Taking A Look At Popular Science

In the field of science, some may regard popular science as trivial rubbish. However, this is far from the truth. Popular science plays a key role in expanding the public’s knowledge of scientific ideas, as well as generating interest in the field of science among a wider audience beyond those involved in that particular field of study.

Through popular science, new ideas and breakthroughs in one area of science can be shared with the public, as well as scientists in other subjects. As Perrault (2013) stated, popular science helps inform the reader of how knowledge is gained in a particular field of study, using the case of Maine lobsters. In this example, the researchers gained insight from lobster fishermen regarding local lobster populations. Another example, as cited by Marie (2013), is that science bloggers promote greater understanding of scientific concepts in the public, though she concedes that at times the bloggers may be prone to attempting to persuade readers to their standpoint on a controversial scientific idea rather than neutrally informing the audience.

According to Fahnestock (1998), by sharing scientific observations with the public, they will process the information critically and advance the level of discussion of the observation, as was the case of mathematics. In this case, Fahnestock elaborates that by sharing observations in mathematics in popular science, it was raised to the level at which debate was generated over the matter of mathematical education of