Science communication in the context of "Public awareness of science"

Public awareness of science (PAS) is everything relating to the awareness, attitudes, behaviors, opinions, and activities that comprise the relations between the general public or lay society as a whole to scientific knowledge and organization. This concept is also known as public understanding of science (PUS), or more recently, public engagement with science and technology (PEST). It is a comparatively new approach to the task of exploring the multitude of relations and linkages science, technology, and innovation have among the general public. While early work in the discipline focused on increasing or augmenting the public's knowledge of scientific topics, in line with the information deficit model of science communication, the deficit model has largely been abandoned by science communication researchers. Instead, there is an increasing emphasis on understanding how the public chooses to use scientific knowledge and on the development of interfaces to mediate between expert and lay understandings of an issue. Newer frameworks of communicating science include the dialogue and the participation models. The dialogue model aims to create spaces for conversations between scientists and non-scientists to occur while the participation model aims to include non-scientists in the process of science.

Theodore Lawrence Brown (born October 15, 1928) is an American scientist known for research, teaching, and writing in the field of physical inorganic chemistry, a university administrator, and a philosopher of science. In addition to his research publications, Brown has written textbooks on general chemistry and science communication which have been published in multiple languages and used in multiple countries. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has also held the administrative positions of vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate college (1980–1986). He is the founding director emeritus of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Deep time is the concept of geological time that spans billions of years, far beyond the scale of human experience. It provides the temporal framework for understanding the formation and evolution of Earth, the development of life, and the slow-moving processes that shape planetary change. First developed as a scientific idea in the 18th century and popularized in the 20th century by writers such as John McPhee, the concept of deep time has influenced fields ranging from geology and evolutionary biology to climate science, philosophy, education, and environmental ethics. Today, deep time is increasingly used in science communication and public engagement, offering a powerful lens for understanding human impact during the Anthropocene.

William (Bill) S. Hammack (born 1961) is an American chemical engineer, and professor in the department of chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Hammack is well known for his ventures in science communication as the persona Engineer Guy: between 1999 and 2005 he produced radio commentaries for Illinois Public Media, and starting in 2010, he produced a regular series of videos on YouTube explaining the engineering of everyday objects. He is one of the authors of the book Eight Amazing Engineering Stories. He also authored the book The Things We Make: The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans, as well as the book Fatal Flight: The True Story of Britain's Last Great Airship, which was also recorded as an audiobook read by the author.

In studies of science communication, the information deficit model, also known as the deficit model or science literacy/knowledge deficit model, theorizes that scientific literacy can be improved with increased public engagement by the scientific community. As a result, the public may then be able to make more decisions that are science-informed. The model implies that communication should focus on improving the transfer of information from experts to non-experts.

Currently, many studies challenge the information deficit model as it ignores the cognitive, social, and affective factors that influence one's formation of attitude and judgements toward science and technology.