Summary of "Dangling Particles" by Lisa Randal

Science plays a substantial role in the existence of mankind. It gives birth to many things that have become indispensable objects for surviving. On the other hand, there is a lack of terms used for describing special events or processes which are never been observed. Sometimes the rate of the development of science is higher than creation of new faithful terminology to the new objects. As a result, many scientists often are able only partially to comprehend all implications of some particular development. So that presents the difficulties for communication.

The main blunder of scientists is the choice of ambiguous words. The brightest and at the same time the most confusing term was used by Albert Einstein to name his theory of relativity. For many people theory of relativity means that everything is relative and there are no absolutes. But the idea was to find the invariants in physical phenomena. And the term relativity here is the topic for debates and controversy.

 Another source of mistakes is the translation of terms. For example, “La théorie des champs” is the French version of field theory. The term “field” means not only the field where the cows are grazing, but also a special physical field of particles. Scientists face the problem of (mostly wrong) connotations and images which appears within the word.

But not always the wrong choice of words is the reason of misunderstanding. The complexity of the science also throws sand in the wheels of correct communication. And due to this, scientists have to clarify the result of their developments and on the other hand, journalists should show information from the different points of view.

There are few steps that should to be taken.

1.To make public access to all scientific information and inculcation greater understanding of evidences.

2.To make different standards for evaluation of science with greater policy implications than other.

3.To make people recognize the science to be complex. Accepting simple stories will inevitably distort information. Public should to be more patient and scientists should take more time to make the clearer explanations.