The Visible Scientist

B.F. Skinner. Margaret Mead. Linus Pauling. Isaac Asimov. Paul Ehrlich. James Watson. What do these people have in common? All are scientists, and their names are more or less household words. They are also included in a group of some 40 scientists* studied by Dr. Rae Goodell, a postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T., for her doctoral thesis at Stanford University's department of communication. She picked them because they have an ability that is rare in the scientific community: to communicate effectively with the public and make headlines.

Goodell's thesis--appropriately entitled "The Visible Scientists" and made public last week--concludes that it is not their discoveries, their popularization of science or their leadership in the scientific world that makes scientists visible. Rather, it is their public involvement, their "activities in the messy world of politics and controversy."

Thus Paul Ehrlich, an accomplished researcher in entomology (the study of insects), has become well known by speaking and writing about the population explosion. Biologist Barry Commoner is one of the leading spokesmen for the environmental movement. Linus Pauling, who won a Nobel Prize for his explanation of the nature of chemical bonds, is famous as a peace activist and, more recently, for promoting vitamin C as a cure for the common cold. James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of life's master molecule DNA became a public figure only after the publication of his book The Double Helix, a frank and often unflattering view of how scientists choose and achieve their goals.

Colorful Images. Yet it takes more than making a dramatic stand or picking a controversial issue to make a scientist visible. Most of the scientists that Goodell studied are masters of the art of mass communications and are frequently sought out and publicized by the press. Paul Ehrlich, for example, admits that he is using Madison Avenue techniques to sell the public on halting the population explosion. "If they can sell flavored douches," he says, "we can sell anything."

Ehrlich and most of Goodell's other subjects are articulate, can readily translate scientific jargon into understandable English and are at ease in public.

In addition, they all share colorful images. Most of them already have established reputations within their own disciplines. That, says Goodell, makes them more attractive to reporters who are generally reluctant to use unknown scientists as sources for stories. The average age of the scientists on the list at the time of the study was 59 and only one, Astronomer Carl Sagan, was under 40.

Being visible does not help the scientists' research careers. Other scientists see them, Goodell says, "as a pollution in the scientific community," as publicity grabbers who depart from normal scientific channels to communicate their views. These critics complain that their better publicized colleagues may mislead the public because they often speak outside their area of expertise. Biologist George Wald, a Nobel Laureate and vociferous antiwar spokesman, disagrees. "If the scientist is good," he says, "his field is reality, and that covers an awful lot of ground. I think that the scientist can be that rare, disinterested person who calls it the way he sees it."

* Some of the other most recognizable scientists: Jonas Salk, Wernher von Braun, William Shockley, Edward Teller, Rene Dubos, Glenn Seaborg, Carl Sagan.

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