ABSTRACT
Scientists generally are poor communicators. While some individual scientists communicate with clarity and charisma, as a group they tend to be inward looking, cleaving to the belief that the practice of science is its own justification. Unfortunately, the community has other ideas. When it comes to
communicating issues that are important to environmental management, the gulf between what scientists believe to be important and the perceptions of the ‘public’ concerned with those issues may be very great. In Australia, the debate over whether to use embryonic stem cells became heated following some controversial comments by an eminent scientist. This was a failure in science communication because the scientist underestimated the capacity of his audience to find out the facts.
