doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.07.003
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Learning from education to communicate science as a good story
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Aquiles Negretea, 
, and Cecilia Lartiguea
aPsychology Department, University of Bath, Bath, UK BA2 7AY
Available online 5 August 2004.
Science communicators must learn from science educators in their crusade to counteract the traditional boring and inefficient approaches to convey science. Educators encounter a need for methods of teaching that portray science as ‘hard fun’ and resources that encourage students' minds to burst into action. Narratives are considered by several authors as highly valuable resources for science education. However, little research has been undertaken to measure the efficiency of narratives in the context of science communication to the general public. Recent work however, suggests that narratives are indeed an alternative and an important means for science communication to convey information in an accurate, attractive, imaginative and memorable way. To present scientific information through stories, novels, comics and plays should be regarded as an important means to transmit information in the repertoire of both science teachers and science communicators.
Figure 1. The cover of issue 5 of EC Comic's Weird Science, a small part of the explosion in the popularity of science fiction in every type of media during the 1950s. Image supplied by Gemstone publishing and reproduced with permission of William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.
Figure 2. H.G. Wells was a science-fiction writer who was also a scientist. More than perhaps any other piece of science fiction, his novel War of the Worlds has been translated in to different media. From left to right: the cover of the original 1892 edition of War of the Worlds. Reproduced by, and printed with permission of, The British Library. The arrival of the Martians on Horsell Common is depicted in the illustrations that accompanied Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of the story. Reproduced with permission from Sony Music (UK) Ltd. The Martian attack on Earth was also adapted in comic form, one of several versions appearing in issue 14 of Marvel Classic Comics in 1976, reproduced with permission from Marvel Enterprises Inc.
Figure 3. Various interpretations of War of the Words in different media. From left to right: In the PC game released in the Mid-1990s gamers were given a chance to take control of the action and either attempt to conquer Earth or repel the Martian invaders. Gene Barry, Ann Robinson and Les Tremayne shudder in the face of the seeming unstoppable nature of the Martian's assault in the 1953 Paramount adaptation of War of the Worlds. Image supplied by and reproduced with permission of MPTV.net. However, the Martians were not invincible, and died once they contracted the common cold as depicted in another of the illustrations that accompanied the musical version of the story. Reproduced with permission from Sony Music (UK) Ltd.
Figure 4. The popularity of War of the Worlds is a strong as ever, which led Sony to release a cutting edge version of Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation at the beginning of the 21st century. Reproduced with permission from Sony Music (UK) Ltd.
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