Why and how to bring science to the public

I teach a master's programme in science communication at Imperial College, London. The course is designed to take science graduates and postgraduates and retrain them in all aspects of communication and media work. They spend about half of their time on academic material relating to science communication. In these academic components they look at the nature of science, the nature of the media and the history and current pratice of popular and professional science communication. Some of the key factors which we identify as governing the success or failure of science communication will be rehearsed in these two lectures.