Kardashians of Science

Few week back a researcher in UK (Dr. Hall) came up with a measure to weigh the scientific contribution of a scientist versus his/her reputation in social media. Scientific contribution is measured by number of citations (scientists referring to their peers work in their articles. Mostly, it is considered as an attestation of meritorious study.) a scientist has for his/her publications. Popularity in social media is measured by the number of Twitter followers that scientist has, if s/he has a Twitter account. The name of this measure is Kardashian Index (K-index), which is calculated by dividing number of Twitter followers with number of citations. Higher the score, more ‘undeserved’ their fame is. For those who are not familiar with Kardashians, let Google be your light!

It was supposed to be a joke and I should say it served that purpose. But on the other hand it reveals a hidden antipathy among so called ‘pure scientists’ towards so called ‘science communicators’. Scientist who explains science and research in layman words are sometime considered less of a scientist by some quarters of scientific world. I read somewhere that Carl Sagan had to face this ‘contempt’ during his life as a science popularizer (I am aware of some important scientific contribution by Dr. Sagan in his capacity of an astronomer too). But I have reasons to believe that Sagan’s popular books, articles and documentaries have made so much more impact in this word in a very good way than some of the highly cited ‘fashionable’ research that come out in Science or Nature. Personally, I got so much attracted to scientific research by reading ‘Dragons of Eden’ by Sagan.

Who the hell are you? You may ask. I am not a Nobel prize winner, but I am a proud student of Science and knowledge. I love humanity. Every day of my life I strive to unravel some mystery billions of years of evolution has hidden from us. It is even more important to say what I did not become. Getting into wrong company or getting exposed to wrong ideologies/books could have made me a very despicable character, as happened with some unfortunate fellow beings. I thank those great thinkers, writers and ‘science communicators’, who nudged me into this pursuit of knowledge. It is my strong conviction that the contributions of any individual who tries to popularize scientific knowledge and research is as valuable as that of a rigorous experimental scientist or theoreticians.  After all, the scientific enterprise we scientists belong to is fueled by taxpayer’s money. If they are not aware of what scientists are doing with that money, it would be good recipe to create more science-haters and global warming skeptics. I personally think that it is the responsibility of each scientist to communicated with public on what they do through any media they are comfortable with.

P.S: A big kudos to Neil deGrass Tyson, who got the highest K-index among all scientists who has a twitter account. This means that he is doing his job very well.