Session 8 — Guest: Translating Geophysics Across the Science-Society Boundary

Session 8 — Guest: Translating Geophysics Across the Science-Society Boundary#

Format B — Practitioner Conversation Week 8 Guest: Science communicator / policy analyst / hazard manager

“What gets lost in translation?” · Uncertainty communication · AI connection

Hook (0 – 7 min)

Show a newspaper headline about an earthquake, volcano, or carbon storage project that contains a factual error or misleading framing. Ask:

“What is wrong? How would you fix it? Why do you think this error exists?”

3 minutes of discussion. Then: “Our guest deals with exactly this problem professionally.”

Guest opening (0 – 15 min)

Guest: 10 minutes on one translation success and one translation failure — moments when science crossed (or failed to cross) into public understanding.

The guest should be specific: which claim was misunderstood, what was the consequence, what would they do differently.

Student Q&A (15 – 45 min)

Open Q&A. Seed questions:

  • How do you explain probabilistic hazard to a mayor who needs a yes/no answer?

  • What do scientists most consistently get wrong about communicating uncertainty?

  • How do you handle earthquake misinformation on social media in real time?

  • Is there a geophysics finding that the public should know but doesn’t?

  • What is the relationship between the “science is settled” framing and public trust?

Relevance

Communication: Frontiers in Communication 2024 special section on earthquake hazard communication identifies uncertainty communication as the hardest and most critical translation problem.

AI connection: The rubric design from Week 8’s lab — defining criteria for good writing, evaluating whether a claim is supported — is exactly the skill science communicators apply to every press release and public statement. This is not coincidence; it is the same epistemological practice: what does “well-supported” mean, and who decides?

Go Deeper

USGS ShakeMap and PAGER as examples of science communication design · Fallou et al. (2022) on fighting earthquake misinformation

One name: Dr. Lucy Jones, USGS (retired) — the most effective earthquake communicator in the field. Watch her 2018 TED talk, then read one critique of it.