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Science is a defining feature of the modern world, and popular science is where most of us make sense of that fact. Understanding Popular Science provides a framework to help understand the development of popular science and current debates about it. In a lively and accessible style, Peter Broks shows how popular science has been invented, redefined and fought over. From early-nineteenth century radical science to twenty-first century government initiatives, he examines popular science as an arena where the authority of science and the authority of the state are legitimized and challenged. The

"Technoscientific developments often have far-reaching consequences, both negative and positive, for the public. Yet, because science has the authority to decide which judgments about scientific issues are sound, public concerns are often dismissed because they are not part of the technoscientific paradigm they question. This book addresses the role of science popularization in that paradox; it explains how science writing works and argues that it can do better at promoting public discussions about science-related issues. To support these arguments, it situates science popularization in its historical and cultural context; provides a conceptual framework for analyzing popular science texts; and examines the rhetorical effects of common strategies used in popular science writing. Twenty-six years after Dorothy Nelkin's groundbreaking book, Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, popular science writing is still not meeting its potential as a public interest genre; Communicating Popular Science explores how it can move closer to doing so"--

Threatened by the proliferation of cheap, mass-produced publications, the Religious Tract Society issued a series of publications on popular science during the 1840s. The books were intended to counter the developing notion that science and faith were mutually exclusive, and the Society's authors employed a full repertoire of evangelical techniques-low prices, simple language, carefully structured narratives-to convert their readers. The application of such techniques to popular science resulted in one of the most widely available sources of information on the sciences in the Victorian era.A f

Now available in paperback, Michael R. Lynn's book analyses the popularisation of science in Enlightenment France. He examines the content of popular science, the methods of dissemination, the status of the popularisers and the audience, and the settings for dissemination and appropriation. Lynn introduces individuals like Jean-Antoine Nollet, who made a career out of applying electric shocks to people, and Perrin, who used his talented dog to lure customers to his physics show. He also examines scientifically oriented clubs like Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier's Musée de Monsieur which provided locations for people interested in science. Phenomena such as divining rods, used to find water and ores as well as to solve crimes; and balloons, the most spectacular of all types of popular science, demonstrate how people made use of their new knowledge.Lynn's study provides a clearer understanding of the role played by science in the Republic of Letters and the participation of the general population in the formation of public opinion on scientific matters

"From 'dragon bones' to scientific research" : Peking Man and popular paleoanthropology in pre-1949 China -- "A united front against superstition" : science dissemination, 1940-1971 -- "The content of human" : in search of human identity, 1940-1971 -- "Labor created science" : the class politics of scientific knowledge, 1940-1971 -- "Presumptuous guests usurp the hosts" : dissemination and participation, 1971-1978 -- "Springtime for science," but what a garden : mystery, superstition, and fanatics in the post-Máo Era -- "From legend to science," and back again? : Bigfoot, science, and the people in post-Máo China -- "Have we dug at our ancestral shrine?" : post-Máo ethnic nationalism and its limits

Introduction: The beast within -- How ethology became popular -- The alchemy of aggression -- Weapons created man -- The biology of love -- The aggression debate -- Sociobiology and pop ethology: contextualizing E. O. Wilson -- Genes and gender: the sociobiology debate -- Conclusion: On the shores of Lake Turkana.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: A Curious Century -- 1 Wonder House: The Brooklyn Children's Museum as Beautiful Dream -- 2 Science in the Basement: Selling the Home Lab in the Interwar Years -- 3 Embryo Scientists: Finding and Saving Postwar "Science Talent" -- 4 Space Cadets and Rocket Boys: Policing the Masculinity of Scientific Enthusiasms -- 5 The Exploratorium and the Persistence of Innocent Science -- Conclusion: Looking Closer at "Kids Are Little Scientists" -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G