Communicating scientific research to lay people is a difficult task. There are scientists like Ian Stewart, Simon Singh, Roger Penrose, Richard Dawkins and others who do a great job at it. One needs to shake off all the formalism and terminology and explain to lay people in lay terms. However, most scientific researchers may kill a conversation or get really funny answers when they tell what they do. Even if one makes an effort and does not use fancy acronyms, it can be difficult to communicate the importance or excitement of research.
Recently I was recounting some interesting exchanges I have had with friends and family where I may perhaps have made a lousy start at explaining my research but nonetheless was amused by the confident interjections:
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“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Research in a branch of computer science” (Interruption)
“Computer science? Hey my mother board is playing up. Can you fix it please???”
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“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Algorithms. They apply..” (Interruption)
“Algorithms? I used to do logarithms in school. This has to be same thing or slightly different.”
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“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Use mathematics to prove..” (Interruption)
“Mathematics? Yeah, I hated arithmetic in school. You must be doing the same thing”
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“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Research in finding new ways..” (Interruption)
“New ways? Are there new things left to be discovered in mathematics?”
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“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Game theory: it is an interesting and widely applicable..” (Interruption)
“Games? You make computer games? That’s nice.”
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