ABSTRACT
An article on the front page of a newspaper describing a successful experiment to clone a sheep, a TV weatherman talking about variations in atmospheric pressure for the next few hours, or a science museum where visitors can make experiments to understand the principles of gravity: these are some of the many and diverse situations in which ‘laymen’ – non-scientists – come into contact with science. What impact do they have on the image and public perception of research? And what bearing do they have on scientific activity itself?
