When hyping technology is a crime

The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, former chief executive officer (CEO) of the high-flying, privately held, American medical diagnostics company Theranos, has riveted the public for years. A bestseller, a documentary, and a seemingly endless stream of news stories have chronicled the drama, which came to a climax last week when a jury decided that Holmes committed fraud. Although a verdict has been rendered, it’s worth examining how the culture of science innovation contributed to the problem. For too long, fledging companies promoting technological and scientific advances have relied too much on style and not enough on substance.

Out of the Lab and Into the World: Analyses of Social Roles and Gender in Profiles of Scientists in The New York Times and The Scientist

Although representations of female scientists in the media have increased over time, stereotypical portrayals of science persist. In-depth, contemporary profiles of scientists’ roles have an opportunity to reflect or to challenge stereotypes of science and of gender. We employed content and linguistic analyses to examine whether publicly available profiles of scientists from New York Times and The Scientist Magazine support or challenge pervasive beliefs about science. Consistent with broader stereotypes of STEM fields, these portrayals focused more on agency than communality. However, profiles also challenged stereotypes through integrating communality, purpose, and growth. This analysis also found similar presence of communal and agentic constructs for both female and male scientists. The current findings highlight the importance of considering counterstereotypic representations of science in the media: Communicating messages to the public that challenge existing beliefs about the culture of science may be one path toward disrupting stereotypes that dissuade talented individuals from choosing science pathways.

Embracing the future through science communication: the inaugural "Mr. Science" Science Communication Conference in China

The inaugural "Mr. Science" Science Communication Conference was held in Suzhou, China on July 9, 2021. It was the largest Chinese conference on science communication study since the start of the 21st century. More than 260 scholars discussed the spirit and culture of science, science communication during the COVID-19 crisis, the public understanding of science, and the ethical aspects of science communication. The conference aimed to develop a system for researching science communication within China. This review outlines the content of the conference and summarizes the key trends in science communication research in China.

Religious diversity in science: Stereotypical and counter-stereotypical social identities

Research shows that scientists tend to be less religious than the general population, and scientists’ religious affiliation and participation have declined over time (Ecklund & Park, 2009; Ecklund et al., 2008). Given the demographic differences between scientists and the general population, it was predicted that scientists who are religious would be regarded as having a counter-stereotypical combination of social identities. However, across five studies, we found that people’s own religious identities played a moderating role in the perception of a religious scientist. Although atheist participants perceived religious scientists as being more counter-stereotypical than atheist scientists, the same was not consistently found for nonreligious (but not atheist) or religious participants. These findings have important implications for debates around the underrepresentation of religious individuals in science. As religious individuals do not perceive these two identities to be incompatible, it may be stereotypes that others have about religious individuals and the culture of science more generally, rather than self-stereotypes, that are hurdles for religious individuals choosing a scientific career. Future research should take these findings into account and explore other potential barriers that lead to the underrepresentation of religious individuals within STEM fields.

Von Tauwetter und Tiefdruckgebieten

Summary Based on recent studies on ‘literary meteorology’, the article examines depictions of meteorology in Soviet literature. It contextualizes Daniil Granin’s Into the Storm (1962) and Anatolii Gladilin’s Forecast for tomorrow (1972) within the post-war history of meteorology and reads both texts as examples for a ‘popular meteorology’, in which important shifts in the Soviet culture of science can be detected. In difference to political readings of late Soviet prose on science, it holds, that literary texts can provide valuable insights into shifts of styles on thinking, the praxeology of science, its anthropological implications and into models of scientific evolution.

The ‘janitor-geologist’ and the ‘cold materialistic scientific men’: James Croll's navigation of scientific societies

ABSTRACT Scientific societies played a crucial role in the emergence of a professional culture of science in Britain in the mid- to late-19th Century. At first sight, James Croll's membership of a limited number of scientific associations may be assumed to be the result of his lack of social credit and scientific connections. In this article, by examining Croll's correspondence, I demonstrate that Croll's select participation in scientific clubs and associations reflected his strategic pursuit of a vision of science set apart from party or societal affiliation. I focus on the contrasting histories of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Geological Survey, as well as the institutional history of the Philosophical Magazine. Situating the institutions in their respective social and cultural contexts, I argue that the more meritocratic, inclusive social structure of the Survey and Magazine helps explain Croll's choice to avoid affiliation with the Royal Society of Edinburgh.