Image: Florian Fisch

Researchers ought to leave their ivory towers and discuss their findings with the general public. This is what science communication demands of us, although it sounds a bit old-fashioned today, when it is more common to talk about researchers discussing with non-researchers ‘eye to eye’. The idea is that scientists should engage in a real dialogue with their counterparts on an equal footing.

But there is an inherent contradiction here. If scientists are to engage with laypeople on an equal footing, eye to eye, it requires an adjustment: either one descends to the level of the other (which is usually what’s meant), or the other is raised up to meet the former. It is hardly surprising that this paternalistic attitude is also very popular in church circles. The priest, it is said, ought to meet members of the laity eye to eye. And just like priests supposedly have special access to God, researchers are implicitly made the bearers of special knowledge that elevates them above others. This is a parallel in attitude that ought to be discussed.