“And we get many of our cocoa beans from a company called Ivory Coast,” a fellow first-year announced, concluding her presentation with a confident flourish. Silence greeted her words for several heartbeats, then someone sheepishly made the correction: “Um… Ivory Coast’s a country.” What is wrong with our education system, I wondered, if someone arrives at college without a basic knowledge of geography? Little did I know, the thought belied a rather glaring blind spot of my own. I was falling for the alluring, intuitive—but ultimately too simplistic—notion that if only the public is given access to scientific information, we can bridge the gap between scientists’ understanding and the general public’s, ushering in a utopia of widespread science literacy.  Alas, it’s not that simple. I should’ve known: nothing worth studying ever is.

Dr. Strydhorst's fellowship is under
the supervision of Dr. Dominique Brossard and Dr. Dietram Scheufele of UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communications and Morgridge Institute for Research.