect us all? I highly recommend a fun read: The Physics of Superheroes.
If we Got Science? would we be so programmed by politicians, fake news, and mass media driving our over consumption or fear of vaccines? Would we understand the concepts of the scientific process of making observations, wanting to know why or how something happens, making a hypothesis (taking your best guess), running double-blind, quality-controlled experiments, and developing then refining multiple theories based on extensive observations? If we Got Science?, would our ideas be subject to peer review and “unbiased” evaluations? Would we focus on what we do not know, the uncertainty in the data, or focus on conclusive evidence? How would we compare objective science with the judicial system - remember the O.J. trials with debated forensics and various standards for juries having reasonable doubt?
Perhaps the real scientific revolution will occur with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Computer technology is making rapid progress in many fields. Here’s an article discussing scientific advances being made though AI machine learning: “Aided by the close proximity of medical researchers, computer scientists, psychologists and more, Stanford researchers are deploying artificial intelligence to map poverty in Africa, find safer alternatives to conventional rechargeable batteries and perhaps even understand our own minds.”
For some upcoming blogs, I would like to share some of my observations of science education, research, consulting, and public administration and to share where we may have Got Science? and where it is sorely lacking and needed. The idea for Got Science? comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists but I did not want to bias my ideas as I prepared this blog and we can take a look at their posts for future research. Their membership of 200,000 people significantly needs to expand into the mainstream to reach 5 billion or so people!