It takes extra effort to communicate scientific ideas to the public. It is easy to forget how much you know and how much language you use that has a different meaning to a scientist than it does to someone else. An article by Harvard physics professor Lisa Randall, Dangling Particles, explains problems caused by scientists' different use of terminology and by the complex nature of science.

Resources

• European Research: A Guide to Successful Comunications has a section on giving public presentations
• Practical Advice for Science Communicators by the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine Public Relations Association:
• Dialog with the Public by the Research Councils UK
• Communicating Science to the Public: A Handbook for Researchers by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• E-Guide to Science Communication by the Science Development Network
• Communicating Science: A Scientist's Survival Kit  from the EU
• Communicating With The Public, a guide from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)