Faxes, Mascots, and Manga: Science Communication in Japan | Physics Today
“If those anachronistic approaches seem surprising for a country popularly associated with cutting-edge tech, there’s a reason they persist. Traditional delivery mechanisms like faxes are part of a system that caters to domestic media and often results in Japanese science news never breaking abroad. The country’s unique approach to science communication also includes a plethora of costumed characters and comics that portray scientists as champions and make research accessible and playful.”
Scientists for the People | AEON Magazine
“‘There are two types of popularisers,’ he wrote for a broad scientific audience in 1929. The first ‘feigns sympathy with the less educated’, but takes a condescending tone and ‘grows cranky’ without the ‘crutch’ of ‘jargon and ‘mathematical formulas’. The second takes ‘pleasure and pride’ in letting go of those crutches and succeeds in raising ‘the reader and himself into a more general sphere that lies above that of technical expertise’. If the first type of populariser was arrogant and paternalistic, the second displayed humility and respect for the non-scientist.”