Biophysical Society Bulletin | December 2023

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for the Advancement of Science and The World Academy of Sciences Science Diplomacy program in 2020 that I learned that data and scientific proof alone are not enough to get buy in during international diplomatic negotiations and elections. For example, a moderately left-wing political candidate in Ma laysia lost her government seat, despite putting in significant work locally on an environmental and climate change agenda, to a right-wing party candidate who is simply more accessible around town. Human sentiment and belief systems outweigh scientific evidence, and scenarios such as this could have the effect of slowing down the progress of science that benefits both human and planetary health. The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of when science communication faced significant challenges. In Malaysia, where there is a population of 34 million, with a minimum of four different languages spoken not including regional dialects and an array of religious beliefs, scientific illustra tions and infographics were extremely helpful in overcoming considerable barriers to the science of combatting the virus. Still further, Islamic-majority nations, such as Indonesia, have gone so far as to craft new regulations to ensure that vac cine applications must be halal-certified to be sold within the country, to gain support from religious communities. Through a combination of efforts by the government, ~28.1 million Malaysians have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one dose (https:/ourworldindata.org/coronavirus#coro navirus-country-profiles). At a recent International Science Council (ISC) Global Knowl edge Dialogue event in Kuala Lumpur, Sir Peter Gluckman , the ISC president, and Frances Separovic , the Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science and a former BPS Pres ident, spoke extensively on the need to secure buy-in from community and religious leaders to help secure public trust in science. Public reception of science can depend heavily on lo cal perception, and by gaining buy-in from leaders within the community, you can translate that into broader acceptance of science.

In listening to Gluckman and Separovic, I was brought back to the tunnel vision I had as a teenager regarding science. I understand now that learning to communicate about science is the same lifelong endeavor that scientific discovery is. We need to learn how to best convey science to the public and policymakers in ways that they understand, not just in the technical tone in which we are used to conversing with our colleagues. I, and perhaps many of us, find it challenging to be as convincing as politicians, diplomats, and religious leaders. At 39 years old, I just learned how to write simple science content for a local newspaper and a popular science article for the public earlier this year. I also need to learn how to make my social media engaging so that prospective students, col laborators, and the public appreciate science and its related careers. I will also need to learn how to better draw medical and science illustrations for public consumption. As members of the scientific community, we need to be pro active in learning to better communicate science to the public. At a recent high school visit, I asked a few of the 800 local high school students who visited our biomedical booth if they were aware of the differences between medicine, life scienc es, and biomedical sciences—they were not. All they knew was that they wanted to be physicians one day. To me, that means we must work even harder to highlight the various aspects of science and how important a role they play in so ciety. We should be promoting not only scientific writing and publishing, but public-facing communications such as news papers, popular science publications, and graphical content. We need to engage in conversations and communications with politicians and religious leaders and, via social media, we need to reach new audiences. Just as we continue to devel op new research areas, tools, and techniques, we must also develop new and evolving skill sets in communication—now more than ever. — Siti Ngalim , BPS Ambassador, Malaysia

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December 2023

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