Season 17, Episode 20: Does Scientific Genius Require a Publicist?

Hey StarTalkians! Season 17, episode 20 was a special edition, with Neil, Chuck and Gary talking to science journalist Matt Kaplan about his book, Told You So: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed for Being Right. In the discussion, they hit on a key point about his book:

Told You So! with Matt Kaplan - StarTalk Special Edition

(From 33:50)

They ask “should scientific genius require a publicist?” But let’s adjust that – because no, it shouldn’t – to does scientific genius require a publicist?

Semmelweis vs. Pasteur – How Publicity Affects Science

As described in the podcast, Ignaz Semmelweis worked out the cause of “childbed fever,” but was ultimately ignored, while Pasteur stole ideas and presented them fraudulently, but is lauded as a hero to this day. Publicity matters.

How Often Are Ideas Ignored?

How many Semmelweis-es do we miss because of the Pasteurs of the world? A paper from the 90s took up this question. It traces the history of “obscure innovators” in science, whose ideas were essentially ignored despite being right.

It includes many important ideas, including Avogadro’s hypothesis, thermodynamics, penicillin, the cause of scurvy, meteorites, galaxy clusters, chromatography and many more.

The paper concludes that, while not as serious as some may claim, the resistance to new ideas really is a serious problem in science.

Why Are Ideas Ignored?

The paper also made an important point: part of the reason Semmelweis was ignored was that he couldn’t explain his findings to actually convince people. He brushed up against what is really the root of the problem: human psychology.

An earlier study from the same author gave scientists a fake formula for the volume of a sphere, and got them to use it for a calculation. Then, they had to actually measure the volume of a physical sphere. The disagreement between the two caused them discomfort, but most scientists opted to adjust how they read the measurements, not question the bogus formula. 

There is a psychological “inertia” that resists new ideas, and this is hard to overcome even in trained scientists.

So, Does Scientific Genius Require a Publicist?

It’s not a nice answer, but the undeniable result of all of this is: yes, it would help! If Semmelweis had Pasteur’s political flair, thousands of lives would have been saved.

Scientifically, it shouldn’t matter, but practically, it does.